How do I turn on Find My iPhone?
- Open Settings and tap your name at the top of the screen.
- Tap Find My.
- Tap Find My iPhone and turn it on.
- Also turn on Find My network, which lets other nearby Apple devices anonymously help locate your iPhone even when it's offline, and Send Last Location, which automatically sends the device's location to Apple when the battery gets critically low.
Do this as soon as you set up a new iPhone. Find My cannot locate a device retroactively — it only works for the period after it's switched on.
How do I locate my iPhone if it's lost or stolen?
- Via a web browser: Go to icloud.com/find on any computer or phone, sign in with your Apple Account, and select your device from the list to see its location on a map.
- Via the Find My app: Open Find My on another Apple device signed into your account, or borrow a trusted friend or family member's device and sign in temporarily. Tap Devices, then select your iPhone.
From either method, you can also play a sound to help find it nearby, get directions to its location, or mark it as lost.
Will Find My work if my iPhone is offline or switched off?
Apple's Find My network uses Bluetooth signals, relayed anonymously through other nearby Apple devices, to help locate an iPhone even without Wi-Fi or cellular data, as long as this feature was enabled beforehand. This is what makes Find My different from services that rely purely on an active internet connection.
If the iPhone's battery is completely dead or it's been switched off entirely, live location isn't possible, but Find My can still show the last location it recorded before it went offline. There is no way to get a live position from a device with no power at all.
What does Lost Mode (Mark As Lost) do?
In the Find My app, select your missing device and choose Mark As Lost (Apple's current name for what was previously called Lost Mode). This immediately:
- Locks the iPhone with your existing passcode.
- Suspends Apple Pay cards and passes linked to the device.
- Lets you display a custom message and phone number on the lock screen, so someone who finds it can contact you without being able to unlock it.
If you're confident the device won't be recovered, Find My also lets you erase it remotely, which removes your data while keeping Activation Lock in place, so the iPhone can't be reactivated by anyone else without your Apple Account password.
People also ask
Can someone disable Find My iPhone without my passcode?
No. Turning off Find My iPhone or erasing the device both require the Apple Account password. This is Activation Lock, and it's designed to make a stolen iPhone far less useful to a thief, since it can't be reset and reused without that password.
Does Find My iPhone cost money?
No, it's a free feature built into every iPhone tied to a free Apple Account. No subscription or paid iCloud storage plan is required to use Find My.
Can I share my location with family using Find My?
Yes. In the Find My app's People tab, you can share your location with chosen contacts and see theirs if they share back, separate from the device-finding features covered above.