How to Stop Thieves From Disabling the 'Find My iPhone' App (2024)

Mobile Phones > iPhone & iOS

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The Find My iPhone app is a great tool for locating a lost or stolen iPhone, but thieves and hackers can undermine its effectiveness by turning it off. If your iPhone can't relay its GPS location, then you may not be able to recover it.

While no foolproof method exists to ensure that thieves won't be able to turn off the Find My iPhone app, you can make it more difficult. Activating another option in your device's settings can give you more time to track down your iPhone. Learn how to protect this feature using iOS 12 or later.

How to Protect 'Find My iPhone'

To stop someone from turning off Find My iPhone, set up a restriction on your phone. This extra layer of security requires a unique password to disable the location services that the app uses.

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Select Screen Time.

3. Choose Content & Privacy Restrictions.

   See Also

   How to turn off the 'Find My' feature on your iPhone, and what will happen when you do

   Tap Turn On Screen Time and follow the prompts to activate the feature if you don't see any settings.

   

4. Toggle the Content & Privacy Restrictions switch to the On (green) position.

5. Select Location Services.

6. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select System Services.

   

7. Make sure Find My iPhone is turned on (green). If it isn't, toggle it to the on position by tapping the button to the right.

8. Locate Status Bar Icon at the bottom of the System Services page, and make sure the switch is off/white.

   Turning off this option removes the icon at the top of the screen that shows that an app or service is using your location. Someone who steals your iPhone won't know that it's sending its whereabouts when you locate it.

9. Tap Back at the top of the page to return to the Location Services page.

   

10. Scroll to the top of the page and select Don't Allow Changes. Immediately, the options on that page will be greyed out.

11. Return to the Screen Time page, and then tap Use Screen Time Passcode. Enter a passcode you'll use for Screen Time settings.

    After you've set a passcode, nobody can access the Content & Privacy Restrictions menu without it.

    

To make your phone even harder for a thief to compromise, consider making a stronger iPhone passcode instead of the default 4-digit number.

The more time a thief has with your phone, the more likely they are to circumvent your security. The above measures will at least put up a few roadblocks for them, giving you additional time to track down your iPhone.