Skip to content
Step by Step Internet 🌐 Guides for learning to surf the Net

How to search and find your iPhone or iPad if it is accidentally lost or stolen? step by step guide

UPDATED ✅ Lost or stolen your iPhone and have no idea how to track and find it? ⭐ ENTER HERE ⭐ and discover how to do it ✅ EASY and FAST ✅

If for some strange cosmic reason you can’t find your iPhone because you’ve forgotten where you put it, or you’ve just been the victim of a theft, this information is for you. We are going to teach you how to find your Apple device easily and quickly wherever it is.

Apple is a company that cares a lot about the safety of its users, so it fully understands the risk of your mobile being lost. If it falls into the wrong hands, all the information you have stored in it will be 100% compromised.

That is why the firm founded by Steve Jobs devised various tools specially designed to allow you to find your iPhone when it is lost or stolen. In the same way, other people have developed “off the record” methods that we will also teach you to apply perfectly.

What is Find My iPhone and what is this feature for?

It is an iCloud tool that allows you to locate your mobile wherever it is using its GPS. It’s a very simple concept, but Apple developed it so well that it took it to another level, fulfilling much more than the initial premise.

To use this tool, you must first have it configured and activated on your smartphone, which can be done very easily. In fact, most terminals come with the feature installed from the factory.

Steps to activate and use Find My iPhone to find your phone if it’s lost or stolen

Now that you know well what the tool is and what it works for, we proceed to teach you how to activate it and use it to find your Apple device with it. You simply have to precisely follow the steps that we will explain for each of the processes:

Turn on Find My iPhone

Activating this tool is something extremely simple that will not take you more than a minute and with it you will be protecting your mobile and the information inside it because you will be able to find it wherever it is. However, if you do not activate it, you will lose the possibility of finding it when it is lost or stolen..

So the first thing you should do when you take your iPhone out of the box is enable iCloud Find My iPhone with these steps:

  • go to “Settings” and enter your Apple ID and password if you don’t see a screen asking for it.
  • Inside the menu “Settings”tap on your username and from there, tap on iCloud.
  • Next, look for the option “Search my Iphone”. Later on the screen that appears you will only have to activate or deactivate depending on what you want. To do this, press the button on the right.

Steps-turn-off-uncheck-the-Find-my-iPhone-option

That’s all you have to do to start enjoying all the benefits that the tool can offer you to find your smartphone wherever it is. But the mission is not over yet, now you must learn to find your mobile when it is lost.

find mobile

Well, if you have the application active from the day you took the phone out of the box, then you are in a privileged position because not all users do it all the time. Now that your phone is lost or stolen, it’s time to locate it with Find My iPhone from iCloud.

This is a very simple process that you can do from the web and from the official app of the tool. Simply follow these steps:

  • If you will do the process from the web, what you should do is simply go to icloud.com and log in with your username and password Apple ID.
  • Once inside go to the section of “Search my Iphone” and in it select “All devices”. Here you will see a list of devices and next to it a circle with a color; if it is green it means that the mobile is connected, and if it is gray it means that it is not.
  • Beam click on the lost device. If he’s online, you’ll be able to see his location on a map in real time, and if he’s offline you’ll see the last location he was at before he went offline.

That’s all, at this point you should already have precise information on the location of the iPhone or iPad on the map or at least where it was the last time it was lost. With it you will be able to find it wherever it is with amazing ease.

*Note: if the mobile is connected and located inside your house, you can select the option “make it ring”, so that it emits a sound that allows you to find it inside the property.

What devices can I find besides the iPhone or iPad?

You can use this method that we have just explained to you to find basically all Apple devices, including MacOS. When you click “all devices” You will see that your Airpods, AppleWhatch and even your laptop can appear.

The only requirement that must be met to appear on this list is have the function perfectly activatedotherwise you won’t be able to track it from your iCloud.

What should I do if I don’t see my iPhone in the device list? What if you are offline?

There are scenarios where it will not be so easy to use the tool to search for your Apple mobile. In these you will have to go a little further if you really want to find your device. But fortunately here we explain it step by step so that you understand everything perfectly.

