It ’ s a scenario that ’ s all excessively coarse. You and your friends go out for a few drinks on a Saturday night. One drink in turns to two, then three, and somewhere — probably in between the four shots of awful well whiskey and your oh-so-fantastic karaoke interpretation of Escape ’ s Don ’ t Stop Believin ’ — you go from a free-and-easy night out to painting the town red. Along the way, your iPhone, the essential piece of technical school that ’ s basically become an extension of you, disappears without a trace .
fortunately, Apple is hip to this sort of thing. The Cupertino, California-based company has handily been offering the Find My iPhone sport and accompanying mobile app since 2010, allowing you to remotely locate, lock, or wipe your iPhone using iCloud or another io device. Using Find My iPhone is simpleton, requiring little more than the initial frame-up and activation, and can truly save you should you discover that your cherished device is nowhere to be found. The software even works on early devices including your iPad, ipod Touch, and even your Mac. It won ’ t prevent you from losing your telephone, but it may help you find it therefore long as you activate the feature anterior to losing your device .
Step 1: Check the requirements
Find My iPhone is available on all devices equipped with io 5 or late. It ’ s completely release and compatible with the iPhone 3GS, third-generation ipod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini, and all the belated versions of each. A valid iCloud account is besides required and devices without cellular data must be connected to a registered Wi-Fi network to be located .
Step 2: Find the app
The Find My iPhone app has been a separate of io for quite some time. You don ’ t need to install the app, and you can ’ t remove it. To find it, precisely swipe down from the middle of your screen to bring up spotlight search and type Find My iPhone. then just open the app and log in with your Apple ID.
Step 3: Activate Find My iPhone
Tap the chief Settings icon and then tap your Apple ID standard at the top of the filmdom. Go to iCloud and then scroll down to Find my iPhone. Select it and make surely it is turned on .
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Find My iPhone does more than just allow you to track your iPhone in a pinch. The feature besides enables Activation Lock, which securely stores your Apple ID on Apple ’ s activation servers and mechanically links to your device. Your password must be entered before anyone can turn off Find My iPhone, erase your device, or reactivate it. It requires no legal action on your share and serves a even another security measure designed to prevent larceny and unauthorized use of your call .
Step 4: Lose your iOS device
obviously, this international relations and security network ’ triiodothyronine recommended, but finding your io device once lost is probable the reason you chose to use the app in the first base plaza .
Step 5: Locate your iOS device
once lost, you can either use another io device or entree your iCloud account on the network to locate your lost or stolen iPhone. Again, keep in mind that it ’ s not possible to locate the device if you didn ’ triiodothyronine activate the Find my iPhone function before losing it .
Using another iOS device
outdoors Find my iPhone as described in pace 2 ( the icon resembles an old-school radar display ), then enter your iCloud login credentials in the appropriate fields. once logged in, select the lose or stolen device from the list of devices set up with Find my iPhone to view the device ’ south location .
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Additional options for remotely wiping the telephone and forcing it to play a sound — accessible via the Actions choice located at the penetrate of the display — are besides available, along with an intuitive Lost Mode that provides options for locking the device with a four-digit passcode and displaying a contact telephone number of your own choosing directly on the lock riddle .
Using your iCloud account on the web
Open your front-runner browser and navigate to the iCloud home page before signing in with your Apple ID and password. Than click the large Find My iPhone picture, select All Devices at the top of the window, and select the lose or stolen device from the resulting number of activate devices .
Additional options for remotely wiping the earphone and causing it to play a sound should appear in the upper-right corner, along with an intuitive Lost Mode button that provides options for locking the device with a four-digit passcode and displaying a liaison phone number of your own choosing directly on the lock screen .
Step 6: Take action
once you locate your iPhone or io device, use one of Find My iPhone ’ s built-in functions to help recover the device. Tap the grey Play Sound button featuring the speaker to have your call play a high ping endlessly for two minutes, or tap the gray Erase iPhone button followed by the Erase iPhone ratification to wholly wipe your device of all subject and settings .
If running io 6 or later, tap the center Lost Mode release followed by the Turn On Lost Mode confirmation before entering a earphone act where you can be reached. then, tap the green Next button in the upper-right corner, enter your coveted message in the resulting textbook field, and tap the green Done button to activate the message .
There ’ s no guarantee the surround, erasing, or message will help you get your device rear — careless of whether you know its precise whereabouts. And if it has been stolen, rather than confront the potential thief yourself, it ’ sulfur wise to contact your serve supplier and the patrol, informing them of the site and your intentions to recover the device. You never know when things might escalate like they did in San Francisco in 2012 .
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