iCloud Find My iPhone is a great feature that Apple has introduced since June 2010 for MobileMe subscribers.
It has also integrated with iCloud for many years. It a powerful feature that meets the needs of those who may have lost their iPhone or those who believe they have stolen from their device and want to prevent access to their private information. Thanks to “Find my iPhone” on icloud there is a way to protect the private information on the lost or stolen phone, and potentially, recover it.
What is Find My iPhone?
Find my iPhone is a tool that was created to find your lost Phone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch. If you lose your Phone, you can use the Find My app on another device to see its last known location.
In previous versions of iOS, Find My iPhone and Find My Friends were separate applications. Starting with iOS 13, they have combined into a single app that allows you to locate your devices and check the location of your friends and family. Find My iPhone has become a way to make iOS devices less “attractive” to steal. In fact, once you have enabled Where is on an iPad, Phone, Mac or Apple Watch, the device cannot be unlocked without the iCloud password of the original account.
How it works in iPhone
“Find iPhone” helps you understand where the iPhone is at all times. Thanks to satellite images and cartography, it will show where the iPhone is located as long as the device has a signal and is turned on. “Find my iPhone” is accessible from any computer connected to the internet, tablet or handheld device, by accessing the website www.icloud.com. Once you have accessed the site, you will be able to open the “Find my iPhone” screen and then select the device you are trying to find. It should be noted that only iOS devices, such as iPhone, iPod, iPad or Mac computer, can work with “Find iPhone”.
How Find My iPhone Works
First of all it must be said that the “Find my iPhone” service only works if the device is turned on and has a signal. If it is not on and / or has no signal, the service will not work, although you should at least be able to see if the phone is on. The service also doesn’t work if your iPhone has Airplane mode on.
That said, you need to focus on when and how the Find My iPhone service works. First of all, you need to activate the application. This step of the process is simple to do: Go to Settings, tap iCloud and select the “FindiPhone” service so that it is green and set to “ON”. Also make sure you have location services turned on. Without such location services, you won’t be able to see exactly where the device is.
When your iPhone lost or misplaced, you can use your computer to access icloud. Then log in with your iCloud account. From the screen, select your iPhone and you will be able to locate, play the audio, activate the lost mode or delete all the data on your iPhone remotely. For more details on the 4 options, please read the following information.
Features of Find My iPhone
There are four main features (or functionalities) in the service that we are going to list below:
1. Locate the device: If the iPhone signal works and location services are active on it, by going to iCloud you will be able to see where the iPhone is currently located.
2. Play Sound: This particular feature is incredibly useful if you are sure your iPhone is somewhere nearby. At intervals of 5 seconds, the device will start ringing at a very high volume, until I find the device. After activating the sound playback function, will also emailed a notification that the function activated. The sound stops once the iPhone found and the home screen accessed.
The step below in case you lost it
3. device Lost Mode: “Lost” mode is a useful function available through the “Find iPhone” that allows you to remotely lock the device with an access code. The iPhone will remain locked until the passcode entered. The nice thing, if the mode selected but Location Services turned off, Location Services will turned on as long as the phone found. This makes it easier to monitor the device.
4. Reset iPhone: When all else fails and you are not confident that the iPhone is recoverable. There is also the option to wipe iPhone data remotely. This a last resort option and once the data deleted it will be difficult to recover. This prevents thieves or thieves from accessing your private information such as contacts, photos, etc …
How to activate the service
Activating Find iPhone is very simple: Go to Settings> iCloud. There are a number of options in the iCloud section. What we need to activate is Find My iPhone. Move the slider to activate the feature on your iPhone. To activate or deactivate, simply move the button to ON or OFF respectively.
How to disable the service
Disabling Find My iPhone should only done when selling a device or sending it for repair by Apple. Apple requires the service disabled before generating a return code. To disable Find My iPhone, go to Settings> Choose your account> Find My> Deactivate. To disable will forced to authenticate the request using iCloud password.
Again, just to clarify, the only two times should disable the service. When selling a device or at the request of Apple Support before sending a device for repair.
How to bypass Find My iPhone and iCloud
If an iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPad or Watch is locked with an iCloud account, the only way to unlock it is with the account password or by contacting Apple. Apple will only unlock the device if you can provide the original proof. Of purchase that matches the serial number of the device. Apple’s policy is to protect against device theft.
If you do not remember the account password. You can reset it using the email address associated with the account and remove Find My iPhone .