How to Find Someone Else’s iPhone When its Lost?

In this guide, I have talked about how to find someone else’s iPhone when it is lost. We know that iOS has the feature Find My app that allows discover your own Apple devices when they are lost. Using the same app you can also find someone else’s iPhone. It could be your friend or a family member.

The methods that I have described in this guide will work on all the latest versions of iOS released by Apple. You have to make your way to the Help a Friend feature which is under the Find My app. You can even find your iPhone/iPad(if it’s lost) using a friend’s Apple device.

1. How to Find Someone Else’s iPhone When it’s Lost?

Here are the steps to use the Help a Friend feature to find the lost iPhone of your friend.

1. On the iPhone tap on Find My app and launch it.
2. At the bottom right corner of the screen, tap on Me.
   
3. On the next page, navigate to the bottom and tap on the option Help a Friend.
4. You will be redirected to the iCloud official website. Tap on Sign in.
5. Instead of signing into your Apple ID, tap on Use a different Apple ID.
6. At this point allow your friend to sign in to your iPhone with their Apple ID.
   
7. Your friend should now see the devices to which his Apple ID is connected. His lost iPhone will also show up. Tap on that lost iPhone.
8. Next, you can use the Play Sound feature to discover the lost iPhone if it is nearby.
9. If the lost iPhone is very far away from the current location, tap on Lost Mode. It will protect the data on the iPhone. Also, it will enable the Low Power Mode on it to preserve the battery while you search and find it.
10. Once you and your friend have located the lost iPhone, it’s time to sign the friend out of iCloud on your iPhone.
11. The friend can now tap his name in the top-right corner of the screen and select Sign Out. This will log him out of iCloud. That’s it.

1.1 What if the iPhone You Are Searching for is Switched Off or Has Become Offline?

If the lost iPhone of your friend is switched off, You can still track it if the iPhone you are using to track the lost iPhone is running iOS 15 or iOS 16. It is important that the Find My app should not be disabled.

Secondly, if the iPhone you are searching for is active but offline, it will still be traceable. You’ll be shown the last known location of your iPhone. However, to locate it efficiently, the Apple devices used for searching must be near the lost device.

1.2 Find Someone Else’s iPhone When it is Lost: Bonus Tips

Here are some bonus tips you must be aware of while using the Help a friend feature in the Find My app.

Once you allow your friend to log in from your device through the iCloud Find My app, do not log out unless you have found the lost iPhone. Multiple logins into an unrelated Apple ID from your iPhone will trigger an authentication code prompt.

Initially, when you use the Help a Friend feature, your requests will be considered genuine and you will be allowed to bypass the 2-factor authentication mechanism and 6-digit authentication code. These are usual practices when you log in to iCloud from a different device.

Apple has set the security for their device like this. Though you are helping your friend out, multiple logins and log-out attempts will be deciphered as a security threat to your iPhone, which you use to search for the lost one.

Multiple login attempts will be met with a prompt to enter an authentication code from the lost device. You cannot enter the code because you do not have the lost device. That will put an abrupt end to finding the lost Apple device.

Wrapping Up

That’s a wrap for this guide. iPhones are expensive gadgets and one cannot even think of losing them. Also, most of the sensitive data of users are stored in iPhones. So, you must find the iPhone soon if it is lost. Hence, use the Find My app to find someone else’s iPhone if lost. I hope this guide was helpful.