We all tend to forget where we put our phones, and then it becomes a hassle to search for it throughout the place which isn’t always fruitful. Moreover, it is also possible that the phone might have gotten stolen in the first place, that’s why you weren’t able to find it. Therefore, in both the situations, there is a handy feature for both iOS and Android devices which allows you to literally “find” your device.

In case of theft, you can easily erase your phone remotely. You can also setup a note for whoever finds your device to make it possible to return it to you. The reason where you lost the device while it was on mute, you can make it ring loud for you to be able to find it too.

Find My iPhone

For this, you must have had an iCloud account on which Find My iPhone was already setup or turned on. If you had turned off Find My iPhone in iCloud settings then you are out of luck.

If Find My iPhone was turned on, then there are two ways to trace it. Either you can trace it on the web, or through the Find My iPhone app on another Apple device. The way for doing so is similar on the app as well.

1. First of all, you would need to login into iCloud of course. You can do this by going to iCloud.com. You should login with the iCloud credentials which were used on the lost/stolen device while setting up Find My iPhone.

2. Now a new page would load, where it will display an icon like a radar and it would read Find iPhone. Just click on it, and then it would try to locate all the Apple devices on your iCloud ID, on which Find My iPhone was already setup.

3. In case you had setup Find My iPhone on multiple devices, you would need to choose the lost device, from a list of options by clicking on All Devices, at the top of your screen.

4. If it was possible for this service to locate your iPhone it would zoom in on the device’s location. You can then view the location on standard, satellite or hybrid modes, whichever suits you most. The webpage would also display the amount of battery left, along with a couple of other options.

5. You should first try with the Play Sound option to see, if the device was lost nearby you. It can also help in the case if someone is lying about having your device, since the device would ring up loud then.

6. If after much tries, in every room of your place, you still can’t find it, then it’s probably best to erase the phone or putting it on lost mode. If you click on Lost mode, the screen will be locked remotely and there would be an option of setting up a passcode as well if you didn’t already have one. You will be given an option to display a message on the lost phone if you want to or contact details as well.

7. If there is no hope of getting the device back, you just erase your iPhone remotely. Just click on Erase button, and then follow through with the warning. Now your phone shall be erased completely with no way of getting the data back. In case you are lucky to have found your device and you had already erased it, you can restore your device from a backup.