If it is not in the list of devices

This usually happens a lot. You go to iCloud.com, go to “All devices” and you find yourself with the unpleasant surprise that the one you are looking for is not in the list. In this case there is not much to do since if there is no device to find nothing will be found.

Therefore, you must ensure that:

  • The iPhone you’re looking for has Find My iPhone turned on. As we mentioned before, this is an excluding factor since if it is not active, it means that the user does not authorize Apple to track their cell phone.
  • That you are connected to the internet or that you have coverage. Being a tool that works with satellites, it is necessary for the mobile to be able to connect to them through a telephone network or WiFi.
  • That is associated with your Apple ID. If you bought your iPhone second-hand, then the former owner most likely has it linked to their Apple ID profile. You should call him and ask him to unlink them so that you can link him to your profile and track him in the future.

Those are the only 3 things you can do in case the device is not listed in iCloud, so if you find yourself in this scenario and your phone was stolen, it is unlikely that you will be able to find it from here.

If it appears offline

Another scenario that causes inconvenience is when we see that the tool shows us the message “Without connection” either “No location available.” This can be caused by the following reasons:

  • The device is turned off. If your computer has been stolen, chances are the thieves have turned it off so you can’t locate it.
  • That you are offline or without coverage. In this case it will be impossible for it to connect with the satellites, so it will not be able to be located exactly.
  • That the tool is not available in your country. For bureaucratic reasons, in some countries the Find My iPhone service is not available, so you will not be able to use the tool in these cases.

If the reason is one of the first two that we mention in this short list, what you should do is wait for the mobile to turn on or connect to be able to track it. In this point, the The only information iCloud shows you is the exact location the last time it was turned on or online..

In case the service is not available in your country you will not be able to do basically anything to find your iPhone with this tool. So you can get the idea of ​​buying another mobile.

I found my iPhone but I can’t get it back, what can I do in this case?

If you’ve located your phone but it’s in the hands of insufferable thugs who won’t let you get it back, iCloud offers you a series of measures to protect your information on your phone and basically make a simple set of circuitry useless:

Delete information remotely

The first thing you think about in such a scenario is your data, so it is more than likely that you will want to delete all of it from that device. Apple thought of this and makes it as easy as possible for you.

You just have to follow these steps:

  • Go into iCloud.com and login with your Apple ID.
  • Later go to “Search my Iphone” and select “All devices”.
  • Once there, select the lost device and in the box corresponding to it, mark the option “Erase iPhone”.

search my Iphone

To confirm the action you will have to enter your Apple ID access credentials again, and this will cause your mobile deletes information such as:

  • All photos, videos and document files will be removed from the device.
  • All sessions on social networks and other platforms will be closed that are still open when you erase the iPhone.
  • All credit cards and bank accounts associated with Apple Pay will be removedso that no one can pay with them.

If the device is connected at the time of remote sweeping, everything will begin to be deleted immediately. If, on the contrary, it is disconnected, it will wait for it to reconnect to delete it completely. Also, if you luckily manage to recover the device after erasing it, you can restore it through an iTunes or iCloud backup.

Activate Activation Lock

If you have ever had to perform a complete reset of your iPhone, you surely already know what the activation lock. This is an Apple security tool that prevents the device from being used other than to make an emergency call. To unlock it, you will need authorization from the owner who is you, so they can never access your information.

This is a feature that turns on automatically when you set up Find My iPhone, so you won’t have to do anything but watch the world of those thieves burn when they realize they can’t activate the device. Once you delete all the content inside, the next time the phone is turned on it will show the Activation Lock screen.

Activate Lost Mode

Finally, another measure that you have if you cannot recover your Apple mobile is to activate what is known as “Lost Mode”. It is a function that constantly monitors your mobile and keeps it locked. In this way, every time the device connects, you will receive an email notification of your AppleIDso that you can trace it in the future with the help of the authorities.

Steps to search and find a stolen or lost Apple mobile without Find My iPhone

Well, this is a post on how to find your iPhone and we are going to teach you all the methods that you can resort to when Find My iPhone completely fails you. These alternatives are not completely infallible, but they do have an excellent margin of success..

