How to Turn Off Find My iPhone
Turn off Find My iPhone in Settings, or erase and remove a sold iPhone from iCloud.com. Turn off Stolen Device Protection first, sign out and erase before a sale, and reset a forgotten password.
You will end up with Find My iPhone turned off and Activation Lock removed, so the phone is ready for a new owner. Step 1 is for an iPhone in your hands. Steps 2 and 3 remove Activation Lock from a phone you no longer have, from iCloud.com or from the Find My app on another Apple device. Step 4 is the order to follow before you sell the phone or give it away, and step 5 covers a forgotten password.
Two things gate the switch. The first is your Apple Account password, which Apple called your Apple ID until iOS 18. The second is Stolen Device Protection. While that setting is on, Find My iPhone cannot be turned off, so step 1 deals with it first.
If the phone runs iOS 27 and is going in for a repair or a trade-in, read FAQ 5 below first. Apple now has a setting called Ready for Repair or Trade-In that keeps Find My on during eligible repairs and trade-ins.
We checked every path and label against Apple's support pages, the iPhone User Guide for iOS 27, and the iCloud User Guide in October 2026.
Turn off Find My iPhone from Settings
Do this with the iPhone in your hands and your Apple Account password ready. Know what you give up before you tap. With Find My iPhone off, the phone no longer appears in Find My, so you cannot locate it, mark it as lost, or erase it remotely. Activation Lock comes off with it, which means someone else can activate the phone and connect it to their own Apple Account. Turn it off only when the phone is leaving your hands, and turn it back on if the phone comes back to you (FAQ 4 below). Check Stolen Device Protection first. Apple's page on Stolen Device Protection says you cannot turn Find My off while it is enabled, and that it might be turned on by default. Open Settings, tap Face ID & Passcode (Touch ID & Passcode on an iPhone with a Home button), and enter your passcode. Scroll down, tap Stolen Device Protection, and turn it off. If the iPhone is at a familiar location such as home or work, no delay applies. If it is somewhere else, or the setting is on Always, the iPhone asks you to start a Security Delay, which is Face ID or Touch ID, a 1-hour wait, and Face ID or Touch ID again. Then open Settings and tap your name at the top of the screen. Tap Find My, then tap Find My iPhone. Turn Find My iPhone off. Enter your Apple Account password and tap Turn Off. The switch now shows off, and Activation Lock is removed from the iPhone automatically. The same screen has switches for Find My network and Send Last Location. Apple describes the first as a way to see the device while it is offline and the second as sending the device's location to Apple when the battery is low. The switch that removes Activation Lock is Find My iPhone.
Erase and remove a sold iPhone on iCloud.com
Use this when the iPhone is no longer with you, for example after you sold it or gave it away with Find My still on. This route erases the phone, so use it only on a phone you have handed over for good, and tell the new owner first if you can reach them. Go to icloud.com/find in any browser and sign in to your Apple Account. In the list of devices, select the iPhone. Select Erase This Device and follow the onscreen instructions. Leave the phone number and message blank, which is Apple's instruction for a device that is not lost. If the iPhone is offline, the erase begins the next time it is online, and Apple emails you when the device is erased. When the erase is done, select Remove This Device. Apple's iCloud User Guide says Activation Lock is removed immediately at that point, the phone leaves Find My, and someone else can now activate it. Do not skip the erase on a phone you sold. Without it, what Remove This Device does depends on whether the phone is online. If it is online, Apple says it cannot be removed, and selecting Continue marks it as Ready for Repair or Trade-In for the next 30 days. If it is offline, Activation Lock is removed immediately and the phone leaves Find My after 30 days. If the phone comes online after those 30 days while it is still signed in to your Apple Account, it reappears in your list and Activation Lock turns back on.
