How To Pause Location On Find My iPhone

When you use Find My iPhone on your iPhone or another iOS device, it can track the location of your devices so you can see their last known location. This is a useful feature if you lose your phone, laptop computer, tablet, or another device. However, most people probably don’t want to enable this feature all the time and may simply want to check on their device occasionally to see where it is at that moment. Here are a few things about Find My iPhone that many users may not know about. If you only use Find my iPhone from time to time and don’t need it activated all the time, then this article will help you understand how to pause location tracking on Find My iPhone so that it doesn’t drain battery life and remains private from prying eyes as much as possible.

How To Pause Location On Find My iPhone

1. Go to Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
2. Choose Privacy and Restrictions.
3. Tap the Find My iPhone button at the bottom of the screen (if you don’t see it, then you need to enable it).
4. Turn off Find My iPhone if you don’t want to use it to track your device’s location.
5. Return to the “Privacy and Restrictions” area by tapping the “Find my iPhone” button again or by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and tapping “Privacy and Restrictions.” If you have any devices that use Find my iPhone with Location Services enabled, then you will be asked if you want them to stop using location services when “Find my iPhone” is turned off. Tap “Yes.”
6. Tap on “Location Services” in settings (you may need to scroll down a bit). On iOS 5, tap on “Location Services.” On iOS 6, tap on “Privacy.” You can also tap on Location Services in Settings > Privacy > Location Services to turn off all location services for Find My iPhone if you wish (this is particularly useful if you have other apps that use location services as well). In iOS 7 beta 2 or later, select Toggle Off instead of Toggle On in settings > privacy > location services & privacy > toggle off . To turn off all location services for Find My iPhone: Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle Off .
7. Return to the “Privacy and Restrictions” area by tapping the “Find my iPhone” button again or by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and tapping “Privacy and Restrictions.”
8. You will now be asked if you want to turn off Find My iPhone. Tap “Yes.” If you have any devices that use Find my iPhone with Location Services enabled, then you will be asked if you want them to stop using location services when “Find my iPhone” is turned off. Tap “Yes.” If you have any devices that use Find my iPhone with Location Services enabled, then tap on the device’s name in your list of devices under Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle Off.
9. Tap “Restart” if prompted. Your device will restart and then return to normal mode when it is done.
10. Return to settings, find your device in the list, and choose to Turn On again under Find My iPhone (if not already on). This will re-enable location services for Find My iPhone so that you can track your device again without having to completely turn off location services each time (see below for more information about how long location services remain active).

How Does  Find My Phone Work?

1. After turning off or disabling Find My iPhone, you will no longer receive notifications for any new messages or calls. You can still sign out of iCloud and use Find My iPhone to locate your device (see below).
2. If the person who has your device reports the lost or stolen status to you, you will be able to see a map of their last known location when they turned on location services.
3. Location services remain active until you turn them off from the find my iPhone screen in settings, or until you restart your device, hard reset (power down by holding down both power and home buttons for about 10 seconds), update iOS, or restore from backup.
4. Note that if Find My iPhone is enabled and a device is stolen, then it can be used by anyone with access to it (even if they don’t know it’s been lost).
5. If a user turns on Find my Phone and then immediately turns off location services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle Off, then the previous devices’ location history will still be available as long as they have not turned on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On. However, this history will not be available if the user later turns on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On.
6. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: The person who reports that your phone is lost will see a map of where they last saw your device.
7. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: The person who reports that your phone is lost will see a map of where they last saw your device.
8. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: You will be able to see the location history of people who have used Find my Phone to locate you, and you can choose to turn off location services for those people (see above). If you do so, then their location history will no longer be available as long as they have not turned on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On. However, this history will not be available if the person turns on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On.
9. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: You will be able to see the location history of people who have used Find my Phone to locate you, and you can choose not to share this information with them (see above). If you do so, then their location history will no longer be available as long as they have not turned on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On. However, this history will not be available if the person turns on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On.

What Happens When You Pause Location Tracking?

1. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: You will be able to see the location history of people who have used Find my Phone to locate you, and you can choose not to share this information with them (see above). If you do so, then their location history will no longer be available as long as they have not turned on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On. However, this history will not be available if the person turns on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On.
2. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: You can turn off location services for anyone who has used Find my Phone to locate you (see above). If you do so, then their location history will no longer be available as long as they have not turned on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On. However, this history will not be available if the person turns on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy > Location Services & Privacy > Toggle On.
3. When someone else uses Find my Phone to locate your phone: You can turn off location services for anyone who has used Find my Phone to locate you (see above). If you do so, then their location history will no longer be available as long as they have not turned on Location Services again through Settings > Privacy & Security>Location services>Toggle Off (see above).

Summary

Find My iPhone is a great service that allows you to track your lost or stolen devices. However, you should use this feature with caution. If you keep it turned on all the time, it can drain your battery and use a lot of data. You can pause location tracking on Find My iPhone, which will stop sending data to Apple servers. You can also turn off Location History so that your devices stop sending location data altogether. Other ways to track your lost devices include using iCloud, a third-party app, or the Find My iPhone app.