Well, one of the biggest curses in today’s smartphone-centric world is when your iPhone is stolen or lost. Aside from the hefty price tag that the iPhones come with, there’s a massive number of critical data at the risk of getting into the wrong hands or, unfortunately, just lost forever. Thus, it is wise to keep some apps handy to help you in the unfortunate or terrible event of a lost iPhone.
So in this article, I will introduce 5 of the best apps to track & recover your iPhone if it gets lost or stolen. I will start this list with iOS native apps and proceed with third-party apps by other developers. Let’s get started.
1. Find My iPhone
Find My iPhone, the best Apple app that helps find lost, stolen, or misplaced iPhones & iPads. It displays the missing device’s location on a visual map based on your device’s last known location. I liked the most its “Lost Mode,” which locks down the device & displays a custom message.
Moreover, like Google’s Find Device for Android, it packs ample options than just finding your device. You can play a sound, display a custom message, lock down your device, get driving directions to the device, view recent location history, and remotely wipe the complete device.
Please follow these simple steps to activate Find My Phone on your device:
1. Firstly, launch the Settings app and tap on your Apple ID at the top.
2. Click iCloud and look for Find My Phone and click its switch to allow it.
You can follow the given easy steps to find your lost device by using Find My iPhone:
1. Just open iCloud in a browser and sign in to your account.
2. Tap on “Find iPhone,” then provide your Apple ID details if required.
3. Tap on “All Devices” and tap the name of the device you want to track.
4. It’ll show your device on the map that you can even zoom in and out.
5. You’ll also see the options “Play Sound,” “Lost Mode,” and “Erase iPhone,” you can tap on each to do its specified action.
2. Find My Friends
Find My Friends is another top app from Apple that allows you to find your buddies and family members. It enables you to locate your stolen or lost device using a simple trick. The best trick is to ask one of your buddies or family members to track your iPhone to find its location by using their device.
Its features include following your friend’s location, sharing your location, and hiding your location with just a single switch. You can even set up location-based alerts to notify you about your contacts’ locations & vice versa.
It would help if you did the following steps to set up Find My Friends on a device:
1. Firstly, open the app on your iOS device and tap “Add Friends.”
2. Choose one or more contact(s) from the list and click Send.
3. In the time option, choose “Share Indefinitely” to never stop sharing.
4. Now ask your contacts to accept your location sharing request.
5. Afterward, toggle on “Share My Location” to activate sharing your location.
Once you need to find your device, you can follow the below easy steps:
1. At first, open “Find My Friends” in one of your contacts’ iPad or iPhone.
2. You can also check your device’s location on the given map.
3. Prey Anti-Theft
Prey Anti-Theft is the best third-party app built to help you in finding your lost or stolen device. It makes it incredibly effortless to find a missing device, whether it is your iPad, iPhone, or MacBook. You can connect & see all your devices in its single interface for a comfortable experience.
Furthermore, Prey Anti-Theft includes superior features than Apple’s Find My iPhone & Google’s Find Device for Android.
For instance, it can take a picture of the person holding your device, alert once the device enters or leaves an area, disguise itself to encourage the thief to interact and get caught, etc.
Please follow the given steps to secure your device by using Prey Anti-Theft:
1. Just install the app on your device, then open it.
2. Now follow the on-screen instructions to set it up on your device.
To find your device by using Prey Anti-Theft, follow the given easy steps:
1. Open Preyproject in a browser and log-in to your account by using your account credentials.
2. Among the list of devices, tap the device that you wish to locate.
3. Now toggle on the option named Missing for receiving reports in your inbox.
4. You’ll also see other options to gather info or perform actions on your device. For instance, you can enable them to collect geo and network info, lock your device, trigger an alarm or alert, or secure-erase it entirely.
4. FoneHome
FoneHome is another best third-party app that makes it very simple to retrieve a stolen iPhone or iPad using its many features. Additionally, you can track unlimited devices using one account. Furthermore, I found it better than Find My iPhone in the feature of storing 100 last locations, meaning that you get a comprehensive location history of your device.
I’m a fan of its “lost mode,” which offers high-accuracy location updates of your device once every minute. Besides, it can snap a photo of the thief & play a loud siren as well.
To set up FoneHome on your iPad or iPhone, follow these below steps:
1. At first, set up an account on the device you need to secure early.
2. Afterward, allow FoneHome to access your front-facing camera on your mobile, use your location in the background, & send you notifications.
If your device is misplaced, you can follow the given mentioned steps:
1. Go to My Fone Home and log-in to your account.
2. Choose the device you want to track, and you’ll see its location on the map.
3. Along with the map, you’ll see various options near the upper-top corner, which you can use to perform additional actions such as sending a push message, sound the siren, activating the lost mode, view the device’s location history, etc.
5. Device Locator
Device Locator assists to know your family or friends’ location and find your lost device. Additionally, like FoneHome, it allows tracking an unlimited number of devices from a single account.
Moreover, it can make your device sound an alarm, send a message to your device, request a location update, showing its location on a map, and collect location info on every switch of network towers. However, its feature set is enough; I found it misses few excellent features offered by FoneHome & Prey Anti-Theft.
To set up and use Device Locator, you must do the following given steps:
1. Install this app on your mobile and all the phones you want to track.
2. Sign in with your account (or create one if you don’t have one) on those devices.
3. Now add locations in the Places tab that you or your family members visit, like home, work, so that the app can easily mark that they are there.
Whenever you required to find a lost or stolen iPhone or iPad, you can do the following simple steps:
1. Using a different iOS device, open the app, then log-in to your account.
2. You can easily find your device’s location by checking it in the Devices tab or watch its complete history under the tab named “location History” in the app.