Losing an iPhone is afflicting.It can end up being a security risk because thereβs an enormous amount of personal data at stake. Now a dayβs phones are more than a store of personal photos, videos, and music library, it contains an incredible amount of sensitive information which can be exploited and misused. Losing your iPhone and fear of information abuse isnβt fun. Following are some methods that can help you to track your iPhone if lost.
Losing your phone leaves your data at risk of exploitation, you must check How to backup your iPhone in order to protect your personal data.
Enable Find My iPhone
Apple provide you the built-in support to track your iPhone using an app Find My iPhone which exists in settings. But firstly, you need to configure it in order to locate your phone in case of missing or stolen. It’s free and can be access by signing in to icloud.com by another iOS device, a Mac, or a web-connected computer when your phone is lost.
source: 9to5mac
How to set up Find My iPhone?
- Navigate towards Settings app.
- Tap on your apple ID the top of Settings.
- Scroll down and tap iCloud.
- Scroll down and tap on Find My iPhone.
- Turn on Find My iPhone switch.
- Enable Send Last Location, it will keep your phone’s last location update on iCloud before battery dies out.
How to use Find My iPhone when the phone is missing?
- Go to icloud.com from a web browser or launch Find My iPhone app on another iOS device or Mac.
- Login with your icloud account β login account should be the same icloud account that has been logged into on your lost iPhone.
- Tap on All Devices menu at the top and select your missing phone.
- The app starts tracking your iPhone location on the map. You can zoom in or out on map controls to track your phone closely .
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As you see the location of your device, you can choose to do the following actions by taping:
- Play sound, it will make your phone ring (even if it’s currently muted) so if your iPhone is nearby, you can trace it with sound tune.
- Activates βLost Modeβ by taping on it. This locks your device and still tracks it. It will ask you to Enter a contact number where someone who might find your iPhone can reach you.
2: Track iPhone through Family Sharing
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Family Sharing can help track your missing iPhone. It helps the members to know each oneβs device location. You can Ask any member in Family Sharing group to trace your iPhone via Find My iPhone app. The member can also sign into icloud.com from web to locate the missing iPhone.
3: Use Google Timeline to track iPhone
If you had turned on Location Services of your iPhone, Googleβs Timeline will record all the locations of your device. But Google Timeline records the location only when the iPhone is connected with the internet. For tracking your phone you need to do following steps:
- Sign into that Google account that has logged into your I phone
- On location map tap Today or select date.
- Scroll down and see last reported location of your missing iPhone.
Along with the location, it shows the time of your last location. Through which you can take a clue and that helps you can track your lost iPhone.