How to Set Up Find My iPhone

If you only do one thing to protect your iPhone, do this. Find My can locate, lock, or erase your iPhone if it's lost or stolen. And it makes the phone useless to thieves.

Turn on Find My iPhone

1. Open Settings
2. Tap your name at the top
3. Tap Find My
4. Tap Find My iPhone
5. Toggle on: Find My iPhone, Find My network, Send Last Location

What each setting does

• Find My iPhone: Lets you locate your iPhone from another device or icloud.com
• Find My network: Works even if your iPhone is offline, turned off (for up to 24 hours), or out of battery. Uses other Apple devices nearby to relay location anonymously.
• Send Last Location: Automatically sends the location to Apple when your battery is critically low.

How to find a lost iPhone

1. On another Apple device, open the Find My app
2. Tap Devices at the bottom
3. Tap your iPhone
4. You'll see its location on a map

Or from a computer: go to icloud.com/find and sign in.

What you can do remotely

• Play Sound: Makes the iPhone chirp loudly, even on silent. Great for "I left it in the couch."
• Directions: Opens Maps with directions to its current location.
• Mark As Lost: Locks the iPhone, displays your phone number on the screen for a finder, disables Apple Pay.
• Erase iPhone: Wipes everything. Use only if you're sure you're not getting it back.

Activation Lock: the theft deterrent

When Find My is on, your iPhone is locked to your Apple Account. A thief can wipe it, but they can't activate or sell it without your Apple Account password. This is why iPhone theft is way down compared to 10 years ago.

Set up Find My for family

You can locate family members' devices too (with their permission). Set up Family Sharing first (Settings > your name > Family Sharing) and ask each family member to enable Share My Location.

What to do if your iPhone is stolen

1. Open Find My from any device or icloud.com/find
2. Mark As Lost immediately. Add your phone number and a message.
3. Do not erase yet. Erasing removes it from Find My and you can't track it anymore.
4. File a police report. Apple won't help recover it, but you'll need the report for insurance.
5. Contact your carrier to suspend service.
6. Only erase remotely once you've given up on recovery, so your data is gone.