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Find My and safety

Find My iPhone

Most people call this locating, locking or erasing a lost phone.

Find My lets you locate your iPhone on a map, play a sound on it, mark it as lost, or erase it remotely, and it also enables Activation Lock.

Available

This setting is present on your iPhone.

  • We have this path on file but have not yet confirmed it against an official source.

Where to find it - iOS 16 and later

  1. Settings
  2. Apple Account
  3. Find My
  4. Find My iPhone

What it does

Three switches matter. Find My iPhone itself. Find My network, which lets other Apple devices report your phone's location even when it is offline. Send Last Location, which transmits the position just before the battery dies.

Turning Find My on also turns on Activation Lock, which stops a thief from setting up your phone as their own.

What changes

When it is on

The phone can be located, locked and erased remotely, and is locked to your account.

When it is off

The phone cannot be found, and anyone who has it can erase and use it.

Should you turn it on?

Good reasons to turn it on

  • Recovers a phone left in a taxi.
  • Activation Lock makes a stolen phone worth far less.
  • Offline finding works even without a network connection.

Good reasons to turn it off

  • There is no good reason on a phone you own.
  • Turn it off only when selling or giving the phone away.

Battery

No real change

Privacy

Depends how you use it

Performance

No real change

Cellular data

No real change

Storage

No real change

Out of the box: On, and strongly encouraged during setup.

Can cause real problems

Where this setting used to live

Apple moves settings between releases. This is every location we have on file.

  1. iOS 16 and later

    Settings > Apple Account > Find My > Find My iPhone

  2. iOS 13 to iOS 15

    Settings > Apple ID > Find My > Find My iPhone

Questions people actually ask

Can I find my iPhone if it is switched off?
On recent models the Find My network can still report a location for a period after shutdown, if Find My network is enabled.
What is Activation Lock?
It ties the phone to your Apple Account so nobody else can set it up. It is enabled automatically with Find My.

If it is not working

  • Turn on all three switches, not just the first one.
  • Erase the phone remotely only as a last resort. It usually ends any chance of locating it.
  • Stolen Device Protection stops a thief who knows your passcode from turning Find My off.

Related settings