Is it possible to enable find iPhone remotely? How to work with the “Find iPhone” function for a beginner: location, activation, management. How to enable Find My iPhone

Hi all! Unfortunately, no one is immune from the risk of losing or stealing their beloved iPhone. This situation can happen to absolutely anyone – there is no way to protect yourself from it. The situation becomes especially sad if you look at the statistics on the detection of cases of theft of mobile phones - the numbers are not the most reassuring. What are the disappointing ones... they are very frightening!

But! There is no need to immediately despair, become despondent and sprinkle ashes on your head. Why? Because sometimes the situation can still be resolved in your favor - after all, the possibility of finding a lost iPhone still remains. Yes, the chances are not maximum... but they are there! This is exactly what will be discussed in today’s publication.

Are you ready? Let's go!

Features and tools for finding a turned off iPhone

About Find My iPhone

Let us immediately dispel the illusions of many users: at the moment it is impossible to miraculously find a turned off iPhone without the appropriate preliminary configuration of it. But every user of an iPhone running iOS version 7 and newer can protect themselves from the irretrievable loss of their favorite smartphone - starting with the mentioned edition of the operating system, Apple offers its users a very useful function called “Find iPhone”. This is the main tool for finding a lost phone.

There are a few comments.

Firstly, this function must first be activated. In general, it may be enabled initially, but it doesn’t hurt to check () and be on the safe side.

Secondly, the “Find iPhone” function allows you to track the movements of a turned off gadget in real time. It also either provides data about the last location of the device before it was turned off, or makes it possible to determine where the iPhone is after turning it on.

To activate the mentioned function, find the iCloud section in Settings, click on Find iPhone, and activate the option if it is disabled by moving the slider accordingly.

To find a lost iPhone with the mentioned function activated, you need to go to the iCloud.com service website and go to the appropriate section. Information about the last location of the device before it was turned off, or about its current location if the gadget turned on, will be shown on the interactive map.

Special Applications

Another effective preparatory tool that can help you find a lost or stolen iPhone in the future is the Find My Phone application, available for download in the official App Store.

In addition to the main device, you will need another iPhone or iPad. You also need to install the mentioned application on it.

If you lose your iPhone, you can log into the program from another Apple gadget, go through the authorization process and find out where the lost smartphone was before it was disconnected. If the device turns on, the corresponding changes will be displayed on the interactive map.

Although at its core, the Find My iPhone application is the same “Find iPhone” service that was written about earlier, only displayed in a separate program.

Lost mode

A standard iOS feature is Lost Mode. It is not intended for searching for a lost smartphone, but rather, it is designed for the honesty and integrity of the one who finds the loss. If the mentioned function is activated, the first time you connect the iPhone to charge, it will display a notification with a predefined text, for example, an offer to call a specific number and return the smartphone for a reward.

More details about Lost Mode (how to enable, disable and many other things) -.

Law Enforcement Assistance

For personal peace of mind that you have taken all available steps to find your iPhone, you can file a report of its loss/theft with the police. Take your passport with you, as well as the iPhone box and related documents.

The tools available to the police, in some cases, allow you to find smartphones by IMEI (individual device identification number -), but, unfortunately, no one can provide you with a 100% guarantee of a successful outcome of the search operation.

The most interesting thing is that before searching by serial number, police officers ask you to turn off the lost mode. And this is where the dilemma arises.

  • On the one hand, active lost mode is the only chance that no one will be able to use your device without knowing your Apple ID. And disabling it means giving the attacker complete control over the gadget.
  • On the other hand, recently the tools that law enforcement agencies use for such operations have improved quite a lot. And there is still a chance of finding a lost and turned off iPhone with the participation of the police.

The main thing is that you don’t have to worry about being looked at as if you’re crazy when you apply. Nowadays, searching for a phone by IMEI is a completely normal practice.

Apple's latest patented developments

Apple has received a patent for an innovative development that radically changes the idea of ​​finding lost smartphones. We are talking about a significant improvement in the gadget’s security system – the so-called. Zombie mode, when activated, the iPhone pretends to be turned off, but in reality remains tracked.

Presumably the implementation will be as follows: when a person finds or steals an iPhone, he will see a notification asking him to enter a password when he connects it to the charger. If the input is incorrect, the mentioned mode is activated. Next, the iPhone will be able to send a photo of the intruder to the specified email address, send a message with a given text to specified coordinates, pretend to be turned off, transmitting data about its location, etc. – the exact list of available features will become known only after the official release of the function.

