Posted by Here’s a detailed guide on how to find a lost iPhone that is turned off.
Losing your phone can be a nightmare and a tremendous pain in your everywhere. You lose your pictures, videos, contacts and other important information stored on your phone—especially if they weren’t saved on Google Drive or iCloud.
While most times you probably just misplaced your phone, other times someone could’ve stolen it. And looking for your phone can be quite a hassle—especially if it’s dead or turned off.
But that’s not an issue if your phone runs on iOS 15 because there are ways to find a missing iPhone even when it’s turned off.
1. How to find a lost iPhone that is turned off using Apple Find My feature
Apple’s Find My is the usual go-to option when you’re trying to track any of your Apple devices, including your Apple Leather Wallet.
From iOS 15, you can locate lost devices that are off using the Find My network. You can find your lost phone even when it is dead using Apple’s Find My services.
Apple has yet to explain how this feature works, but we suspect either the U1 chip, Bluetooth, or NFC doesn’t go off and continues working in the background even when your phone is dead. Though, the option of the battery being used as a tracker leaves room for a limited number of hours.
From iOS 13 and iPadOS, Apple merged the Find My Friends and Find My iPhone apps into one app called “Find My.” Now you can use the Find My app to find whatever you connected to Apple’s cloud.
Ever since the merging, Apple has added new features to the Find My services with each new upgrade. Features such as tracking your iPhone if it’s offline, powered off, and even when your iPhone has been erased. You can even use it to lock your phone over the internet, so whoever has it can’t use it. You can also use it to remotely delete all the data on your phone to keep sensitive data safe and away from prying eyes.
Related article: Erase Your iPhone Before You Trade It In | Bypassing Apple ID, Passcode Barrier.
– How Apple’s Find My tracks your phone
Apple’s Find My app tracks your phone’s location through its built-in GPS using other devices connected to the internet. You don’t need to log in to your iCloud account to track your Apple devices if you have other Apple devices.
Even if you don’t have the Find My app installed on your phone, you can still use its services, considering it’s a cloud-based service.
There’s a catch, though. You have to have turned on Find My iPhone before your phone went missing or got stolen, as it’s not something you can turn on after your phone gets lost.
On the bright side, from iOS 9 upwards, Find My iPhone is automatically turned on during the set-up process once you enable iCloud. But if, for some reason, or you’re using iOS 8 and less, your Find My iPhone isn’t turned on, you should go turn it on now.
– Steps to turn on Find My iPhone feature now
- Go to settings.
- Click on your name or ID.
- Tap on Find My.
If you’d like your friends and family members to know your location, turn on Share My Location on the Find My screen. This isn’t a required step to locating your phone. It’s just a helpful option.
- Tap on Find My iPhone at the top of the screen.
- Toggle on the Find My iPhone switch.
- Turn on the Find My network switch to see your phone even when it’s offline (not connected to the internet). This is optional and is not a prerequisite for locating your device.
- Turn on Send Last Location so that your phone will send its location to Apple when the battery is low. This setting is also optional.
However, you must have location services turned on for this to work. After all, how can your phone be located if its location is turned off?
That’s how to turn on Find My iPhone, so go on now. Get it done. We’ll wait.
If you’ve done that or your Find My iPhone is already on, here’s how to find a lost iPhone that is turned off using the Find My app.
– How to find a lost iPhone that is turned off using the Find My app
If you have other iOS devices or a Mac, open Find My iPhone and sign in with you Apple ID and password. Or you can log into iCloud using your Apple ID and password on your Mac or PC or from a coworker or friend’s phone. Once you log in, tap on the Find My iPhone icon and start using the service.
To start tracking your phone, tap on your lost iPhone from the list of all the Apple devices linked with your Apple ID.
The Apple map will pop up, and You will locate your phone on it. If it’s online, it’d be marked with a green dot, and if it’s offline, a gray dot will show where it was last located. From this step, you can find your lost iPhone following the map.
If you can’t locate your phone, you’d see “No location found” under your phone’s name. You can still take a step further to locate your phone when this happens. Under Notifications, turn on Notify When Found so that you’ll receive a notification once your phone is located.
To avoid losing your phone next time, you can set separation alerts using the Find My app. This way, you won’t accidentally leave your phone behind. You can also set Trusted Locations. Trusted locations are locations where you can leave your device, like your bedroom, without getting alerts.
You should know that you can only set up a separation alert from the device you chose to share your location. Every time the device sharing your location separates from the one you set an alert for, you get notified. You can share your location from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
– How to set up a separation alert
- Go to settings.
- Tap on your name or ID.
- Click on Find My.
- Now tap on Devices at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap on the device’s name you want to set up an alert for.
- Under Notifications, tap Notify When Left Behind.
- Then, follow the onscreen instructions.
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2. How to find a lost iPhone that is turned off using IMEI number
IMEI number is a unique 15 digital serial number allocated to iPhones and other mobile phones. IMEI number is unique to each phone and can never be changed. You can find the number on the original packaging box of your phone or in iCloud.
With your unique IMEI number, you can find a lost iPhone, even if it is turned off. However, it’s not as effective as Find My iPhone.
Steps on how to find a lost iPhone that is turned off using IMEI number
Once you realize your iPhone is missing or it got stolen, immediately contact your network providers.
When you contact your network providers, tell them your IMEI number and ask them to add it to the gray list of the IMEI database. You should also report the missing or stolen phone to the police and give them your IMEI number too, and they’ll inform you when your lost phone is found.
Conclusion
There you have it, a guide on how to find a lost iPhone that is turned off. Losing your iPhone doesn’t have to be the end. There are ways to get it back and ensure you don’t lose it again.
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