With a tracking app

The first and most obvious option of all is to use a mobile GPS tracking application. These are nothing more than tools like Find My iPhone, but they are developed by brands other than Apple. In the iOS app store you will find a huge amount of them, but we will teach you how to do it with Prey.

Prey is one of the most complete applications that works as an alternative when Find My iPhone fails. With it you can do almost the same functions, except for Activation Lock.

To find your mobile with it you simply have to do the following:

  • The first thing will obviously be to download the application.
  • Once open you must touch “Find by IMEI”.
  • Now you just have to enter the IMEI code of your iPhone and the application will track it.

As in the case of Find My iPhone, in order for the app to be able to track the device, certain conditions must be met. The most important is that it has an internet connection to be able to make the request. With this, the tool will show you a report with the Next information:

  • Precise coordinates of the location or recent locations where the mobile has been.
  • IP address of the equipment and the WiFi networks to which it has recently connected to facilitate the location.

In addition to all this, you can also make the mobile ring when it is at home but you don’t know where it is exactly.

With Google Timeline

Another way to find your mobile is with Google Timeline, although this is a much more underground method. For this you will have to have your mobile linked to a Gmail account, so that you can easily access this information from your Google account.

It will also be necessary for the iPhone to remain connected and obviously have the GPS activated so it can work. The chances of all of this coming to pass are pretty unlikely, but you have nothing to lose by trying. What you should do is just go to this address.

Find iPhone With Google Timeline

Once there you must log in with your Google account and you will see the location of all the devices linked to that profile. In the “Location History” you will be able to see where the device has been for the last few days. With that information you can track him to find his whereabouts.

With Google Photos

The last alternative left to you is to use Google Photos, a fairly well-known application. Nevertheless, this is possibly the most underground technique in history, despite the fact that it is a very simple logic to apply.

What you should do is simply have the application installed with the function “Auto upload photos”, which will cause each time a capture is made, it will be published in the application’s timeline. This publication will have the exact location of where the photo was taken, with which you will know where the device is..

It should be noted that this is a rather desperate method, since nobody guarantees that the person who has stolen or found your device will continue to use it. Also, it has its risks since to do this the person should be able to use the mobile at willso that you can see your personal information.

List of the best applications to track your iOS device easily and quickly

Well, we have reached the end of the road and we have taught you absolutely all the methods to find your iOS device in all possible ways. What we are going to do now is to recommend you a list of applications to track iPhone easily and quickly as with Prey..

Spizy.com

Spizy

This is an excellent online application to find any mobile, be it Android or iOS. In addition, it has several functions that go beyond its own Find My iPhone. One of them is to be able to spy on all the content and activities carried out by the mobile on social networks, including the account profile. This means that if your thief opens their Facebook or Instagram in the device, you can identify it at will.

Google Maps

Google Maps

This is one of the most complete applications that can be used to find mobiles. It is as powerful as the iCloud tool, and you can install it on your iPhone without any problem., it will be like having double protection against theft and loss. In this case you will also have to have the app active and with permissions on the computer, so that there are no problems tracking it.

Google Maps
Google Maps
developer:
Google LLC
Price:
Free


Life 360

Life-360

This is an application that specializes in keeping a complete record of your daily activities, and within it, it has an excellent function to track and locate your mobile. It is available on both iOS and Android, and it is completely free and very effective.. It gives you the option to find the mobile by IMEI.

Life360 Search Family, Friends
Life360 Search Family, Friends
developer:
Life360
Price:
Free


‎Life360 Find Family, Friends
‎Life360 Find Family, Friends
developer:
Life360
Price:
Free+

Tracker GPS Mobile

Tracker GPS Mobile

An application specially developed to find any digital device wherever it is. It is very simple to use and the only thing you need to make it work is to have it installed on your mobile lost and that it is online and GPS activated.

Tracker GPS Mobile
Tracker GPS Mobile
developer:
ForesightGPS
Price:
Free


Family Locator GPS Tracker Android

Family-Locator-GPS-Tracker

This is an application derived from Life 360 ​​that is a style of parental control that allows parents to know the location of their children’s mobiles. With it you can also locate them wherever they are and keep a detailed record of their locations.

Informatic security