Apple’s Find My is a built-in service for locating Apple devices, AirTags, and compatible third-party items. It can also help you share your location with friends and family members who choose to share theirs with you.
The Find My app brings these features together in one place. You can use it to locate a device or item, play a sound, get directions, mark something as lost, erase a supported device, or see the location of people who share it with you.
What Can You Find With Apple’s Find My?
Find My has three main sections: People, Devices, and Items.
Devices includes supported Apple products associated with your Apple Account, such as an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Items includes AirTags and compatible third-party accessories. People shows contacts who have chosen to share their location with you.
The available options depend on the product. A lost iPhone can be marked as lost or erased remotely, while an AirTag can play a sound or provide directions when supported.
How Does Apple’s Find My Work?
Find My determines a device or item’s location using different technologies depending on what is available.
A connected device can report its location using GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular networks, or other positioning technologies. Supported products can also be located when they are offline through the Find My network.
The Find My network is one part of the overall service. It allows supported devices and items to use nearby Apple devices to relay an approximate location when they cannot connect to the internet directly.
Find My Devices, Items and People
The three sections of Find My serve different purposes.
- Devices is for finding your Apple hardware. It can show a device’s location and provide actions such as playing a sound, getting directions, marking it as lost, or erasing it.
- Items is for AirTags and compatible accessories. You can use it to locate belongings such as keys, bags, or luggage.
- People is for location sharing. It shows the location of people who have voluntarily shared it with you and lets you manage your own location-sharing settings.
How To Find a Lost iPhone, iPad or Mac
Open the Find My app on another Apple device and select the Devices tab. Choose the missing device to see its location if one is available.
If the device is nearby, select the option to play a sound. If it is somewhere else, you can use the map and directions to help locate it.
Depending on the device and its status, you can also activate Lost Mode or erase it remotely.
How To Find a Lost Apple Watch
An Apple Watch associated with your Apple Account appears in the Devices section of Find My.
Select the watch to see its available location information. If it is nearby, you can play a sound to help locate it. If you cannot recover it immediately, you can use the available Find My options to help protect it.
The available actions depend on the watch’s connection and current status.
How To Find AirPods
AirPods appear in the Devices section of Find My after they are associated with your Apple Account.
Select your AirPods to see their available location information. Depending on the model and connection status, you may be able to play a sound or receive directions to their location.
Newer AirPods models support additional finding capabilities, but the exact options vary by model.
How To Find an AirTag or Other Item
AirTags appear in the Items section of Find My after they have been added to your account.
Select an AirTag to see its reported location. If it is nearby and the required features are supported, you can play a sound to help find it or use Precision Finding for more detailed guidance.
Compatible third-party Find My accessories can also appear in this section, although their available features depend on the accessory.
What Is Lost Mode?
Lost Mode is designed for supported devices and items that you cannot find.
For a lost iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch, Lost Mode can lock the device and display a message with contact information. This can help someone who finds it return the device without giving them access to your personal information.
For supported items, Lost Mode can provide information that may help the finder contact the owner.
You can turn off Lost Mode after recovering the device or item.
Can Find My Locate an Offline Device?
Yes, if the device supports offline finding.
When a compatible device is not connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data, it can use Bluetooth to transmit a secure signal. Nearby Apple devices can detect that signal and anonymously relay an approximate location to the Find My service.
The device doing the detecting does not need to know who owns the missing product. The process is designed to protect the privacy of both the owner and the device providing the location relay.
Not every Apple product has the same offline-finding capabilities, so support depends on the model.
Can Find My Locate a Turned-Off iPhone?
Some newer Apple devices can remain discoverable through Find My for a period after being powered off or when their battery is critically low.
This works through specialized hardware that can continue transmitting a limited Bluetooth signal after normal operation has stopped.
The feature is not available on every Apple device, so a powered-off iPhone cannot always be located through Find My.
What Is Precision Finding?
Precision Finding provides more detailed guidance when you are searching for a nearby compatible item.
Instead of showing only a location on a map, a compatible iPhone can provide directional and distance information when searching for supported AirTags and other compatible products.
Precision Finding requires compatible hardware on both the device and the item, so it is not available for every product that works with Find My.
How To Share Your Location With People
Find My can also be used to share your location with friends and family.
Open Find My, select the People tab, then choose the option to share your location. You can select a contact and specify how long you want to share it, depending on the available options.
People can stop sharing their location at any time. Likewise, you can manage or stop your own location sharing through the Find My app.
How To Add an AirTag or Compatible Item
To add an AirTag, open the Find My app and go to the Items tab.
Follow the onscreen instructions to add the AirTag to your Apple Account. Once configured, it appears in Find My alongside your other tracked items.
Compatible third-party accessories use their own setup process before appearing in Find My. Their exact capabilities can vary by manufacturer.
Can You Erase a Device With Find My?
Find My can remotely erase supported Apple devices when you believe you will not recover them or need to protect the information stored on them.
Remote erasure removes personal content and settings from the device. Because this action is permanent, it should generally be considered after other recovery options have been exhausted.
Erasing a device does not necessarily remove Activation Lock. The security feature can continue preventing another person from activating a supported device without the associated Apple Account credentials.
What Happens When You Remove a Device From Find My?
Removing a device from Find My is different from simply deleting it from the list.
Activation Lock is tied to Find My on supported Apple devices. It is designed to prevent someone else from activating a lost or stolen device using their own Apple Account.
If you are selling or giving away an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch, you should properly sign out and remove the device from your Apple Account as part of the handover process. Otherwise, the next owner may encounter Activation Lock.
What If Find My Shows No Location?
Find My may show no location when a device or item has not been able to report its position.
It could be powered off, out of range, disconnected, or have a depleted battery. A product may also lack the hardware needed for offline finding.
When a current location is unavailable, Find My may instead display the last known location if one was recorded. The time associated with that location is important because it tells you how recently the product was detected.
You can still use available options such as Lost Mode, and the location may update if the device or item becomes detectable again.
How Accurate Is Find My?
Find My accuracy depends on how the location was determined and the surrounding environment.
GPS can provide a relatively precise position outdoors, while Wi-Fi and cellular positioning can be less precise. Buildings and other physical obstacles can also affect accuracy.
Precision Finding can provide more detailed distance and directional information for supported nearby items.
A location shown on the map should therefore be treated as an estimate unless Find My provides more precise guidance.
How To Turn On Find My
Find My should be enabled before a device is lost.
On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap your name, select Find My, then choose Find My iPhone or Find My iPad and turn it on.
On a Mac, open Apple menu > System Settings, select your name, then iCloud > Find My Mac and enable the feature.
You should also check the additional Find My settings available on your device, including options related to offline finding where supported.
Find My vs. Find My Network
Find My is the complete Apple service for locating devices, items, and people. It also includes features such as Lost Mode, remote erasure, location sharing, and Precision Finding.
The Find My network is one component of that service. It helps supported devices and items report their approximate location when they are offline by using nearby Apple devices.
If you want to understand how the offline location system works in detail, see our separate guide to the Find My network.
