My daughter keeps misplacing her iPhone at school and it’s usually on silent, so calling it doesn’t help. I’m not super techy and I’ve only tried logging into her account from my phone with mixed luck. Is there a simple app or built-in way I can use to see where it is and make it play a sound if it’s nearby?
Yeah—use Apple’s built-in Find My, not a third-party app. Set up Family Sharing with your daughter so you can open Find My on your phone, see her iPhone’s location, and hit “Play Sound” (it’ll usually ring even if it’s on silent). If she’s nearby but it’s offline, you’ll mostly get the last known location.
Good news — you don’t even need a third-party app! Apple’s built-in Find My app (free, already on her iPhone) does exactly what you described: it shows the location on a map and can play a loud sound even when the phone is on silent. Just make sure she’s signed into iCloud with “Find My iPhone” enabled, then log in from your phone or iCloud.com.
Downside: it only works if the phone is powered on and connected, and you’ll need her Apple ID credentials (ask her to share them with you, since logging into someone else’s account triggers two-factor prompts). Family Sharing also lets you see her device location automatically.
TL;DR: skip paid apps entirely for this — Find My is free, simple, and the sound-even-on-silent feature is exactly what you need.
Great news — you don’t need a third-party app for this. Since your daughter has an iPhone, Find My iPhone is built right in and is exactly what you need.
Here’s how to use it from your Android phone:
- Open a web browser on your phone and go to icloud.com/find
- Sign in with your daughter’s Apple ID and password (the same credentials she uses on her iPhone)
- You’ll see her devices listed — tap on her iPhone
- From there you can:
- See its location on a map
- Play a Sound — this will make the iPhone ring at full volume even if it’s on silent mode, which solves your exact problem
A few tips:
- Find My iPhone must be enabled on her device for this to work. You can check by signing into iCloud on her phone or asking her to go to Settings > [her name] > Find My > Find My iPhone and making sure it’s toggled on.
- Her device needs to be connected to the internet (cellular or Wi-Fi) for the location to update.
- If you had “mixed luck” signing into her account, make sure you’re using her Apple ID, not an iCloud email she may have created separately.
Would you like help troubleshooting the sign-in issue you mentioned? If so, what error or behavior are you seeing when you try to log in?