How to Turn Off “Find My” On Your iPhone?

The Find My feature is extremely helpful in case of losing your device or being a victim of iPhone theft or simply just wondering where your phone is. It allows you to play a sound through the Find My app which helps you in locating your phone.

Why Do You Need to Turn Off “Find My” Feature? 

Sometimes you want to turn off the Find My feature, like if you are selling your iPhone, giving it away to someone, sending it for repair, or simply because you got a new iPhone and do not like the idea that someone can track you. Moreover, if you want to factory reset your iPhone, Apple requires that you turn off this feature beforehand. It is important to know that turning it off will not delete any of your data however, you do need to know your iCloud ID and password.

Whatever your reason may be for turning off this feature, we are going to help you through it. Here are four possible ways through which you can deactivate your Find My feature:

How to Turn Off Find My on an iPhone 

Turning off Find My using your iPhone is pretty simple. Just follow the steps below.

Step 1

On your homepage, go to Settings.

Step 2

Tap on your name/iCloud. 

Step 3

Once in your iCloud menu, tap on the “Find My” option, and in the next menu tap on the “Find my iPhone” option.

Step 4

In the next menu, turn off the “Find My iPhone” option (the switch will turn grey when it is off). You will be asked to enter your Apple ID’s password. Enter the password and your “Find My” option will be disabled.

How to Turn Off Find My through iCloud

As already mentioned, one of the key features of this app is to help locate your phone if lost or in case of theft. Therefore, Apple’s integration of Find My with iCloud helps the user to access the app remotely. This integration is also useful in case you have sold your iPhone without disabling this feature. In such a case, you can simply disable it through your iCloud. To do that, follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1

Log in to your iCloud account through iCloud.com. It is important to mention here that make sure to log in through some device already marked as a “trusted device” when you log in through your iCloud, otherwise, two-factor authentication will ask for OTP (One Time Password) sent to your iPhone. 

It is recommended to add at least one device as a “trusted device”, so you can access your iCloud even when you do not have your iPhone with you. Just select the “Trust” option on your first login after you have entered the OTP.

Step 2

Now click on the “Find iPhone” option in your iCloud. Here the browser might again ask for your iCloud password.

Step 3

Now you can see the location of your device on the map. In the center, click on “All Devices”, to see the list of all your devices. Select the device from which you want to turn off this feature. 

Now select the “Erase iPhone” option and in the pop-up window that follows, select “Erase”. Now the browser may again ask for your Apple ID’s password. 

Step 4

Now click “Remove Account”. 

Step 5

This will remove the activation lock and the other person can log in using their own Apple ID.

How to Turn Off Find My without Password

One of the key features of this app is to avoid theft. For this purpose, Apple made it impossible to disable the Find My option without Apple ID and password. And without disabling, you cannot factory reset your iPhone. 

People are often faced with this problem when they inherit an iPhone or purchase it secondhand, and it has the Find My feature enabled, but you do not have Apple ID’s password. 

You can adopt the following course of action in the mentioned scenarios:

●      Inherited iPhone: If you have inherited the iPhone of a deceased relative and have neither the passcode nor the Apple ID and password, then contacting Customer Service (0800 048 0408 in the UK, 1-800-275-2273 in the US) is the way to go. 

●       Second-hand purchase: In this case, your best bet is to contact the seller and ask them to disable the feature. They can easily disable this option remotely through iCloud as mentioned above and then you can log in using your own Apple ID. 

If you are in a situation where you do know the iPhone’s passcode, but you don’t know the Apple ID’s password, you can turn off this feature by changing the Apple ID’s passwords. Here is how you can do that:

What to do if you forget Apple ID’s passcode

Step 1

When you switch the “Find My iPhone” to off, the device asks for Apple ID’s password, tap the “Forgot Password?” option.               

Step 2

Now the user will be asked to enter the iPhone passcode used to unlock the iPhone. Once the passcode is entered, you will be asked to set a new password for the Apple ID.

Step 3

Now you can set a new password for Apple ID and this password can be used to turn off the Find My iPhone option. However, after changing the password, this feature will turn off automatically.          

How to Turn Off Find My without Phone

If there comes a time where you do not have your phone with you or you sent it for repairs to the Apple Store, and you want to disable the Find My feature. In such a scenario, you can disable your Find My by:

Method 1

Borrow an iPhone from someone and enter the Find My app using your own Apple ID and password. Now you can disable your Find My through the app.

Method 2

Use a desktop or laptop and using your iCloud ID to disable the Find My feature as already discussed above.

Conclusion

Apple’s Find My feature is one of the best ones in the market. It is foolproof and an extremely useful feature. However, there may be times when you do not require it and we have provided you with the perfect guide for turning it off.

Check out our blog, to know more related to various iPhone features.