Find My iPhone is a great innovation that Apple introduced to users since June 2010. Now this service is integrated with iCloud. This is an amazing feature that can help those who may have left their iPhone in the wrong place. It is also useful for those who are afraid that they will not be able to prevent attackers from gaining access to personal information.
Now, thanks to Find My iPhone, available on iCloud, there’s a way to protect your data on a lost or stolen phone, and even potentially recover it. How to enable the Find iPhone feature and how to use it?
What it is?
Find My iPhone helps a lot to determine where an iPhone can be when it is not near you. Thanks to satellite images and cartography, he will show where your smartphone is located, provided that the device has a signal and is turned on.
Where is the Find iPhone feature? It is accessible from any Internet-connected computer, tablet or portable device thanks to the iCloud website. Entering the resource gives you the opportunity to access the “Find my iPhone” screen, which then allows you to select exactly the device that you want to find. It should be noted here that only those devices on which this option is installed are available. It can be an iPhone, iPod, iPad or Mac. As soon as you enter the service, you will see a large map with marks on the screen.
How does Find My iPhone work?
How to make sure the Find iPhone feature is on? Firstly, the Find My iPhone service only works if your iPhone is turned on and has a signal. If it is turned off and does not transmit data, the service will not work. However, you will always see if the phone is turned on. The service will also not work if your iPhone has been switched to airplane mode.
Each user needs to focus on when and how the Find iPhone feature works. Enabling this option is simple. Go to Settings, tap iCloud and click on the “Find My iPhone” slider to turn it green, or “ON”, depending on the version of iOS. This is the easiest procedure to enable the Find iPhone feature.
You must also ensure that you have location services activated. Without Location Services, you cannot see exactly where the device is located.
If your iPhone is missing or lost, you can use your computer to open the icloud website. Log in to your icloud account. On the screen, select your iPhone, and after that you can find it, play a sound, put it into lost mode or delete all data on it remotely.
Key Features of Find My iPhone
If you enable the Find iPhone feature, its four great features will be activated:
- Locate your device: if your iPhone’s signal is working and the device is still powered and location services are turned on, go to iCloud to find out where your gadget is currently located. You may need to log in with iCloud ID and password, after which you will be taken to the Find My iPhone screen.
- Play sound: This feature is incredibly useful if you are sure that your iPhone is somewhere nearby. At 5-second intervals, the iPhone will “ping” very loudly until you find the device and press the home screen. After you have activated the Play Sound function, you will receive an email notification that this function has been activated. When a device is detected and exits the main screen, the sound will stop playing.
- Lost mode. This is a convenient option available through the Find My iPhone feature, which allows you to remotely lock your iPhone with a password. The smartphone will remain locked until it is found and the password is entered. The nice thing is that if “Lost mode” is selected, but the location services are disabled, they are activated automatically and will be turned on until the phone is found. This makes it easier to track the device.
- Erase iPhone: when nothing helps, and it does not seem to you that the iPhone will be detected, you also have the option to remotely destroy all data. Of course, this is the toughest option, but it is available for you if you think that you can not return a lost smartphone. This will prevent access to valuable information stored on your iPhone, such as your contact list or any cards that you may have saved through Passbook.
How to enable Find My iPhone?
How to enable the Find iPhone feature? Click Settings, then iCloud. There are several options in this section. Click Find My iPhone. Switching the slider allows you to enable this feature on your smartphone. To activate or deactivate “Find iPhone” on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, simply swipe your finger on the button of the same name and set it to the “OFF” position.
Where is the Find iPhone feature on your computer? After that, turn on Find My Mac on your Mac. To do this, go to Apple menu> System Preferences> iCloud. You will see an interface very similar to the screen that you can see on your iPhone after you turn on the Find iPhone feature. Sign in to your iCloud account.
Add your device to Find My iPhone
Some users do not know how to use the "apple" device to enable the "Find iPhone" function. It is very simple - use the gadget to log in with your Apple ID and enable the option. This is done through the “Settings”> iCloud> Login using your Apple ID.
A good way to search for your lost devices is to use the functionality of an application such as Find My iPhone. If the missing device is somewhere nearby, enable the option “Play sound”. You will surely hear a beep.
In order to use all the Find iPhone features in Settings, especially with the ability to remotely delete information from the device, you must make sure that the smartphone has been stolen, because after erasing all the data it cannot be restored.
How to backup iPhone in case of data loss
You start using this Find My iPhone feature because you want to find your iPhone in case of loss. If the iPhone is lost, you can keep the data safe. If your smartphone is stolen, how to recover files or data from it? Recovery alone is not possible, but there are options.
Therefore, it is very important to backup iPhone. With TunesGo, you can create it quickly and easily. The service can easily transfer music, photos, videos and contacts to iTunes, PC or other "apple" devices. Copying is also available on Android devices.
Recovery process
Download and install TunesGo and run it. After connecting the iPhone to the computer, you will see a screenshot in the form of the contents of your smartphone. Click Restore iTunes Library to back up your iPhone.
After clicking the button, you can select the type of files and transfer them to iTunes. If you do not want to transfer the entire data, you can select and transfer any music or video as you wish, selectively. Thus, files in TunesGo can be sorted and selected. Therefore, this service is preferable to iTunes.
How to use Find My iPhone to find your phone?
Sign in to iCloud using the account you used when setting up Find My iPhone. This is probably your Apple ID or iTunes account.
Click Find iPhone in the iCloud Web Tools section. The Find My iPhone service immediately starts trying to find all the devices on which it is turned on. You will see messages on the screen when the application is turned on.
If you have several devices configured with this service, click “All devices” at the top of the screen and select the one you need.
If it detects your device, Find My iPhone will zoom in on the map and show the location of the gadget using a green dot. When this happens, you can zoom in or out on the map and view it in standard, satellite and hybrid modes, like in Google Maps. When your device is found, a window will appear in the right corner of your web browser. It lets you know how much battery is left in your phone, and offers several options.
Click Play Sound. This is the first option, because sending sound to the device is better when you think you have lost it nearby and want to find it faster. It can also be useful if you think that someone nearby got your smartphone, but denies it.
You can also click Lost Mode. This allows you to remotely lock the device screen and set a password (even if you have not previously set it). This prevents the use of the device or access to your personal data.
As soon as you click the Lost Mode button, enter the password you want to use. If you already have this setting, it will be used automatically. You can also enter a phone number where the person who discovered the phone can contact you (this is optional). You also have the option to write a message that appears on the device’s screen.
How to delete everything?
If you do not think that you will return the phone, you can delete all data from it. To do this, click the "Erase" button. You will see a warning (do not confirm it if you are not sure of your actions). Check the box that says that you understand what you are doing and click "Erase". This will delete all the data on your phone, preventing the attacker from gaining access to it. After that, it is possible to disable the “Find iPhone” function through the computer.
If you return the device to yourself later, you can restore the data from the backup. If you think your smartphone is in motion, click the green dot that represents it, and then select the rounded arrow in the pop-up window. This updates the location of the device using the latest GPS data.