We’ve all experienced those times when we’ve misplaced or lost our phone. We automatically think we lose our phone for good, but now, you don’t have to think of worst. Maybe you had a crazy night out or your room’s a mess and you remembered you left your phone “somewhere” in your room. Whatever the reason, at this moment, you can’t find your phone. So, before you head to the store, thinking that you have to buy a new phone, there’s an app to help you find your phone. In fact, it’s literally called “Find my iPhone”!

Made by Apple itself, this app uses your built-in GPS or location services to help locate your iPhone on a map. What’ great about Find My iPhone, you can also lock or delete all your data from your device over the internet. So, in case your iPhone has been stolen, you won’t have to worry about your data being accessed. So, whether your device is stolen or simply misplaced, you’ll be able to either find it, lock it or remove important data from it. Though your phone isn’t in the palm of your hand, you still have control over it.

Setting It Up

Firstly, you should know that Find My iPhone is a part of iCloud as a free service. So, you won’t have to pay any additional fees in order to use this app. You’ll need to set up an iCloud account in order to use Find My iPhone. If your iPhone is running iOS 5 or higher, you’ll be able to use it for your device.

To access your iCloud account, you’ll probably need to enter the same username and password as your iTunes account. If you aren’t signed in, you need to go to ‘Settings’ app on the home screen of your device. Once there, tap on ‘iCloud’ and then tap on ‘Account’ where you’ll be able to sign in. Then enter your username and password.

Once you’re in iCloud, you’ll need to enable Find My iPhone. In order to do that, you need to tap on ‘Settings’ on your home screen. Then, tap on ‘Cloud’. You’ll see various options to choose from, scroll down and at the bottom of the page, you’ll see ‘FInd My iPhone.’ Next to ‘Find My iPhone’, you’ll see a slider. To turn it on, tap it and the slide should show up as green, this means it is now on.

Now, it depends on what iOS your device is using, however, you may get a message alerting you that your GPS tracking on your iPhone is turned on while you use Find My iPhone. You may have to tap ‘Allow’ in order to activate it.

Turning off Find My iPhone

If you lost your iPhone and found it by using Find My iPhone, you may want to turn it off. Now, the choice is yours whether or not you wish to keep it on, however, if you lose it again and Find My iPhone is off, well, you won’t be able to use it if you lose your phone again. In other words, Find My iPhone must be turned on in order for it to work.

Though, it’s your choice. So, to turn off Find My iPhone, you need to go into ‘Settings’ on your device's home screen. Click on ‘iCloud’ and then tap on ‘Find My iPhone.” Then you’ll need to tap on the slider next to Find My iPhone. The slide will go from green to white which means it’s turned off.

If you have an iOS 7 or higher, you’ll need to enter a password to access it. The password is the iCloud password for that device. This is called an Activation Lock and is used to prevent thieves from turning off My Find iPhone when they have your iPhone.

Now that you know how to activate and deactivate Find My iPhone, you now know how to protect your iPhone and the data on it. You may never have to use this, however, it’s always better to know how to activate it. Plus, if you’re forgetful, this will really help you out, especially when you’re late for work and you can’t find your iPhone!