How to ‘Find My iPhone’ when power is off or phone is stolen

Find My Phone is one of the security tools that has been quietly installed within the iPhone and this device has proven to be one of the most effective when it comes to lost or stolen devices. Any iPhone of the 11 family or later has specific low-power hardware which is capable of continuing to send small encrypted Bluetooth signals even when the phone is switched off or battery is dead. The nearby Apple products pick them up and send them anonymously to iCloud such that your iPhone can be visible in the Find My app many hours after being turned off, which increases your real possibility of retrieving it.

How does Find My iPhone after power off works

When you switch off a supported iPhone, nearly all the features in the phone switch off, but the Bluetooth chip remains in an ultra-low power state and pings secure location beacons. Passing Apple devices (iPhones, iPads or Macs) pick up these beacons and relay an encrypted positioning update to Apple servers without knowing your identity or that of the helper device. Find My network will continue to locate your iPhone as long as it is active ( Find My support: Find My iPhone ) and you have about 24 hours until your phone is turned off or until your battery runs dry.

How to check and enable the Find My iPhone feature

• In order to enable Find My iPhone, you should have Find My installed in advance on your iPhone.

• Open Settings - touch your Apple ID - Find My - Find My iPhone.

• Make sure that Find My iPhone, Find My network and Send Last Location are enabled.

• Under these circumstances, when you turn it on, you will see the message iPhones findable after power off on the power screen when you press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons so you know that low-power tracking has been turned on.

• Unless this message appears on an iPhone 11 or later, then the Find My network is probably switched off or the device is not signed in to an Apple ID.

What to do if your iPhone goes missing

In case of phone loss, you can also use a different Apple phone to access the Find My application, select the Devices tab, and pick your iPhone to view its last known position on a map. In the case the phone is not far, the Play Sound feature can be used to have a loud alarm even when the phone was turned off, which makes it easy to locate it in a bedroom, car, or wallet. In case of theft, you may turn on the Lost Mode and lock the iPhone using a passcode, disable Apple Pay, and display the custom message and a contact number on the lock screen but still locate it. You can also use iCloud.com/find in any browser without another Apple device to view the same map, Lost Mode, and remote erase features, but with a two-factor authentication, an additional step is required.

Find My iPhone: Blocking airplane mode from the lock screen

Control Centre on the lock screen is one of the loopholes that thieves may use as it allows anybody to switch Airplane Mode on and temporarily disable network-based tracking. In order to complicate it, go to Settings - Face ID and Passcode and under Allow Access When Locked, disable Control Centre because this way it can no longer be opened without unlocking the phone. This will require any iPhone user to swipe Face ID or your passcode before disabling connectivity, offering a more favourable chance to Find My and the Find My turned off tracking feature continue to store your device position when they report its location.

Disclaimer: The information regarding the gadgets/devices listed in the table and article has been sourced from various secondary sources. For detailed product specifications, please refer to the brand sources.