Now you know about the available and developing methods for detecting a turned off iPhone. Take into account the recommendations of this note and protect yourself in advance from the irretrievable loss of your favorite smartphone in the event of its loss/theft.

P.S. In addition to all the tips, a little luck can also come in handy during your search. Where can I get it? Just like and click on the social media buttons. And that's it, success is guaranteed! Let's try!)

Having released a series of mobile gadgets, Apple Corporation, first of all, took care of the safety of the customers themselves and, of course, of the smartphone itself, equipping it with a very necessary function such as “Find iPhone”. Thanks to this application built into the smartphone, the number of thefts has also decreased. After integrating this software, finding a lost or stolen iPhone, iPad or Mac became much easier, and the smartphone itself, once in the hands of an attacker, turned into a brick. Now we’ll talk about what this “Find iPhone” function is. And how, thanks to such an application, you can protect your iOS device, and perhaps even return it after theft or loss.

Now about the “Find iPhone” function itself in English Find My iPhone - this service is an official service of Apple Corporation, which is able to offer the user a whole complex of protecting the gadget from theft or loss with the further possibility of returning it. Today, you can work with this service in two ways, the first and easiest is to use any iPhone, and the second directly in the iCloud web service.

And so, if your iPhone or iPad was stolen or accidentally lost, and there is no hope that it will be found, I recommend using such a useful function as “Find iPhone”; thanks to it, finding your smartphone has become possible. Below is a list of all the actions it can perform when searching:

Using the Internet, determines the geoposition of the smartphone on the map;

Will force the gadget to play a loud sound signal, thereby helping to detect the iPhone if the device is lying nearby;

Activates the lost function, thereby blocking iPhone, iPad;

A mode that can remotely erase all important information from a stolen gadget.

In order for any function, in our case “Find iPhone,” to start working, it must be enabled (Enable). Such manipulations are performed in the main settings of your smartphone.

Let’s start activating the “Find iPhone” function, which is located directly on the iOS smartphone. In order to enable it, go to the next path “Settings”, go down the menu to the “iCloud” section. After clicking on it, we find ourselves in an additional submenu and at the very bottom we find the item “Find iPhone”, if it’s an iPad it means “Find iPad” and on the right side we see a slider, dragging it to the “on” position. In order for these settings to be saved, the smartphone will require you to enter your iCloud login and password. Once you enter this information, the settings will be saved automatically. In the settings of this function, you can either enable or disable the automatic sending of the last geolocation of the gadget to Apple every time the battery charge drops to critical level.


When you turn on the additional “Find iPhone” function, the gadget’s protection is automatically activated, which allows you to block and activate the device at a distance from burglars.

If you have a computer, mobile device and the Internet, you can “Find iPhone” through the iCloud service in any browser. In order to do this, you just need to go to the official website and enter your Apple ID details, namely login and password.


After entering, go to the Find iPhone application. There may be times when you may need to enter your Apple ID credentials again.


We go to “My Devices” and see a display of all our gadgets that have ever been activated on this iCloud account.

In order to get the information we need about the current location of the smartphone while gaining access to control the iPhone, just select it in the “My Devices” menu.

We will perform the next method of searching for an iPhone from the second gadget. At the same time, all the “Find iPhone” functions are identical to the functions for determining the geoposition of a smartphone, as well as blocking in case of theft or loss, similar to those when searching for a gadget through the iCloud service browser. The Find My iPhone app is usually pre-installed on your smartphone from the store. If for some reason the Find iPhone app is missing, download it for free from.


Having installed the application, launch it and log in to the system using your Apple ID, specifying your password and login. Once authenticated, you can easily track the location of your lost or stolen iPhone, iPad or Mac using a map, but keep in mind that the devices we've listed have Find My iPhone enabled under the same iCloud account.

Do not forget that if the “Find iPhone” function was previously activated on your iPhone gadgets (iPad, iPod touch or Mac), then immediately after detecting theft or loss, you must immediately activate it by turning on “Lost Mode” as described earlier as by using the iCloud web service, if there is no access to such a service, then through the application on a friend’s smartphone through “Find iPhone”.

By activating this mode, it will instantly block your gadget, be it a tablet or a laptop. And after finding it, it will require the owner to enter his password. Let's say you returned or found a smartphone, but forgot the password, the guide described in this manual will help you remove it.

For this function to fully work, your gadget must initially have a lock password set, since by activating the lost mode, a code familiar only to the owner will be set as a security password. And only if you have not done this before, you will have to come up with such a password again.

