Khaberni - Losing or having your iPhone stolen can turn into a real nightmare, but the surprise is that turning off the phone is no longer an effective way to hide its trace thanks to Apple's "Find My Network," which allows you to locate the phone "even if it is completely shut down," by using nearby Apple devices to send its encrypted location to "iCloud" secretly.
This feature has been available since the "iPhone 11" series and later, provided it is activated beforehand, whether the battery is drained or the phone is deliberately turned off, as there is still an opportunity to recover it.
According to "Thomas Guide," the following steps can be taken to find the phone:
1- Activate the "Find My Device" feature
To ensure the ability to track your iPhone when it is off, open settings, go to your profile, head to "Find My iPhone," and enable the following options: "Find My iPhone," "Find My network," and "Send Last Location."
To ensure the readiness of your phone, press and hold the power button until the message "iPhone can be found after power off" appears, which means the phone can still be tracked even after it is powered off.
2- Use another Apple device to locate your phone
If you lost your phone and own another Apple device like an "iPad," "Mac," or "Apple Watch," you can open the "Find My Device" app and move to the "Devices" tab, where your device's location will appear even if it is completely shut down.
If you think it is nearby, use the "Play Sound" option to make the phone emit a loud chime even if it is on silent mode.
3- What to do if you think your phone was stolen?
In cases of theft, activate the "Mark As Lost" option to lock the device immediately with a passcode, disable "Apple Pay," and display a message containing a way to contact you.
You can also use the "Directions" option to move to the last known location of the phone.
4- Track your phone from any web browser
Even if you do not own another Apple device, you can still track your phone by visiting: "iCloud.com/find".
After that, you can log in with your "Apple ID," open the "Devices" menu, select "iPhone" to display its location on the map, and play sound or mark as lost or erase content remotely.
5- How to prevent thieves from disabling tracking?
One common loophole is that thieves might access the control center from the lock screen to enable airplane mode or disable the network. To prevent this: go to settings, use "Face ID and Passcode," enter your passcode, then disable the "Control Center" option under "Allow Access When Locked" which is very useful during travel or in places where the likelihood of theft is higher.
