How to ask Siri to find your lost iPhone

It is all too easy to lose a phone. The smaller and slimmer they get, the easier it is to misplace them. If you lose your phone and have another Apple device like a Mac, iPad or another iPhone, you can ask Siri to find your lost phone. You can also find it via the web if you don’t have another Apple device around.

I often leave my phone lying around and have lost it a few times around the store or home. Fortunately we have a few Apple devices here at Dave’s Computers so I can always ask Siri to find it.

You do need to have Find My iPhone enabled on your lost phone for this to work. I suggest enabling it right away before you lose it.

1. Select Settings and your Apple Account.
2. Select iCloud and select Find My iPhone.
3. Toggle it to on.
4. Sign in with your Apple ID to confirm.

The setting will be broadcast across all your iOS devices once you enable it on an iPhone. Now you can use Siri to find your lost iPhone when necessary.

Ask Siri to find lost iPhone

To use this, you do need a Mac, iPad or another iPhone but is otherwise very easy to do.

1. On your other Apple device, call Siri.
2. Say ‘Siri Find my iPhone’.
3. Select the device from the list and confirm that you want to play an alert sound.
4. Hunt for the lost iPhone by isolating the alert.

As long as you don’t have your phone muted, you should quickly be able to find your iPhone.

Find your lost iPhone through the web

If you don’t have other Apple devices you can use, you can utilize iCloud to help you find your lost phone.

1. Go to iCloud.com in any web browser.
2. Log into your account as normal.
3. Select Find iPhone from the main menu.
4. Enter your Apple ID when prompted.
5. Select All Devices from the top menu and select the phone from the list.
6. Select Play Sound to make the lost phone play an alert.

You can now find the phone by following the noise.

Remotely wipe your iPhone

If you cannot find your phone and you think it genuinely lost or stolen, you can remote wipe it to stop someone being able to access your data. Later iPhones have robust security that makes it very difficult for someone to access a phone when it is locked but nothing is impossible.

You can remote wipe an iPhone from iCloud. Follow the above up to Step 5 and then select Erase instead of Play Sound. This wipes all of your personal data from the phone. If you have backed it up to iCloud, it isn’t gone forever but will be out of reach from anyone who gains access to your phone!