Find My iPhone is a popular feature that lets you help and locate your iPhone, should you ever lose it. The feature works with the help of the Find my iPhone app which is installed on another iOS device, another iPhone, an iPad, an iPod Touch, or a Mac or even a PC web browser that you can sign into your iCloud account. An added benefit is the Activation Lock feature that ensures that no one else can use your phone in the event it is misplaced or lost. The feature cannot be turned off by anyone either as they must know your Apple ID and password to do so. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to setup Find my iPhone on iPhone 6 running iOS 8.1.
How to Setup Find my iPhone
Before we get started you must note that in order to use the Find My iPhone features, you must turn on Find My iPhone before the iPhone is lost. Also, you must also be able to connect to the Internet in order to locate and secure the lost device.
On your iPhone 6 go to Settings->Cloud->Find my iPhone and tap to turn on the feature.
To Use Find my iPhone on iCloud
When you sign in to iCloud, you can locate your iPhone on a map, play a sound on the device so you can hear it if it is nearby, use a lost mode to track the device or remotely erase all your personal information.
1. Sign in to iCloud using your Apple ID and password.
2. At the top of the screen, select your device. A device setting will pop up toward the left.
Play Sound
Tap the option to play a sound at full volume for two minutes. This will play even if your ringer tone is set to silent. After the sound plays a confirmation email is sent to your Apple ID email address.
Lost Mode
If you are unable to locate your device on the map, or by playing a sound, it is better to lock it. You can instantly lock your iPhone using the Lost Mode option. Tap it to reveal a passcode box. If you already set up a passcode, you can use it here to lock your phone. If you are asked to enter a passcode, you must use that same passcode to unlock the phone so make sure to remember the passcode. You can also enter a phone number where you can be reached in case the phone is found. That number will appear on the device’s locked screen. You can also enter a message stating that the phone is lost and how it can be returned. This message will also appear on the device’s lock screen. In the Lost Mode, your credit card settings are automatically suspended, if you are using Apple Pay.
Erase iPhone
The last Erase iPhone option lets you wipe out all the data on your device and restore it to its original factory settings. Your credit or debit card information used in Apple Pay will also be erased. If you erase your information and subsequently find it, you can restore the information using iTunes or iCloud Backup if the backup was enabled before you erased the data.
Finally, when you set up Find my iPhone, the Activation feature is automatically turned on. This makes it difficult for anyone to sell your lost iPhone.
On a side note, when you are giving away your iPhone that has activation lock turned on. You must erase all your data, restore it to factory settings, and turn off activation lock so that the new owner of the phone can use it, and apply the find my iPhone feature for himself. Just go to Settings-> General-> Reset-> Erase All Content and Settings for this.
Now that you know how to activate the feature, go ahead and setup Find my iPhone to protect your device.
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