Erase and remove a sold iPhone with the Find My app
If another iPhone or an iPad is signed in to the same Apple Account, the Find My app does the same job as iCloud.com, and it erases the phone in the same way. On a Mac, use iCloud.com (step 2). Open the Find My app and tap Devices. Tap the name of the iPhone you want to remove, then tap the More button. Tap Erase, then tap Continue. Leave the phone number and message blank, because the phone is not lost, and tap Erase. Enter your Apple Account password and tap Erase again. If the iPhone is offline, you see Erase Pending, and the erase begins the next time the phone connects to a Wi-Fi or cellular network. Apple emails you when the device is erased. When the erase is done, tap Remove This Device, then tap Remove. Apple's iPhone User Guide gives the result. All your content is erased, Activation Lock is turned off, and someone else can now activate the device.
Sign out and erase before you sell or give away your iPhone
For a sale or a gift, the Find My switch is one part of the job. Apple's checklist for selling, giving away, or trading in an iPhone runs in the order below, and the erase at the end is what removes your data. Do it at home or at work. Away from familiar locations, Stolen Device Protection adds a 1-hour Security Delay before you can turn it off or sign out of your Apple Account. First, back up the iPhone to iCloud or your computer. Second, if an Apple Watch is paired with it, unpair the watch, which our guide on how to unpair an Apple Watch walks through. Third, turn off Stolen Device Protection (step 1), which Apple says to do before you sell, give away, or trade in an iPhone. Fourth, sign out of your Apple Account by going to Settings > [your name] > Sign Out. On iOS 26 or later, choose Sign Out But Don't Erase, because the erase comes next. On iOS 18 or earlier, enter your Apple Account password and tap Turn Off. Signing out turns off Find My and removes Activation Lock, so you do not need to turn Find My off separately. Fifth, erase the phone by going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. Enter your passcode or Apple Account password if asked, and tap Continue. If the phone uses an eSIM and you are selling it, choose the option that erases the eSIM as well. The phone is ready for its new owner when it restarts to the Hello screen. Last, remove the old phone from your list of trusted devices, which is the final item on Apple's checklist. If you are trading the phone in, also check its Parts and Service History before you start. Apple says a part marked Finish Repair has to be finished before the trade-in, and its checklist links the instructions. A repair or a trade-in on iOS 27 works differently. Apple's service-prep page asks you to turn on Ready for Repair or Trade-In in place of turning Find My off, and Find My keeps running while it is enabled. Apple's page on the feature says Apple or the service provider tells you whether your repair or trade-in can use it, so follow the instructions you are given. To turn it on, open the Find My app, select the iPhone, tap the More button, tap Repair or Trade In, tap Enable, and enter your Apple Account password. It is a Find My setting, and Apple's service-prep page lists the backup as a separate step, so for a sale to a person the checklist above still applies.
Heads up: Before you hand the phone over, turn it on and confirm it shows the Hello screen. Apple's Activation Lock page tells buyers not to take ownership of a used iPhone until it has been erased and removed from the previous owner's account. If you are trading it in at an Apple Store, Apple's checklist says you might need your Apple Account password there, so make sure you know it before you go.
Reset a forgotten Apple Account password
You cannot turn off Find My without your Apple Account password. Apple's Activation Lock page says the password is required before anyone can turn off Find My, erase the device, or reactivate it, and that the feature is designed to prevent anyone else from using an iPhone that is lost or stolen. If you forgot the password and the iPhone is still signed in, reset it on the phone. Apple's password-reset page calls a trusted device the easiest way. Open Settings, tap your name, tap Sign-In & Security, and tap Change Password. Enter the iPhone's passcode and follow the onscreen instructions. If Stolen Device Protection is on and the phone is away from familiar locations, the 1-hour Security Delay from step 1 comes first. If you have no trusted device, Apple gives two more routes. Borrow an Apple device, open the Apple Support app, scroll down to Support Tools, tap Reset Password, tap Help Someone Else, and enter your Apple Account email address or phone number. Or reset the password at iforgot.apple.com, which Apple says might take a little longer. Once the password is reset, go back to step 1 and turn Find My iPhone off with the new password. If you bought a used iPhone and it is locked to someone else's Apple Account, ask the previous owner to remove it from their account in a browser (step 2). If you cannot reach them and you have proof of purchase, Apple's page on removing Activation Lock lets you start an Activation Lock support request at al-support.apple.com.
