[ad_1]
Recently, my mother-in-law shared a story with me about how she lost her iPhone when she and my father-in-law were away. She hits a snag when she realizes she can’t remember the password that helps her locate her missing phone.
She wrote it down at home miles ago, and went home to find her password, log in to her iCloud account, and click the “Find Me” icon.
There is a very easy way to activate the Find My iPhone feature to quickly locate a missing device by following these tips. The key here is to prepare in advance.
If you talk a lot with a trusted friend or family member and then lose your iPhone, do the following.
1) Grab your trusted friend or family member’s iPhone and open the “Find Me” app. This app is installed on all iPhones.
2) Select “Me” from the options at the bottom of the screen (the last icon in the bottom row)
3) Click on the “I” row and drag it up to reveal the full panel of options. Tap the “Help a Friend” text link at the bottom of the page
4) After clicking “Help a Friend”, click the small blue text that says “Use a different Apple ID”. Sign in to iCloud using your own Apple ID username and password. Your Apple ID is the same ID you used to set up your phone in the first place. Usually this ID is required to download apps on your phone.
5) After entering your password, you will notice a prompt at the bottom of your screen to save the username and password on your friend or family member’s phone. Go ahead and save it to your friend/family member’s phone. By doing this, you prepare this other device to quickly access the “Find Me” feature, so you can try to get your phone back.
6) After entering the username and password, you can select which device is lost and perform various tasks. Once you’ve selected the device you want to find, you can:
- Play sound: This will play sound on your lost device. You should know that if your iPhone dies or gets disconnected from cellular or Internet Wi-Fi, it won’t play sound until it’s reconnected.
- Lost Mode: Once selected, select “Activate” or “Run”. You will be asked to enter your contact information to show up on your missing device. You can also enter your own message asking Finder to contact you. Don’t forget to select “Activate”.
- Erase iPhone: This should be a last resort as it cannot be undone. You can select the device you want and click “Erase this device”. If your phone is backed up to iCloud, you can restore this information later on a new iPhone. If you’re lucky enough to take advantage of AppleCare+ with theft and loss, you shouldn’t destroy your device. Instead, file a claim to replace the iPhone Here.
7) After doing this test, you can sign out of the iCloud account in your trusted friend or family member’s account.
8) Now, using your own phone, repeat steps 1-8, but this time enter your trusted friend or family member’s information into your phone.
9) After you complete the above steps, do a test.
- Pick up the phone of a trusted friend or family member and repeat steps 1-3.
- At this point, after clicking “Help a Friend,” you’ve already entered your information on your trusted friend or family member’s phone, so when it’s time to enter your username and password, you’ll be prompted at the bottom of the screen to use the passwords stored in your iCloud Keychain.
- The iPhone’s owner account will be the default. Don’t forget to select the “key” icon at the bottom right of the screen. This will present a menu of saved usernames and passwords. Select your login information that you saved earlier and login now.
By following the steps above, if one of you ever loses your phone, you’ll know what to do and won’t need to search for login information.
If you’re out and about alone, follow these steps to find your iPhone
1) Ask if someone will let you borrow their iPhone to use their “Find Me” app
2) Select “Me” from the options at the bottom of the screen (the last icon in the bottom row)
3) Tap the “Help a Friend” text link at the very bottom of the page
4) Sign in to iCloud using your own Apple ID. If you don’t remember this, my recommendation is to keep a piece of paper in your wallet with this information that you can easily access if this situation ever occurs.
5) Once you log in, you can see where your phone is and ping it
6) Make sure you sign out of the borrowed phone.
How to Find Your iPhone Using Your Apple Watch
One of the best features of the Apple Watch is that you can track your iPhone. Here’s how you do it.
1) Swipe up on your Apple Watch screen. You will see this screen:
2) Do you see the phone-like icon with vibrations on each side in the second row? Click on it. When you do that, you should hear a ping sound from your phone.
3) Keep pressing this button until the ping gets louder and your phone is found.
The above tip was a game for my in-laws. So much so, I was listening to this ping all day. Search “lost” on CyberGuy.com to learn how to find other tech.
[ad_2]