Thursday, November 14, 2024

Find iPhone with location services turned off

The battery of my iPhone SE 1st generation started to die and Apple no longer carries new batteries for that model. I immediately replaced it with a 3rd generation. Due to its much greater expense, I started to explore the capability of finding a lost iPhone. The iPhone is the only Apple device that I own.

If I turn on location services on the iPhone, I can use any browser to log into iCloud and locate the iPhone.

When location services is turned off (on the iPhone), the location doesn’t show up on the browser. I usually turn off location services. Is there any way to remotely turn it on from iCloud?

I note that if I don’t have my iPhone, I cannot fulfill the 2-factor authentication needed by iCloud and my sign-in to iCloud is limited to finding the iPhone.

I found similar questions about enable “location” or “Find My” on a stolen phone, but I’m specifically interested in enabling location services on a stolen phone.

Furthermore, the responses to those similar questions refer to an information page for when the phone is stolen, but it does not say whether location services can be turned on remotely.

I have seen mention of the capability to use a network of Apple devices to locate a stolen/lost phone that is turned off, but haven’t been able to find much detail about it.

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