Apple offers its users the opportunity to to locate iPhone. All you have to do is activate the “Find my iPhone” function on your device. Then you follow various steps to locate the location of the smartphone. If Find My iPhone isn’t turned on, you can still protect your information from thieves by changing passwords and reporting the device as lost or stolen.
Locate iPhone when Find My iPhone is on
If you want to locate your iPhone, you have to take the following steps:
- First, you need to log in to icloud.com/find using a Mac or other PC. Alternatively, you can use the Find My iPhone app on another iPhone, iPod, or iPad.
- The missing iPhone can now be located by opening Find My iPhone and viewing the device’s location on a map.
Notice: Of course it can happen that your iPhone has already run out of battery or has been switched off by strangers. In this case, you will see the word “Offline” under the device name. In addition, the last known location is displayed for 24 hours.
If you select the “Notify me when found” option, you will receive an email from Apple Support as soon as your iPhone is located again.
Not found? You can do that additionally
If your iPhone was not found despite the procedure described above, you can also do the following:
- Enable Lost: This allows you to remotely lock the iPhone with a passcode. In addition, you can display a message with a phone number on the lock screen. After Lost Mode is selected, Apple Pay payments cannot be made if iPhone has credit or debit card information on file. This will ensure that no unauthorized purchases are made with the missing device.
- Report iPhone stolen: After successfully completing these steps, you should report the device to the police as missing. To do this, you must have the serial number of the device ready.
- Delete data remotely: To prevent the lost iPhone data from being accessed, you can wipe the data on your device remotely. But be careful: After the deletion process, you will no longer be able to locate your iPhone via “Find my iPhone”.
In addition, the activation lock is switched off if you have removed the device from your account. Other people can use your iPhone this way, but no longer have access to your data.
- Contact provider: You should also report your iPhone as lost to your provider. He can then deactivate your account and prevent phone calls and SMS services.
- Family Sharing for your iPhone: Individual family members can also help you locate your missing iPhone if you use Family Sharing. All your relatives have to do is log in to iCloud with their Apple ID and link their accounts to each other.
What if my iPhone is off?
If your iPhone is turned off, you can still remotely put it in lost mode and lock or erase the data on it. The next time the device is powered on, these commands will be executed.
Once you’ve found your iPhone, you can revoke Lost Mode by entering the passcode.
Locate iPhone: You can do this if the Find My iPhone feature is not activated
If you didn’t turn on Find My iPhone before your device was lost or stolen, it won’t be available to track your iPhone. However, if you follow the steps below, you can still protect the data on the missing device.
- To prevent anyone from accessing your iCloud data, you should change the Apple ID password.
- The same applies to your passwords from e-mail accounts, Facebook, Twitter and Co.
- Report your iPhone as lost or stolen to the police and to your wireless service provider.
Find My iPhone is the only way to locate an untraceable iPhone and mark it as lost. Therefore, you should always make sure that this function is activated on the device.
Now you know how to find or locate your iPhone. And if you want to know how to locate an Android smartphone, we have a post for that too. We also tell you when locating a cell phone is a punishable offense.
Source: own research, Apple Support