How to Find a Lost iPhone: A Comprehensive Guide to Apple’s GPS Tracking Feature

Few things jolt the heart quite like patting your pockets where your phone should be and finding nothing but your thigh. If you’ve been out, the natural response is to retrace your footsteps in the hope that a kind stranger kept your device safe, anticipating your return, or better still, you’ll find it lying on a tabletop somewhere. The good news is that the good people at Apple anticipated such situations and provided a handy way to locate your lost device. For good measure, we will also explore an alternative online GPS phone tracker suitable for when you want to pinpoint a device’s exact location.

Find My iPhone Demystified

If you lose an iPhone, any other iOS device, or an item with an AirTag attached, you can use Apple’s proprietary Find My service to locate it, mark it as lost, or wipe any sensitive data on the device. Interestingly, if you’re nearby, you can even use this service to play a sound on your device or get help locating its exact whereabouts.

Here’s how to track your lost device using the Find My service:

1. Open the Find My app on any Apple device you own.
2. Select Devices or Items.
3. Click on the device you’ve misplaced to bring up its location on a map. Interestingly, if you’ve turned on Family Sharing, you can also see the location of your family members’ devices and other shared items.
4. Select Directions if you wish to see its location on Maps.
5. If the device is close by, choose Play Sound.
6. If your device has the Ultra Wideband feature, you can choose Find Nearby to show the distance and direction to your AirTagged item, pair of AirPods, or any other Apple device.

Meanwhile, as you look for your device, you can mark it as lost to help keep your data safe. Doing this locks your device with a passcode or your iCloud password. What’s more, you can display a message to let someone know how to get in touch with you if they find your device. Here’s how to mark your device as lost on the Find My app:

1. On the Find My app, click on your missing device.
2. Navigate to Mark as Lost/Lost Mode, and choose Activate/Enable.
3. Follow the prompts if you wish to display your contact information on the lost device.
4. Proceed to Activate.

How to Find a Lost Device Without an iPhone or Other Apple Device

If you have no access to an iPhone or other iOS device, you may find it difficult to access the proprietary Find My app that comes preinstalled in most Apple devices. Fortunately, there are a couple of workarounds that can help you locate your lost device nonetheless. These are:

1. Use iCloud’s Find Devices feature.
2. Employ third-party apps.

Let’s explore each of these options.

Using iCloud’s Find Devices

You can access Find My’s features by visiting iCloud.com/find. Here, you’ll be prompted to sign in using your Apple ID and password and may be asked to enter a verification code sent to a trusted device. If your only trusted device was the lost one, you can select the Find Devices option instead of entering a code.

However, this iCloud offering does not work if your device has been switched off, the battery died, or if it’s been more than 24 hours since its last location was sent to Apple.

Notably, if your device has been permanently lost, you can erase it on Find My or on iCloud. If the device was running iOS 15 or later, you can still use Find My to find the device after erasing it. Otherwise, you won’t be able to track your device after performing the erase.

Using Third-Party Apps

There are numerous tracking apps in the market that work with Android as well as iOS devices. These apps can come in handy when you’ve lost your phone or simply wish to track someone else’s iPhone, be they a child or a loved one. To help separate the wheat from the chaff, here are the top choices for third-party iPhone tracking apps:

GEOfinder.mobi

GEOfinder is an intuitive cell phone tracker that can locate any phone number on a map, regardless of the carrier provider. It works completely anonymously, which bodes well for parents who wish to stay aware of their kids’ whereabouts without raising suspicion. What’s more, it does not need any software installation, which positions it as suitable for persons of all tech proficiency levels. Luckily, it comes with a free trial that can be rolled into by contacting the customer support team.

Here’s how GEOfinder works:

1. You draft a message to send to your target. GEOfinder will embed a special tracking link to send along with your message.
2. The recipient receives it and clicks on the link.
3. You’ll receive the person’s location on a map in your user space.

uMobix

uMobix is a robust cell phone monitoring tool that boasts a variety of powerful features. With it, you can monitor your target device’s location in real-time, and even see a list of its previous locations. What’s more, you can monitor all incoming and outgoing calls, complete with caller information, duration, and timestamps. uMobix also allows you to read messages and other interactions on all popular social media and messaging apps. This positions it as a must-have tool for anyone looking to keep tabs on their child (or spouse if they suspect foul play).

Here’s how to use this cell phone tracker:

1. Visit the uMobix site and choose your preferred subscription plan. Complete the purchase, and you’ll receive detailed instructions in your email.
2. Enter the iCloud credentials of the device you wish to track.
3. In a few minutes, the location data and usage statistics of your target device will start streaming into your user account.

Conclusion

Losing your phone can be quite unsettling, especially if you have sensitive information on there, which is the case more often than not. Fortunately, iPhone manufacturers include a Find My feature with every iPhone that helps you locate it if you’ve misplaced it. However, you’ll need access to another iPhone or Apple device to utilize this feature. Alternatively, you could visit the iCloud website to utilize the Find Device feature. A third option is to use third-party apps with which you can gather much more than just the location of your target device. In this regard, you can never go wrong with GEOfinder if it is only location data you seek or uMobix for more advanced monitoring features.