Apple
How to Find a Lost iPhone with a Dead Battery
It’s hard to find a lost iPhone with a dead battery, but with iOS 8, iOS 9 or iOS 10 installed on your iPhone or iPad you can get an alert right before the battery dies. This is how to turn on the option to make the iPhone send its last location before the battery runs out.
This allows you to know where it was when the battery died and track it down. This is especially handy after the battery dies because you cannot use the ring feature to make the iPhone play sound.
The only downside to this option is you’ll need to turn it on before you are looking for your lost iPhone with a dead battery. If the iPhone is already missing you can still follow the tracking directions, but the location may be off slightly. This also works if you are trying to find a stolen iPhone with a dead battery, but the chances are higher that someone already moved it from that location.
How to find your lost iPhone with a dead battery.
You need iOS 8 higher installed for this option to be present. The iOs 10 update is free and runs on the iPhone 4s and newer. This also works on the iPad and iPad mini as long as they are on iOS 8 or above.
How to Find a Lost iPhone with a Dead Battery
Before you lose the iPhone you need to turn on a new Find My iPhone feature. When you set up a new iPhone Find My iPhone is on by default, but this handy feature is not. This is a good time to make sure Find My iPhone is on and that you can track the location of your iPhone.
This is what you need to do so that you can find a lost iPhone with a dead battery.
Go to Settings -> iCloud -> Find My iPhone. Make sure the main option is turned on. This is what allows you to use another iPhone or device to track down a lost or stolen iPhone.
Tap on Find My iPhone and then on the next screen toggle Send Last Location to On. This will force the iPhone to send it’s location to Apple right before the battery dies. It needs a connection, so if it is in airplane mode this is not going to help, but in most cases, a lost iPhone with a dead battery isn’t going to be in airplane mode. A stolen iPhone may already be in airplane mode to prevent you from tracking it.
Once you have this set up you’ll be able to find your lost iPhone even if the battery is dead. Even though you can’t sound an alert you can find the general location. This is enough to focus your search on a coffee shop you were at, a friend’s house or wherever the last location showed it.
Track a Lost iPhone with a Dead Battery
Now we’ll show you how to track a lost iPhone location using another iPhone, iPad or computer. If you are using another Apple device like an iPhone or iPad you can download the Find My iPhone app free on the App Store.
You need to log in with your Apple ID and password. You can do this on a friend’s iPhone or iPad, but make sure you log out when you are done.
When logged in the app will show the location of all your Apple devices with Find My iPhone installed. Tap on the iPhone with a dead battery to see the last location. You can then tap on the car to get directions to that location, or if you are already nearby you can start your search.
Track a lost iPhone with a dead battery.
The normal options of sound an alert, put in lost mode or erase won’t work when you are looking for a lost iPhone with a dead battery, but you can always put the lost mode on if you can’t find the iPhone. If you do this and someone charges it they will see your information and can call you. If you tell it to erase it will do this the next time it connects, but then you can no longer track it.
Another option is using a computer to track the iPhone down. You still need your Apple ID and password to do this, but you don’t need a Mac. You can visit iCloud on a Mac or PC, or even an Android phone, to see the same information. You’ll be able to see the last location of the lost iPhone before the battery died.
Unfortunately, you need to turn on these features before you lose an iPhone. Even if you are looking for a lost iPhone with a dead battery and you didn’t turn on the Send Last Location feature you may still get a good idea of where the lost iPhone is.
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Jessica
09/24/2015 at 1:15 pm
isn’t this just super unhelpful since most people who are reading phones are already lost….
Dan Smiles
05/06/2019 at 8:09 pm
haha wow. true THAT! who googles this question unless they lost something?
Dean
10/11/2015 at 10:41 am
Can you clarify the last paragraph? How can you get a good idea of where the last location of a phone is with a dead battery, if you DID NOT turn on the send last location feature?
hi
10/22/2015 at 6:45 pm
not helpful
ewing
10/22/2015 at 7:48 pm
not helpful..
John
11/30/2015 at 9:34 am
was not helpful, not the robber has my phone 4life.
