How to Use Find My iPhone Pre and After the Losing of Your iPhone or iPad

How to Use Find My iPhone Pre and After the Losing of Your iPhone or iPad

Find My iPhone was first released as an app in June 2010 for users of MobileMe. Since the release date, the app was known a lot of improvements.

Find My iPhone was available for free for some devices. With the release of iCloud in October 2011, the service became free for all iCloud users, in the same period Find My iPhone had supported the ability to request an email when a device is located.

Steve Jobs introducing iCloud.

After the added of lost mode and battery charge indicator in ios 6 in 2012, Find my iPhone in 2013 came with a new design in line with iOS 7 style and also with a new feature called Activation Lock, which is designed to prevent anyone else from using your iPhone (iPad, or iPod touch) if you ever lose it.

Find My iPhone (iPad, iPod, and mac) allows the user to locate their lost or stolen device. We've read countless stories about Find My iPhone and how it has helped police recover a stolen iOS device.

How to set up Find My iPhone

On your iPhone’s Home screen, tap Settings, then tap iCloud (if you’re asked to sign in, enter your Apple ID. If you don’t have one, tap Get a Free Apple ID, then follow the instructions.) and scroll down to iCloud section until you see Find My iPhone, switch it on if it isn’t already.

Now, you can use Find My iPhone to locate your device.

How to use Find My iPhone to locate your iPhone and protect your personal data

If you lose your iPhone or think it might be stolen these steps may help you to protect the data on your device and to try to find and retrieve it.

1-Attempt to locate your iPhone’s location

Head to the nearest computer and log into iCloud.com by using your Apple ID information.

After you log in, you can click on the Find My iPhone icon to view all your iCloud devices, then select the lost device, and keep tracking its location.

You can also use another iOS device to locate your iPhone in this situation you will need to install free Find my iPhone app.

Usually, the device will appear with the green circle around it if it is online, and its approximate location is shown on the map. A gray dot means it’s offline.

• We can use the map navigation controls in the upper-left corner to move the map or zoom in or out, and also we can drag the map to move it around.

• If you want to update a location, click the green dot on the map, then click the refresh button.

2- Put the device in Lost Mode

If you can't find your device, use Lost Mode right away, this will allow you to remotely lock the device's screen with a passcode that will prevent anyone from using your device or accessing your personal data.

To do this, from the iCloud interface. Click on the dot representing your lost device on the map, and click on Lost Mode icon, that will lead to: 

• Set a passcode, if you hadn’t already. 

• Display a custom message on the device, with your contact details and other info.

If your device is online, it locks and tracking begins.

If Locations Services were disabled on your device, enabling Lost Mode will automatically turn it on again.

Usually, a confirmation email is sent to your Apple ID email address. But if your device is offline, the passcode lock and tracking take effect the next time it’s online.

Lost Mode requires that your lost iPhone be using iOS 6 or later.

3- Erase your iPhone's data

Stolen iPhone is bad, but access to your passwords is even worse and in addition to your personal information like photos, email, etc. In this situation wipe these data remotely become a favorite option. 

To erase your Device, click the Erase button. There, you'll see a warning.

Click the box that says you understand what you're doing and click the Erase button. This will ensure that none of your personal information gets revealed.

If you get your device, you can restore the information on the device using iCloud Backup or iTunes.

Note: if you wipe your device, you won’t be able to track it anymore.

4-Report the lost or stolen iPhone to your carrier

If you don’t expect to find your iPhone you should contact your wireless service provider to suspend service and prevent unauthorized use, so you aren’t responsible for phone calls or other charges (the thief could put the SIM in another phone).

5- Report lost or stolen to local law enforcement

Report your lost or stolen device to local law enforcement. Apple doesn't track or flag lost or stolen products. Law enforcement usually requires the IMEI number of your iPhone, which you can find on your device box. You can also use My Support Profile to find a list of serial numbers for products that you've purchased or registered with your Apple ID.

Find My iPhone in iOS 7

Activation Lock

As we mentioned Find My iPhone in iOS 7 includes a new feature called Activation Lock, which is turned on automatically when you set up Find My iPhone, the feature prevent anyone to turn Find My iPhone off, erasing your iPhone or to reactivate it to become a useless device, so your Apple ID and password are required to do all those actions. 

With Activation Lock, your Apple ID and password are required before anyone can; Turn off Find My iPhone on your device, sign out of iCloud on your device, or erase and reactivate your device.

Find My iPhone in iOS 8

Send Last Location Feature

iOS 8 has also brought a new feature to Find My iPhone (iPad,iPod), called "Send last location", which allows your iOS device to send the last location to Apple when the battery drains to a critical level. Find My iPhone in iOS 7 cannot determine the last location of a device when its battery is drained, just iCloud will display the last location for up to 24 hours.

To enable "Send Last Location" feature; Tap on Settings app from iPhone's Home screen, select iCloud, from iCloud section enter to Find My iPhone then toggle "Send Last Location" to on.

If you didn't enable Find My iPhone on your lost or stolen device

If you did not enable Find My iPhone before it was lost or stolen, you can't locate it or protect your data on your device. in this case what you can do:

Change your iCloud password to ensure that no one else can use your device to delete or make changes to your iCloud data.

Follow the steps 4 and 5 that mentioned above; (Report the lost or stolen iPhone to your carrier, and to local law enforcement).

Find My iPhone not work

Why your iPhone (iPad, or iPod Touch) not appear in find my iPhone?

Here are some reasons:

Your iCloud account is not configured on your device. Choose Settings > iCloud and enter your iCloud account information.

Your device is not updated. It needs to be running iOS 5 or higher.

The date is incorrect on your device. Choose Settings > General > Date & Time to check and set the date.

Your device has lost network connectivity. If you have access to your device, and it appears to have an active Internet connection, in this case, enable and then disable Airplane mode or turn the device off and back on.

Your device appears in Find My iPhone, but is offline, the reasons:

Your device is powered off, such as when the battery has run out.

Your iPhone’s cellular service has been terminated by your wireless service provider.

Your iPod Touch, iPad, or Mac is asleep and not connected to a known Wi-Fi network. The command will be processed when your device is awakened and connected to the Internet.

Locating your device on a map requires Maps data to be available in that area. That is not available in all countries (Apple's site lists South Korea as a country where it's unavailable due to local regulations). But all other Find My iPhone features will still work: Play a Sound, Lost Mode, and Erase.

The ads on iOS 8 has been updated

data source: Apple support

Read also:

• How to Use Find My iPhone to Locate a Misplaced iPhone or iPad

• How to delete an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac from Find my iPhone

• How to Use Find My iPhone to Locate a Lost or Stolen iPhone

• iOS 8 Brings New Option "Send Last Location" To Find My iPhone or iPad