If you want to return your device, after you enable these functions, the owner will have the opportunity to send the attacker a message with your phone number and a text in which you offer the thief to return your smartphone for a certain reward, and to contact you by indicating your number . After sending such a notification, it will appear on the screen of a locked iPhone or iPad.

I want to warn you that the lost device must be connected to the global Internet in any way, otherwise the commands you sent to block the phone through the “Find iPhone” function will work and will be used as soon as it appears in the Internet coverage area.

Since its introduction, the “find iPhone” feature has brought great benefits to many owners of Apple gadgets, which have always been one of the most desired devices for attackers. Find out how this service works, how to activate and configure it, in our article.

How Find My iPhone works

Find iPhone is a service offered by Apple that provides a number of options to protect branded devices in the event of loss or theft. The service is managed through the iCloud service, with its help you can perform the following operations:

  • determine the location of the smartphone on the map;
  • enable the “Activation Lock” mode, which completely blocks the lost phone and deprives the attacker of access to the operating system;
  • remotely erase all information from the device’s memory;
  • play a sound that helps you find your phone or tablet if it's nearby.

In order to take advantage of all the above features, you need to enable the Find iPhone function, let's figure out how to do this.

How to enable Find My iPhone

If your gadget is running iOS 5.0 or higher, you need to go to Settings, then go to iCloud, scroll down to “Find iPhone” and move the slider to the on position. If necessary, enter your Apple ID login and password. The “Last Geolocation” function is also located there. When activated, every time the device's battery is discharged to a critically low level, data about its location will be automatically saved to iCloud.

If you decide to sell a smartphone on the secondary market, when transferring it to a new owner, the question of how to disable the Find iPhone function will become relevant. You can do this in several ways:

  • in the smartphone settings in the same way as described above;
  • remotely via the iCloud service;
  • by removing your iCloud account from your device or resetting your device.

The fastest way is to disable the feature in the settings. To do this, we also look for the “Find iPhone” sub-item there, move the slider to the “off” position and confirm the action by entering the Apple ID password.

Protection can also be deactivated by deleting the iClouad account or resetting all internal device settings. To do this, follow the following algorithm: “Settings” > “General” > “Reset” > “Erase content and settings.” In both cases, you will also need to enter your Apple ID password and login.

Instructions for remote shutdown using the iCloud service:

  1. Launch the application or follow the following link, log in and open the “My Devices” tab.
  2. From the list of devices linked to your account, select the one you need.
  3. You can remove a gadget from the list only when it is turned off; you will need to ask the owner to temporarily turn off the smartphone or tablet.
  4. We remove the device using a left swipe (in the mobile application) or a cross in the web version.
  5. Confirm the action by entering your AppleID.

That's all, now you know not only how to enable the Find iPhone function, but also all the ways to deactivate it.

What is Activation Lock?

In the iOS 7 operating system, the Activation Lock feature debuted, or “Activation Lock” of the device. It promotes additional security of your gadget's data, making its contents completely inaccessible to an attacker or a person who finds the device in case of loss. Activation Lock turns on automatically when you turn on Find My iPhone, so no additional actions are required.

What happens if an unauthorized person tries to access the data stored on the device? If the lock works, it will be impossible to reactivate and use the smartphone, delete data from its memory, and the smartphone will be inoperable even if flashed from DFU mode. When turned on, the phone will require you to enter your AppleID, which cannot be bypassed in any way.

In the modern world, a lost or stolen phone is a big problem for a person, as it can lead to various negative consequences. Not only is the loss of the device itself no longer a good thing, since the phone now costs a lot, and it’s a pity to throw your honestly earned money down the drain, and, secondly, the phone’s memory stores a lot of personal information that is not intended for strangers , for example, personal photos, correspondence, bank card details, etc.

So how to solve this problem? Apple has long provided for this option and equipped the iOS operating system with the “Find My iPhone” security function.

Apple generally pays special attention to the security issues of its products, for example, consider the Mac computer; as you know, special anti-virus programs are not produced for them, since due to the peculiarities of this operating system they are not needed here. The same applies to the iOS mobile operating system; the newer the version of the iPhone or iPad, the easier it becomes to protect your smartphone from theft.

Help in finding an iPhone that has been lost or stolen will be provided by a special application developed specifically for the iOS operating system - “Find iPhone”, which we will talk about in more detail.

