Find My iPhone, iPad or Mac function - from A to Z

1. IPhone Prepreparation
2. Turn on Find My iPhone
3. How to find a stolen iPhone?
4. What does the Find iPhone feature do?
5. Can I find my iPhone when GPS is disabled?
6. How does Activation-Lock work on iOS 7?
7. Finally

Lost a costly iPhone with a ton of sensitive data? Do not worry, the capabilities of the iCloud cloud service and the iOS mobile operating system will help if you don’t find your lost device, then delete your personal data or block iDevice altogether. In order for the iPhone to be lost for one reason or another, the Find My iPhone function helps to find, delete, or reset the settings of the device, you must perform several preparatory steps.

IPhone Prepreparation

To begin with, it is necessary to include the so-called Restrictions. To do this, go to Settings - General - Restrictions and enter the password twice, which will not be difficult to remember. Find the Privacy section in the list of restrictions settings and tap on the Geolocation line. Check the box for "Prohibit changes." On the same page, go to “Find iPhone” and make sure that the switch next to “Icon in the status menu” is turned off. This will help to keep secret the fact that the geolocation function is enabled on your device.

Turn on Find My iPhone

Turns on the Find My iPhone feature in Settings in the iCloud menu. Make sure that in this menu the switch opposite to Find iPhone is in the "On" position.

As a result of the above actions, in case of loss of your device, an attacker, if the device was stolen, will not be able to disable the “Find iPhone” function, and that the device has geolocation turned on will not be known. When you connect your lost device to the Internet, whether it is a 3G connection or via Wi-Fi, it’s easy to determine its location.

How to find a stolen iPhone?

You can find a lost or stolen iPhone, for which the Find iPhone feature has been activated, from any other device running on iOS, PC or OS X.

Suppose that you do not have another iOS device and try to find the iPhone using desktop tools. To do this, your PC must have a connection to the world wide web.

In any available browser, go to the iCloud.com website and enter your Apple ID and password to it. Note that if another Apple ID from the one you entered in the browser was connected in the iCloud settings, nothing will work. In iCloud, you must enter those credentials that were connected to iCloud on a lost iPhone.

In the iCloud browser interface, go to the Find iPhone application. In the central part of the page, the World Map will be loaded with the latest location of your device with an active Internet connection.

In the “All devices” drop-down list, all devices connected to your iCloud account (also known as Apple ID) are displayed. If you are currently connected to the Internet from a stolen iPhone, the device will be marked with a green mark in the list.

What does the Find iPhone feature do?

Apple’s “eating their bread” is clearly not in vain. The Find iPhone function can send a sound signal to a lost device, a message (the contents of the message can be set personally) on the lock screen that iDevice was lost, indicating the contact phone number (for “our brother” is not relevant), block the device with a password, completely erase all personal data and personal settings.

Be careful: after erasing the data and restoring the settings to the factory settings, it will no longer be possible to track it.

Can I find my iPhone when GPS is disabled?

When geolocation service is disabled (settings-basic-restrictions-geolocation-turn off geolocation service), the location of even an iPhone connected to the Internet cannot be determined, so make sure that it is impossible to disable geolocation without entering a password for restrictions.

Even if the geolocation service is disabled, the Find iPhone function on the lost iPhone can send audio signals, send system notifications with user-defined content, or completely erase personal data and restore the iPhone to factory settings.

How does Activation-Lock work on iOS 7?

Activation lock in iOS 7 starts when you enable Find iPhone. If the lock is active, in order to disable Find iPhone, delete data from the device or re-activate and use the device, you must first enter your Apple ID and password for the account.

The function allows you to protect your device from being used by attackers, completely blocking the device when it is restored. It will not be possible to use a stolen device with the Find iPhone feature enabled without entering an Apple ID and password.

It is important to know that in case the owner for some reason forgets an Apple ID or password, it will be impossible to release the lock.

Note to owners of Mac computers: the Find Mac function does not include an activation lock.

Finally

It is worth noting, Find the iPhone is certainly a useful and sought-after feature. On the one hand, it allows you to quickly and easily find the device in the office or in your own room by sending a sound signal, blocking the device with a password, sending a user message to the lost device, or completely delete all data and completely blocking the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. On the other hand, if there is a possibility that you yourself forget your Apple ID or password to it, you will have to choose the “lesser of two evils”: either protection against theft or loss, or protection against absolute blocking of the device.