New 'Send Last Location to Apple' Feature Added to Find My iPhone in iOS 8

iOS 8 introduces a new feature to the Find my iPhone and Find my iPad functionality on iOS devices, allowing users to select a "Send Last Location" option that will notify Apple of a device's last known location when the battery drains to a critical level.

Currently, if a device is lost with Find My iPhone on and the battery drains and it cannot be located, iCloud will display the last known location for up to 24 hours, but after that, there is no way for end users to determine the last location of a device.

findmyiphoneupdate

It appears this new Find My iPhone feature will authorize Apple to store the last known location of an iOS device after 24 hours have passed, potentially allowing customers to contact the company for location information after it is no longer available on iCloud.

The new option can be found in the iCloud section of the Settings app, listed under a new entry for Find My iPhone (or iPad). Tapping on Find My iPhone gives an option to enable the feature and to enable Send Last Location. With iOS 7, Find My iPhone was bundled into the rest of the iCloud settings, with a simple toggle to turn the feature on and off.

(Thanks, John!)

Top Rated Comments

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Nermal

52 months ago

That's impossible if the phone is off.

Yes, but presumably he meant as part of the shutdown process :)

Rating: 11 Votes

larrylaffer

52 months ago

It should also do it when the phone is turned off.

I was mugged a couple of years ago and my iPhone 4 was taken. By the time I got to a computer to look up where it went, it was nowhere to be found. We always figured the crook was smart and turned the phone off as soon as he took it.

I set a "notify when found" alert 2 years ago, and nothing. :mad:

Rating: 8 Votes

LordQ

52 months ago

That's impossible if the phone is off.

Perhaps send the last known location as soon as the iPhone detects the hold of the sleep button to shut down? While the shutdown screen appears and the thief slides to power off it's plenty of time to finish the sending process.

A nice feature indeed!

Rating: 6 Votes

CrimsonKnight

52 months ago

Sweet, that is pretty awesome. Will come in handy.

Rating: 5 Votes

Fofer

52 months ago

Or how about allowing the user to set a timer, so that when they do intentionally turn on Airplane Mode (ie: actually on an Airplane, or in a meeting, or whatever) that Airplane Mode will turn itself off? I've had a friend or two lose their iPhone on an flight, and because they turned on Airplane Mode, they had no chance to get it back.

There should also be an option to remove the "Airplane Mode" button from the lockscreen. Because a thief turning on Airplane Mode means "Find My iPhone" won't work.

Yes, I've already sent these suggestions to Apple.

Rating: 5 Votes

ctdonath

52 months ago

Does this mean Apple can track a dead device? Or is that silly?

It reports where the device was just before it died.

Having spent months looking for an iPod Touch (long after it died), only to find it slipped between bed frame & mattress, having "last known location" would have been very helpful, or at least comforting to know it was somewhere in the house.

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define critical level? 20% the battery warning comes on and the battery indicator goes red.

"Critical" is "battery is about to die, system has about 1 minute left to shut everything down safely, report last known location, and enter deep hibernation; user interaction is now disallowed in favor of maintaining system integrity; uncooperative threads will be terminated immediately."

Rating: 3 Votes

Fofer

52 months ago

every shutdown is a bit of hassle

Huh? How often do you shutdown? Not restart, I mean, full shutdown?

I do it maybe once or twice a year.

Rating: 2 Votes

Fofer

52 months ago

There is an option to disable Control Center on the lockscreen.

But I don't want to disable Control Center. I just want to disable the toggle for Airplane Mode.

None of this will help a lot in case of theft, since a thief can simply pop out the SIM, or put the phone into a mylar bag or metal box to block the signal.

Of course it will help. Even if it's just a little, it's better than nothing. My first suggestion could slow down a dumb thief (and please don't overestimate the intelligence of the average thief.) Sure, a smart thief could remove the SIM, or put the phone into a signal-blocking metal box. He could also cut off your fingers and shoot you in the head. But that's not the point. Every little bit of intelligent software to slow down the possibility of the iPhone being untrackable, the better. Just because it can't be 100% impossible to steal doesn't mean Apple can't do their best to make it 90% impossible to steal. Or at the very least, more of a pain in the butt, or somewhat scary, to try and steal.

And my second suggestion had nothing to do with theft. It had to do with someone putting their iOS device into Airplane Mode deliberately (say, on an airplane) and then forgetting it or losing it. If Airplane Mode had a built in expiry, or a timer that could be set, then the device could be trackable eventually. This has nothing to do with a thief pulling the SIM out, or putting the device in a mular bag.

Rating: 2 Votes

the8thark

52 months ago

Great new addition to theft/loss security.

But where is "Require Apple ID & Password to power off device"

Seems like a freaking no brainer to me

Exactly. 5 seconds (or less) to require your fingerprint in touch ID before you can power off your iOS device. And this issue would be alleviated.

Apple so needs to do this ASAP.

Rating: 2 Votes

Soylent Yellow

52 months ago

Huh? How often do you shutdown? Not restart, I mean, full shutdown?

I do it maybe once or twice a year.

How often do you travel? When roaming my iPhone tends to lose its ability to connect to data networks (any data network: 3G, edge, etc.), even after I've returned to my home country. Only way to fix this seems to be to shutdown and restart the phone. So in my case it is at least twice a month, but during travel it can even be twice a day.

Rating: 2 Votes

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