How the function works

The Find iPhone feature allows the user to:

  • Determine the geographic location of the lost device. However, there is one BUT, this can only be done if your lost gadget has access to the Internet. Perhaps in the future this function will be upgraded, which will allow you to find out the location of the iPhone even without an Internet connection, this would be very convenient;
  • Remotely erase all information from your smartphone;
  • Play a sound that will help you find your smartphone if it is nearby. Or if you don’t remember where you put your phone, you can also use this function;
  • And most importantly, you can activate the lost mode, which will block the iPhone, and, as a result, it will no longer be possible to use this gadget; it can only be sold for spare parts for pennies.

How to enable Find My iPhone

To enable the Find My iPhone feature, you will first need to enable it in the smartphone settings.

  1. Open the Home screen;
  2. Go to “Settings”;
  3. Click your account name;
  4. And go to “iCloud” itself.
  5. Scroll to the end, and there will be the treasured inscription “Find me”; move the slider opposite it to the active position;
  6. Next, a message will appear on the screen indicating that the Find My iPhone feature has been activated. Confirm your action by clicking “OK”;
  7. Now you also need to check whether the “Find iPhone” function is active in the smartphone’s geolocation. To do this, you need to go again to “Settings” - “Privacy (or confidentiality)” - “Geolocation Services”. This section has many subsections, including “Find iPhone”. You must allow access to this application by moving the slider to the active state or checking the box next to the phrase “when using the program.” This check is needed because if the Find iPhone function does not use geolocation, then it will not be possible to find the location of the lost gadget on the map.

And everything is ready, you can start working. On the “Home” screen there will be a shortcut to the “Find iPhone” function, click on it and sign in.

How to use the Find iPhone feature through the application

Device location

To use this method, you will need to borrow an iPhone or iPad from a friend with the “Find iPhone” application installed; if you don’t have one, download it. Next, after logging into the application, you need to log in with your Apple ID and after logging in, a map with the geolocation of your lost device will be displayed.

Unmute

If you click on the icon of your device, three buttons will appear at the bottom, the first of which is to play sound.
After pressing this button, a beep will sound on the lost smartphone. This is very convenient if you yourself have lost your phone, don’t remember where you put it in your apartment, etc., but it’s unlikely to have any effect on a thief.

Lost Mode

When you enable the Lost Mode feature, you can remotely display a message on your smartphone screen with your contact information. You can come up with the text of the message yourself, however, there is already a default one: “This phone has been lost. Please, call me".

Erase iPhone

A very useful addition to the Find iPhone application is the Erase iPhone function, otherwise known as Activation Lock, which first appeared only on iOS 7. This addition will allow you to lock a lost smartphone once and for all, i.e. in other words, turn the phone into a useless pile of spare parts. The gadget cannot be brought back to life by any means, neither by flashing it, nor by restoring it in DFU mode.

And if you imagine a situation where the phone was stolen, then the attacker, after you have activated the “Erase iPhone” function, will understand that he has a dummy device in his hands, with which he cannot do anything. And the most logical solution for him would be to contact the owner and play out the situation as if he had found the gadget, and also ask for a symbolic reward, at least somehow profit.

For those who are afraid that the phone cannot be restored, do not be alarmed; to restore it, you will only need to know your Apple ID password, so make sure that all logins and passwords are written down. If you forget or lose your password, you will not be able to return the device to functionality yourself; even hackers and Apple support will be powerless.

Also keep in mind that after selecting the “Erase iPhone” function, you will no longer be able to track the geolocation of the device. The smartphone will reset all settings and return to the original ones, and only a message about the loss will be displayed on the screen.

How to find iPhone from computer via iCloud

To determine the geolocation of the device and begin tracking and searching for it, you must do the following:


Turn off Find My iPhone

It is possible that the “Find iPhone” application was activated by you by accident, or, another option, not only you have access to your Apple ID account; of course, no one wants someone to be able to track your location, but everything can be fixed - disable the Find My iPhone function. There are 3 ways to do this.

Disabling the feature by disabling all iCloud features

Disabling the function via the application

  1. On the “Home” screen, find the “Find iPhone” shortcut and log into your account by entering your username and password.
  2. Under the map with the location of the smartphone, a list of all devices on which the “Find iPhone” function is enabled through your account will open.
  3. In order to remove a device from the list, you just need to select the desired device and slide your finger over it from right to left, after this action a red “Delete” button will appear, click on it.

You should know that the device you want to erase from the list must not be connected to the Internet (Offline), otherwise the treasured “Delete” button will not appear.

This is exactly the disadvantage of this method, because as soon as the remote device connects to the Internet, the function is activated again. Therefore, you can permanently disable the “Find iPhone” function only in iCloud settings.

