Table of Contents
Almost all of our lives are on our phones, including text messages, bank account information, passwords, and so much more. If you lose your iPhone, it could be a disaster. That’s why it’s nice that Turn Off Find My iPhone feature lets you find out where your phone is.
Find My iPhone used to be the name of this feature, but it was changed because it now works with almost all of your Apple devices, like your iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, and MacBook. If you sign in to your Apple ID account, you can see exactly where your device is, down to a few yards. But you might not always want Find My on, and there are reasons other than worrying that someone might track you.
How To Turn Off Find My iPhone
When turned on, Find My helps you track down your iPhone if it goes missing even when it’s offline and gives you the option to lock or erase your device to keep your information safe. Now that you understand how it works, here’s how to turn it on:
- Go to Settings > [Your Name] > Find My > Find My iPhone
- Tap the switch to turn it on or off.
- To see your device even when it’s offline, turn on Find My network by tapping the switch.
Turn On Find My iPhone
- Go to Settings.
- Tap your name.
- Tap Find My. (In earlier versions of iOS, tap iCloud > Find My Phone to turn on the feature.)
- If you want to let friends and family members know where you are, turn on Share My Location in the Find My screen. This optional setting is not required to locate your phone.
- Tap Find My iPhone at the top of the screen.
- Turn on the Find My iPhone toggle switch.
- Turn on the Find My network switch to see your phone even when it’s offline. This setting is optional and not required for locating the device.
- Turn on Send Last Location to have the phone send its location to Apple when the battery is low. This setting is also optional.
Why you should leave Find My turned on
If you turn off Find My, you won’t be able to use the Find My app or the iCloud website to find your phone. That means you can’t see where it is on a map or make your iPhone make a sound so you can find it in the seat cushions. You also can’t delete it from afar if it gets stolen.
So, unless you have a specific reason to turn it off, it’s best to leave Find My on all the time. Keep in mind that no one else should be able to track your iPhone without your Apple ID username and password. This is true even though privacy concerns are always a concern.
FAQs
Turning off Find My iPhone remotely will completely erase the phone. If you just want to disable this feature but not erase everything from the phone, you need to turn off Find My iPhone using the phone itself.
The reason behind turning off “Find My iPhone” tool is a feature called Activation Lock. Its purpose is to prevent a potential thief from resetting the stolen device to factory settings and being able to use it. The phone will not accept another Apple ID, except for the old one.
Find My iPhone has to be enabled on your phone before it’s lost if you want to find the phone. Here’s some good news: In iOS 9 and up, Find My iPhone is automatically turned on during the iPhone set-up process if you enable iCloud.