📍 The “Find My” is a very useful feature designed to help you locate your Apple devices. Previously known as “Find my iPhone”, it was renamed with the release of iOS 13, since it now works with your iPad, AirPod, Apple Watch, and MacBook.
You can use “Find My iPhone” from computer or any other Apple device, simply log in with your Apple ID to iCloud and you will be able to find all of your Apple products on a map. Devices that have their “Find My iPhone” turned ON and are linked to your Apple ID will show up as a green dot, devices that are currently offline will show a grey dot for the last known location. Tap on the name of each device to play a sound, put your device into lost mode, or erase your device.
Pretty neat, isn’t it? So how does this work?
If your device got misplaced, forgotten, or, god forbid, stolen, log in to your iCloud account and click “Find My” tab. You will see a screen that looks like this:
To see your device on the map, click “Lost mode”. If you do not have a passcode set up, you will be asked to come up with one.
⚠ DO NOT LOSE this passcode, you will need it to turn off the “Lost mode” on the device. You will also be prompted to include your contact phone number and a message that would appear on the lost phone:
This is how your device will look like on the map:
Here is a very useful User guide by Apple that would guide you through the whole process.
🔹 To reset or restore your device, to bring it to out-of-the-box condition.
🔹 When bringing it for service to Apple store technicians.
🔹 Before you sell it ot give it away.
The reason behind turning off “Find My iPhone” tool is a feature called Activation Lock. Its purpose is to prevent a potential thief from reseting the stolen device to factory settings and being able to use it. The phone will not accept another Apple ID, except for the old one. Activation Lock is enabled automatically when you turn on “Find My iPhone”.
Before restoring a backup or selling your device to someone, you’ll need to disable Activation Lock by turning off Find My iPhone.
There are two ways to turn off Find My iPhone:
📱 From your device:
💻 From your computer
How to Turn OFF Find My iPhone
📎 iOS 13, 14 and 15
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On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, go to Settings > tap on Your Name.
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Click on “Find My”, then click on “Find my iPhone”.
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Disable “Find My” by sliding the switch to the left.
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Once prompted, enter your iCloud password and tap “Turn Off”.
Disable Find My iPhone
📎 iOS 12 and earlier versions
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On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, navigate to Settings > tap on Your Name > iCloud and look for “Find My iPhone” at the bottom.
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Disable “Find My iPhone” by sliding the switch to the left.
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Once prompted, enter your iCloud password and tap “Turn Off”.
Disable Find my iPhone from computer
- Log-in to your iCloud account.
- Go to Account Settings.
- Go to My Devices and remove the device from the list by clicking a blue cross icon, like so:
Now this device is no longer associated with your Apple ID and can be used by someone else. It is also ready to be restored. Check out the best Backup and Restore options below. 👇
Best Backup and Restore Options
💾 CopyTrans Shelbee
To restore your device from a backup disabling “Find My” is also required.
Here at CopyTrans we have designed our own Backup and Restore app, we called it CopyTrans Shelbee. It is a versatile multi-tool, capable of:
🔹 Restoring only selected data, including Apps, Contacts, SMS Messages, Calendars, Settings, Passwords and much more.
🔹 Choosing any folder to store your backup.
🔹 Validating integrity of the backup file after each backup.
🔹 Restoring data from a corrupted iTunes backup.
Here is a taster screenshot for you:
💡 Check us out here:
⚡ User guides for CopyTrans Shelbee
⚡ How to restore iPhone without iTunes?
⚡ What’s happening during Custom restore in CopyTrans Shelbee?
⚡ What does CopyTrans Shelbee backup include?
💾 CopyTrans Backup Extractor
Backups are always saved as a bunch of code, they only start making sense when restored back to the device. Ever wondered if it is possible to export your selected data from an old backup directly to your PC? Let’s say you needed your old WhatsApp conversation for some reason, and it is stored in an old backup.
With CopyTrans Backup Extractor you can get it in .PDF format in a couple of clicks without restoring to the device. We can also extract Photos, Messages, Contacts, Calendars, and Notes.
Download CopyTrans Backup Extractor
💡 Check us out here:
⚡ User guides for CopyTrans Backup Extractor
⚡ How to restore WhatsApp messages from iPhone
⚡ How to recover permanently deleted photos from iCloud
⚡ How to recover photos from a broken iPhone?