Disable on Windows and Mac OS X computer

  1. Open iCloud.com in a browser on your personal computer and sign in using your Apple ID information.
  2. In the panel at the very top, expand the “All devices” tab.
  3. From the list that opens, you need to select the device on which you will disable the function.
  4. The next step will open full information about the device and you will need to click on the “Delete” button and confirm your action again in the window that appears.
  5. In the additional window that opens, enter your account password.

After these simple steps, a confirmation will be sent to your smartphone about disabling the “Find iPhone” function, and it will be deactivated immediately when you connect your smartphone to the Internet.

Is it possible to disable the feature without Apple ID password?

It is impossible to disable the “Find iPhone” function without account data, such as a password and login, and in general, the whole point of the “Find iPhone” function would then be lost. Fraudsters who stole the phone or found it, but did not want to give it back to the owner for some reason, would simply turn off this function and that’s it, the search for the device is doomed, the “find iPhone” application would be nothing more than a toy, or, in extreme cases, assistant for finding a phone in an apartment.

Important Additions

There are several important points arising from using the Find iPhone application that you need to know:

  1. First, you should understand that the smartphone location data provided by the iCloud service is not displayed in real time, but only shows the moment the lost iPhone was last connected to the Internet.
  2. You can allow the application to receive notifications via e-mail, this will allow you to quickly catch the moment when a stolen smartphone appears online and quickly block the device and use the “Erase iPhone” function to delete all personal information.
  3. The “Find iPhone” function will be useless if the device was stolen by a resourceful thief and promptly flashed before you even noticed it was missing.
  4. And what is worth noting is that always-on geolocation puts a heavy load on the battery, as a result of which it discharges faster.

Let’s also imagine a situation where, for some reason, the owner did not immediately enable the “Find iPhone” function when purchasing the smartphone, then finding it, of course, will be more problematic, even almost impossible. But, nevertheless, it is possible to make life not so sweet for those people who find the device, but do not want to return it right away. The fact is that on the official Apple website there is such an excellent opportunity - to change the password for your AppleID account.

If everything is done quickly, this will instantly block access to many important functions. For example, to the AppStore, iTunes, iCloud, etc. Also, something worth taking care of is changing passwords on social networking accounts so that your photos and correspondence are not made public and simply do not fall under the prying eyes, and this can be done quite easily from a personal computer.

In this case, the most important thing is speed, since you didn’t take care in advance, you didn’t protect yourself from the loss of your phone by installing the “Find iPhone” application. And the faster the user blocks his personal data remotely, the greater the likelihood that an unscrupulous person will return the smartphone, which he will not be able to fully use.

A person who has installed the “Find iPhone” application on his device will have to be very careful and cautious about the safety of his personal credentials and not give them away left and right. Because if your data ends up in the wrong hands, these hands, in turn, will be able to calmly block the gadget and, promptly changing the iCloud password, subsequently come into contact with the owner of the smartphone and blackmail him, that is, you. This type of fraud is now very relevant, unfortunately, since according to various sources, recently more and more injured users are suffering from this type of action.

Lost your iPhone? I hope luck is on your side and you have activated the Find My iPhone function, otherwise things will be tough. In this article, I will show you how you can find the location of a lost device, as well as how to set up your smartphone so that if you lose it, you don’t have to grab your head.

The free Find iPhone app, just like the free function of the same name, can help out in a variety of situations and it’s best not to neglect its use. Think for yourself, spending a few minutes setting up the device is better than shedding tears over its box. Moreover, it's really simple.

First you need to set up your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch:

Step 1: Go to the application Settings -> iCloud

Step 2. Log in with your Apple ID or register it if you haven’t done so before

Step 3: After successfully logging in, scroll down to the toggle Find iPhone and activate it

If you use several iOS devices, immediately configure them all in this way.

I draw your attention to the following: the Find iPhone function will ask you to enable geolocation, which should always be enabled. Yes, this will certainly affect the battery charge, but if the geolocation is configured correctly, you will hardly feel it.

How to find your iPhone using iCloud?

To locate a device and begin tracking it in real time, you must do the following:

Step 3. After the application finishes scanning, a map will open with the exact location of all your devices

Step 4. By clicking on the device, you can, as in the case of the iCloud version, send alarm signals

The application has one great feature - by clicking on the button with the car depicted on it, the application will take you to the default Maps application, where the optimal route to the location of your iPhone will be built.

The most important thing is to think about setting up the Find iPhone function in advance, because if it is not activated, then only law enforcement agencies will be able to help you. Take care of your iPhone.



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