How to deactivate Find My iPhone on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
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How do you disable Find My Friends—and Activation Lock—on an iPhone or iPad? Here are the steps!
Find My iPhone lets you keep track of all your iPhones, iPads, and Macs, all in one place. If you're upgrading to a new device, trading in your existing one, or even selling it, however you'll want to make sure you completely remove it from Find my iPhone before letting it out of your possession. This ensures the new owner can't access your data and that they'll be able to link the device in question to their own iCloud account.
You can disable it directly on your device, or remotely using the web. Here's how!
Note: If you want to remove Find my iPhone or Activation Lock in order to give away or sell your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you're better off erasing it instead. Not only will that remove Find my iPhone and Activation Lock, it'll make sure you don't accidentally give away any of your data along with your device.
- How to disable Find my iPhone on iPhone and iPad
- How to erase an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with the Find My iPhone app
- How to erase an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with iCloud.com
How to disable Find my iPhone on iPhone and iPad
If you still have your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad in your hands, the simplest and fastest way to turn things off is right on the device.
- Launch Settings from the Home screen.
- Tap on iCloud.
Tap Find My iPhone.
- Switch Find My iPhone to Off.
- Enter your Apple ID password to confirm.
Tap Turn Off.
That's it. Your iPhone or iPad can no longer be found via Find My iPhone. To turn it back on, just follow the same steps.
How to erase an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with the Find My iPhone app
You can no longer simply remotely turn off Find My iPhone. From a separate device or the Find My iPhone app, the only way to remove an iPhone or iPad from Find My iPhone is by erasing it. Here's how to do it using the Find My iPhone app.
- Launch the Find My iPhone app from any iOS device. If you don't already have it you can get it for free in the App Store - Download Now
- Sign in with your iCloud account, if prompted.
Tap on the device you'd like to erase.
- Tap on Actions at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Erase on the bottom righthand corner of the screen.
Tap Erase to erase all contents and settings from the device.
Boom. Your iPhone or iPad has now been essentially reset to factory settings. This is a good tool if you've completely lost your device and are totally sure you're never getting it back. It's also a good idea to do if you're selling or giving away your device.
How to erase an iPhone, iPad, or Mac with iCloud.com
- Click Find My iPhone on the iCloud website, from any web browser on your Mac or Windows PC.
- Sign in to your iCloud account when prompted.
- If you're not immediately taken to Find My iPhone, click on Find My iPhone from the Home menu.
Click on All Devices at the top of the Find My iPhone screen.
- Click the device you'd like to erase.
- Click Erase (device) on the upper right of the screen, beneath the picture of your device.
Click Erase.
The device will now be wiped of its content and settings. Make sure you're sure that you're sure you want to erase your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, because when it says "Erase," it means "Erase." All of it.
