Key Takeaways
- You can disable Find My on your iPhone by going to Settings > [your name] > Find My > Find My iPhone.
- Think twice about doing this, since you’ll shut off both the Find My app and Activation Lock.
- It’s mostly useful when giving your iPhone to someone else.
As a rule, you should leave Find My on most of the time. It’s not just for tracking down friends, AirPods, and AirTags — if your iPhone gets lost or stolen, Find My may be your only method of recovering it or erasing sensitive data. Any improved security from turning off Find My is usually vastly outweighed by the benefits of having it active.
You do have the freedom to shut it off, however, and sometimes that’s even temporarily required. Specifically, I’m talking about when you’re selling an iPhone, giving it away, or trading it in. Regardless of your reasons, here’s the process to follow in iOS 18.
Find My
Apple’s Find My allows you to view the location of your Apple devices, locate items you’ve attached AirTag too, and track the location of your friends and family.
How to turn off Find My on your iPhone
A quick move with serious impact
Apple makes it surprisingly easy to disable Find My, but think twice before you do. As I’ll detail in the next section, the ramifications go beyond being able to track down your iPhone and any paired accessories.
Once you’re sure Find My needs to be switched off, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app.
- Select [Your name] > Find My. If you don’t see your name, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Apple Account.
- Tap Find My, then on Find My iPhone.
- Flip the Find My iPhone toggle.
- Enter your Apple Account login when prompted.
- Choose Turn Off.
What happens when you turn off Find My?
Theft could be a major threat
The obvious consequence is that you can’t use the Find My app anymore, if only on your iPhone. If you want to track other Apple devices, or accessories that support the Find My network, you’ll have to use the Mac or iPad apps, or else go to icloud.com/find. Items like AirTags should remain linked to your Apple Account.
Disabling Find My also makes it impossible to locate your iPhone if it gets lost or stolen, unless perhaps you have a third-party service like Prey, or a copy of the iPhone’s IMEI number available to share with your carrier or police. Find My further allows remote wipes to prevent people from accessing sensitive data, such as stored passwords and bank cards.
Shutting off Find My lastly disables Activation Lock, a feature that prevents people from erasing or reactivating your iPhone without the correct Apple Account login. While it’s intended to deter thieves from reselling your phone or using it themselves, it’s also the main reason Apple asks you to turn off Find My before intentionally giving your phone to someone else — they won’t be able to separate the device from your account unless you guide them.
Are there any advantages to turning off Find My?
Slim to none
Apple
Not many. You’re preventing some location data from appearing on iCloud, which could make it harder to obtain by hackers, governments, or people who steal another one of your Apple devices. Apple tends to use tough encryption, however, and government entities don’t necessarily need Find My to track you down. They may be able to obtain that data from cellular carriers and ISPs, for example.
I strongly recommend leaving Find My on.
Removing Activation Lock does make it simpler to reset an iPhone, say if you’re a developer who regularly needs a clean slate to experiment with. For any personal iPhone, though, I strongly recommend leaving Find My on.
