How To Find Your Stolen iPhone

How To Find Your Stolen iPhone

If you have lost your iPhone, you have most likely lost a very intimate and important part of your life. You can report the theft to the police, but you have the same ability to track and find your stolen iPhone, as the police or anybody else. You might need the aid of the police in recovering your iPhone, if the circumstances warrant it, but the police most likely have better things to do than chase down everyone’s stolen iPhones.

Most iPhones have a GPS Built into Them

Lucky for you, iPhones as of the 3rd generation have a GPS built into them. If your iPhone is old enough to not have a GPS built into it, consider it a blessing that it was stolen. MobileMe has a “Find My iPhone” feature that allows anyone with an Apple ID to find their iPhone. MobileMe will connect with your iPhone’s GPS to exactly pinpoint your iPhone’s location.

Using MobileMe

1. Setup a Find My iPhone account and sign in.
2. On a computer, go to me.com, or on an iOS device download the Find My iPhone app.
3. Once logged in, you will be able to view a list of all your traceable devices.
4. Click on your iPhone to find its location.
5. The Find My iPhone map will then show you the exact location of your iPhone.

Once you have located your iPhone, the app allows you to click on a blue dot to send a message to your iPhone. You can also force your iPhone to beep loudly. This is useful, if you feel your phone is simply lost somewhere. Perhaps the most important thing you can do with the Find My iPhone app is remotely lock your phone. In a worst case scenario, you can also use the Wipe feature to completely clean your iPhone of all your personal information remotely.

Through the use of the Find My iPhone app and your iPhone’s built-in GPS, it is easy to find your stolen iPhone. Recovering the phone may be a completely different story.