Hello All, In an effort to reduce confusion, I am pasting in two very useful articles on Find My iPhone and how it works.
The first article is entitled: "The Difference Between The Find My iPHone App and the Find My iPhone Service". The second article is entitled: "Tips to Track Your iPhone If It Is Lost or Stolen". You will find the links to the original articles at the bottom of the text. In short, however, one does not need to have the Find My iPHone app running in the App Switcher in order to track a lost or stolen device. The app is only to assist in tracking other devices. So, just make certain the Find My iPhone service is configured in the devices Settings area and you will be good to go. Mark The Difference Between The Find My iPHone App and the Find My iPhone Service In our How To Track Your iPhone page we explain how to configure your iCloud account and iPhone or iPad to use the Find My iPhone service to track your device. The biggest question and source of confusion for many users is what is the difference between the Find My iPhone configuration and the Find My iPhone App? This page will explain the difference between the Find My iPhone App and the "Configuration" Find My iPhone - THE SERVICE Find My iPhone is an iCloud service offered by Apple to help locate your iPhone or iPad (and now even your Mac!) should you misplace it. In order to use the Find My iPhone service, you must configure/set it up on your device. Once configured you can then use a PC, Mac or another iPhone to track and locate the device. To Configure Find My iPhone you must go into your iPhone settings and enter your iCloud username and password, then make sure that Find My iPhone is enabled: Now that Find My iPhone is enabled, the iPhone or iPad is trackable via the iCloud Web page or via the Find My iPhone App on another device. It is important to note that you must configure the iCloud Find My iPhone service BEFORE you lose your device or before it gets stolen. There is no way to remotely configure Find My iPhone after your iPhone is gone! Find My iPhone - The APP The Find My iPhone App is a free iPhone and iPad app from Apple that allows you to track and locate a device that has been configured to use the Find My iPhone service: If you misplace your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, the Find My iPhone app will let you use another iOS device to find it and protect your data. Simply install this free app on another iOS device, open it, and sign in with your Apple ID. Find My iPhone will help you locate your missing device on a map. As you can see from Apple's description of the app above, the Find My iPhone App is used to locate another device - it is important to note that installing Find My iPhone (the App) on your phone or iPad DOES NOT MAKE IT TRACKABLE - Installing the Find My iPhone App only allows you to track another device that has been pre-configured with the Find My iPhone service as mentioned above, and on this page: Track your iPhone Summary: .The Find My iPhone service must be configured on your device BEFORE it can be tracked .The Find My iPhone App is used to track another device - and does not in itself make a device trackable .The Find My iPhone service is intended to help locate a misplaced device, not to track and confront thieves - leave that to the professionals! Tips to Track Your iPhone If It Is Lost or Stolen: Apple's Find My iPhone service is a free service available to all iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad owners that can help you find your iDevice if it gets lost or stolen. Find My iPhone uses WiFi triangulation and/or real-GPS tracking to locate your device and display it's location on the Me.com website or from another iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch using the Find My iPhone App. We have several posts and pages here at GrownUpGeek.com regarding how to track in iPhone and difference between the Find my iPhone App and the Find my iPhone service, but we still get questions about the specifics of finding a stolen iPhone, what Find My iPhone can or cannot do, etc, so this page will provide some quick and easy answers to those common questions. Although the term iPhone is used, most answers also apply to the iPad and iPod Touch. Q: What is required for Find My iPhone to track or find my iPhone? A: You must have previously configured the Find My iPhone service, Location Services must be enabled for Find My iPhone, the iPhone must be powered-on, the iPhone must be able to aquire a GPS signal OR location triangulation via cell-towers or WiFi, and the iPhone must be in a 3G service area or be connected to WiFi. Q: My iPhone was lost (or stolen) but I never setup an iCloud account or Find My iPhone - can I still track