iPhone: How to find your lost or stolen phone?

Like all high-end smartphones (or even a little more), the Apple iPhone is relatively expensive. So much so that it is nicknamed “The Precious” after Gollum’s unique ring in The Lord of the Rings. We noted this again during our extensive iPhone 11 Pro review. But beyond the financial aspect, the iPhone, like any modern phone, contains all your photos (definitely not all of them sync with iCloud as the free offer is limited), your messages, and certain private information like passwords.

So, losing or stealing an iPhone is doubly embarrassing, even if you’ve had a recent backup of your content and your iCloud account isn’t saturated (and therefore has the ability to recover or even restore your information). ). Fortunately, Apple has been offering a tool for finding an iPhone for a few years now (it also works with an iPad, but it’s less efficient because the tablet isn’t necessarily geo-precisely located) and even to perform a few actions on it.

This tool is called Find My Device. On Android you have pretty much the same (even the same name). In this guide, we’ll help you set up your iOS device and use Find My Device from another phone (or tablet) or web browser. Note that one important condition must be met for this to work: you must have an active iTunes/iCloud account. Creating this account is completely free (and does not require you to enter your debit card).

How do I set up and use Find My iPhone?

1. First step: phone configuration. Your device location is not enabled by default. Therefore, you must first perform this simple manipulation. find in Settingsthen click your Apple ID (just below the search field). Between iTunes and Family Sharing find. Tap it to access a new screen. press here find my phone and enable the function. note this offline activation (using GPS) is very useful in case the phone is lost and not in contact with a GSM or WiFi network. We strongly recommend. Send last location useful, but optional.
   
2. let’s stray a little family sharingas it can make it easier to recover your iPhone. Family Sharing is a hub for sharing purchased content, subscriptions, and information with other members of your family. Also used to share a location. If another member of your family has an iPhone, turning on location sharing gives you quicker access to your phone’s location.
   

3. Finding an iPhone is simple. First case: You have another device with your iCloud account (an Internet-connected iPad is sufficient). Access the app find Pre-installed on iOS. on the tab devices, you can see where your lost device is. Click on it in the device list to locate it. You can then point it to its location, search for it, or mark it as “lost”. This function locks the phone (it is not possible to unlock and reboot).
   
4. Case two: Someone in your family (who has an iPhone with family sharing enabled) is with you when you realize your phone is missing. Access the app find on your phone and go to the first tab called People. By clicking on your identifier in the list, you access the same functionality as before (except for blocking). The last option, you are not accompanied by a family member, but a friend has an iPhone: always in the app findtap the tab I. Expand the window upwards and press Help a friend. You are accessing a web version of Locate.
   

5. In this Web version of Find My (see below), it can also be accessed by entering the address in the bar of a Web browser. iCloud.com/Find, you can access the location of all your devices just like on your mobile phone. You access the list of your devices. Select to find your phone on a map (the mapping is by TomTom).
   
6. Then three actions are possible. play device to find it if you think it is nearby. Enable Lost Mode, to prevent anyone who unblocks it from accessing your content. Lost mode permanently displays a personalized message on the screen (for example, with a phone number to contact you). Geolocation remains enabled and Apple Pay is disabled.
   

7. Finally, it is possible remote wipe iPhone. Deleting does not render the phone unusable: it only deletes personal data (iTunes account, photos, messages, payment instruments). However, if you erase the device, you will no longer be able to locate it. There are many alternatives in the App Store that can position a person and accordingly their smartphone. All of them have a monitoring function. But none of them offer to remotely wipe, block the phone.