Good to know: Before you buy a used iPhone, check it the way Apple's Activation Lock page says. Turn it on. If it shows an iPhone Locked to Owner screen, do not buy it. If the Lock Screen or the Home Screen appears, the phone has not been erased, so ask the seller to erase it. If setup asks for the previous owner's Apple Account, hand the phone back to the seller to enter their password. The phone is ready when it shows the Hello screen.
If the Find My iPhone switch will not turn off, check Stolen Device Protection first (step 1). If the phone rejects your password, reset it on the phone (step 5) and try again. If a buyer reports an iPhone Locked to Owner screen, the phone is still linked to your account, and step 2 or step 3 clears it without the phone in your hands. If a phone you removed on iCloud.com shows up in your devices list again, it came back online while still signed in, so erase it and then select Remove This Device (step 2). If you turned Find My off for a repair, turn it back on when the iPhone comes back to you, which Apple's service-prep page also says to do. FAQ 4 below has the path. Find My is also what powers location sharing, and our guide on how to share location on iPhone covers sharing and stopping sharing with specific people. Also in this series, our guide on how to unhide apps on iPhone covers how apps disappear from the Home Screen and how to bring them back.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Not when you turn it off in Settings. Step 1 turns off Find My and removes Activation Lock, and your photos, apps, messages, and other data stay where they are. The remote routes are different. Steps 2 and 3 erase the phone before they remove it from your account. Erasing a phone you still hold is its own step, in Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings, and step 4 gives the order for a sale.
Not without your Apple Account password, which Activation Lock requires (step 5). The weak point is the passcode. On an iPhone that is signed in, the passcode is what the phone asks for to change the Apple Account password (step 5), so someone who has your phone and knows its passcode can set a new password and then turn Find My off. Stolen Device Protection exists to close that gap. Apple's User Guide says it protects against someone who has stolen your iPhone and knows your passcode. With it on and the phone away from familiar locations, changing the Apple Account password takes Face ID or Touch ID, a 1-hour wait, and Face ID or Touch ID again, and Find My cannot be turned off while the setting is enabled. Keep it on until the phone is leaving your hands.
It depends on how you erase. Erase All Content and Settings on the phone does. Apple's selling checklist says that when you erase your iPhone this way, Find My and Activation Lock turn off, and that the phone might ask for your Apple Account and password first if Find My is on. A remote erase from Find My or iCloud.com does not. Apple's iPhone User Guide says Activation Lock remains on after one, until you also remove the device (steps 2 and 3). A restore from a computer needs you to sign out of Find My before the Restore button works. Erasing through recovery mode does not clear the lock either. Apple's Activation Lock page says an iPhone contacts Apple each time it is activated or recovered to check whether Activation Lock is on. If it is, the phone asks for the Apple Account it was set up with before anyone can use it. For a sale, use the order in step 4, which is sign out first and then erase.
Yes. Go to Settings > [your name] > Find My > Find My iPhone and turn it on. Apple's page on turning on Find My says to turn on Find My network as well, to see the phone while it is offline, and Send Last Location, to have its location sent to Apple when the battery is low. Activation Lock turns on automatically when you turn on Find My. If you turned off Stolen Device Protection in step 1, turn that back on in the same place you turned it off.
It depends on your iOS version. On iOS 26 or earlier, yes, and Apple makes no exception for smaller repairs. Its service-prep page, linked in step 4, says that to prevent anyone else from getting service for your device without your knowledge, Apple might not be able to service it if Find My is not turned off. On iOS 27 or later, the same page asks you to turn on Ready for Repair or Trade-In instead (step 4 has the taps), and the phone stays findable through the repair. Apple's page on the feature limits it to eligible repairs and trade-ins and says Apple or the service provider tells you whether yours can use it. When the technician marks the job complete, the setting turns off automatically. If you cannot reach the setting on the phone itself, Apple's instruction is to open the Find My app on another device or icloud.com/find, select the iPhone, and select Repair or Trade In or Remove This Device. Do this before you leave for the appointment. Never give your Apple Account password or your passcode to anyone else. Apple says neither it nor its authorized service providers will ask for them, although you might be asked to enter them yourself for some software support.
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