the location of my iPhone? A: NO - Find my iPhone must be configured BEFORE your iPhone or device gets lost or stolen Q: My iPhone was lost (or stolen) but location services was turned off - can I track my iPhone or enable location services remotely? A: YES - Only if your phone has iOS 8 and Find My iPhone was setup, you can log-in to www.iCloud.com and use Find My iPhone to enable "lost mode" which will turn-on Location Services. However, Location Services cannot be turned-off in iOS 8 without your icloud password, so if the theif was able to turn off Location Services he has probably already locked you out of your iCloud account, or removed your phone from your account. Q: My iPhone was lost (or stolen) but I never setup an iCloud account or Find My iPhone - can I remotely activate tracking? A: NO - Find My iPhone must be configured before your iPhone becomes lost or stolen Q: If my iPhone is stolen and the thief disables Find My iPhone or erases/restores/wipes the iPhone, can it still be tracked? A: NO - Once the Find My iPhone service or Location Services is disabled or if the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad is erased, it is no longer trackable by you using Find My iPhone Q: If the theif removes the SIM card, can my iPhone still be tracked? A: YES - If the iPhone is able to connect to Wifi, even without a SIM card, iCloud can still locate it. Q: If the battery dies on my lost or stolen iPhone or if the dirty-thief turns the iPhone off, can the iPhone still be located or tracked? A: NO - The iPhone must be powered-on to be tracked Q: If I did not setup Find My iPhone or if the thief disabled it, can the police/my provider still track my iPhone? A: YES - The police and/or the telephone service provider (AT&T, Verizon, etc) can locate a phone (or, a 3G enabled iPad, not an iPod Touch) in emergency situations (they use their own services/systems, not Find My iPhone). Key word of that sentence is "emergency situation". Q: I installed the Find My iPhone App on my iPhone so I can track it now right? A: NO! Tracking or locating an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch is done via the Find My iPhone service, not the Find My iPhone App. See this page to understand the differences: Find My iPhone App vs Service Q: My iPhone was lost or stolen and when I track it with Find My iPhone it says 'offline' - Why? A: The phone might be turned off, out of range of WiFi or 3G service, Find My iPhone or Location Services may have been disabled on the phone or the phone could have been wiped/erased/restored Q: Can I use the Find My iPhone service to track other phones or devices that aren't iPhones? A: Find My iPhone can be used to track iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, iMacs, and MacBooks with OS X Lion or Mountain Lion Q: Does Find My iPhone display the history of the locations or track everywhere the iPhone has been? A: Find My iPhone only displays the current location of the device by default. If you put the phone in "lost mode" if it becomes lost or stolen, you will then be able to view the history of the phone's location. Q: Will the person/theif with the iphone be notified when I track the phone? A: If enabled, location services may display a tiny indicator near the clock. The person can then look at the location settings screen and it will notify them if they are currently being located, or if they have been located within the previous 24 hours Q: How accurate is the location tracking of Find My iPhone? A: Find My iPhone accuracy ranges from a few feet to a few miles. The size of the 'blue location circle' indicates the accuracy. A small pinpoint circle indicates more accuracy, a larger circle indicates less accuracy Q: Can I put Find My iPhone on my first Gen iPhone, my iPhone 3 or iPhone 3G? A: NO - Find my iPhone only works on iPhone 3GS or newer (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 4S+), Newer iPod touches, all iPads, and iMacs/Macbooks running OS X Lion or newer Q: Someone stole my iPhone. Find My iPhone is showing me where the phone is, should I barge in and take back my phone? A: NO! Seriously?! Find my iPhone is intended to help you locate a LOST phone i.e.; if you left it at a restaurant. Because the accuracy of Find My iPhone is not perfect, if you try confront a thief you run the risk of breaking down the wrong door, getting your ass-kicked or worse, a knife to the spleen or a bullet to the face. Use some common sense and leave confronting criminals to the professionals. http://www.grownupgeek.com/what-is-difference-between-find-my-iphone-app http://www.grownupgeek.com/track-your-iphone-if-it-is-lost -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. 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