Robert
12/06/2015 at 8:09 am
I only have a mac and an iPhone. There goes $850 down the drain…
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
12/27/2015 at 5:13 am
300 pound down the drain thanks to apple never using there phones again
kylie
12/27/2015 at 8:34 am
Thanks so so so so so much! Hopefully this works. I lost it at the mall last night and we’ve tried everything! I know it is dead because it was at 3%.. But again, thanks again!
Owen
01/01/2016 at 1:38 pm
Never mind, Found it under my left nut. This really works !
Scott
02/08/2016 at 11:57 am
maybe?
megan
02/27/2016 at 8:30 am
my phone is already lost…. how did you think this was helpful??
alexia
03/15/2016 at 12:28 am
someone stole mine from school today and the office lady used find my iphone… my phone was dead and never used that app before on my own phone this app sucks so bad:(:(
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
03/28/2016 at 5:34 pm
same here but my ex girlfriend thinks she saw who did it this app sucks im just going to leave my phone in my locker
georgjeanna
04/13/2016 at 4:38 am
mm same thing happened to meeee!!!
Arwen
03/15/2016 at 6:12 pm
NOT HELPFUL AT ALL
dyllan
03/30/2016 at 12:27 pm
this sucks why would i come to this site if i haven’t lost it already
vinniehat
04/03/2016 at 8:03 am
Dumb article “How to find a lost iphone with a DEAD battery” So how the heck are you supposed to turn find my iphone on when it is LOST AND DEAD? Idiots
happy
04/05/2016 at 4:46 am
I lost my iphone and my is showing switch off
now please help meeeee!!!!!
kushal
04/19/2016 at 2:58 pm
i lost my iPhone tried to track it but its showing offline mode, is it the main apple guys can track it if its switch off the stolen person is not doing the cell on?
Bunny
06/01/2016 at 8:18 pm
Bro you did your best….. But isn’t helpful… my phone isn’t online from last two days…. and I just bought it a month ago……. well…. thanks
Emily
06/05/2016 at 2:50 pm
This isn’t helpful if you have already lost your phone
asnitha pv
06/06/2016 at 3:46 am
i have lost my i phone 6 on a party still am not able to find it out , now it says switched off please help me to find it out
yellxnd
08/18/2017 at 1:29 pm
lost mine at a party too…. not sure if lost or stolen, either way this article is bull as most people one here have already lost their bloody phone! DX
Dolores M Gelly
06/06/2016 at 7:31 pm
What are you saying? If the phone is lost and the battery is dead and I didn’t activate the “find my phone” feature, which I never knew existed, how does this help Me?
Allie
06/27/2016 at 8:06 pm
If the battery of your device dies within more then 24 hours, it will not be able to be found, no matter if you turn on this feature or not.
Cori
09/06/2016 at 9:29 am
Thank u so much I found my phone up my sister’s butt cheek , this app really works
Janine
02/18/2017 at 3:04 pm
No help
Savanna Borg
05/05/2017 at 6:54 am
I am trying to find my iPhone with a dead battery but it just says my device is offline, what do I do?
Jan Mackey
05/07/2017 at 9:28 pm
This doesn’t help at all! All it says is that my iPhone is dead. There is not a place to say”Last location”.
Jaackson
06/06/2017 at 11:01 pm
It helpful for me thanks
yellxnd
08/18/2017 at 1:30 pm
lost mine at a party too…. not sure if lost or stolen, either way this article is bull as most people one here have already lost their bloody phone! DX
Andrew
06/17/2018 at 7:19 am
iPhonetracer.com – these guys can help you track/find a lost/stolen iphone using IMEI or Serial number.
What they do is track an iphone via IMEI or Serial number, you will need to have it on hand – you can find it on the box from your stolen/lost iphone.
They helped me to find my stolen iphone by IMEI and I got it back using their information and reports. They send very useful information.
a usually happy person
12/30/2018 at 3:04 pm
what the hell! I already lost my phone how am I going to know when im going to lose the iPhone! this info is useless and I just wasted ten minutes of my life reading it! >:(