How to Track iPhone if Location is Turned Off (Simple Steps)

One of the interesting capabilities of smartphones nowadays is the ability to use location services and keep track of your phone’s location and also your families and friends. This location service is used with various features and apps.

Some of the useful function of location services are:-

  1. Real-time map services – Apps such as Waze and Google Maps utilizes the location services data heavily to reflect your current location
  2. Social media app – Some of the popular social media app such as Facebook and Instagram uses your location services data to reflect your current location in your social media status
  3. Gaming – Some game apps relies on your location data for the features contained in the gaming experience

However, there are many reasons why sometimes a user would want to disable the location services. These are several reasons:-

  1. To keep the privacy of your location and yourself
  2. To ensure the app you have installed does not transmit unnecessary location data to the third party
  3. To ensure no third party is tracking your movement and location

If you want to disable the location services in your iPhone, here are the steps on to turn it off

How to disable iPhone Location Services

Step 1

In your iPhone, go to “Settings” and go to “Privacy”

Step 2

Disable the “Location Services” by turning it off here

However, even when the location services are turned off, you can track your iPhone in case it gets lost.

So, if you are interested in how to track your phone even when the location services are turned off, here are the simple steps.

How to Track iPhone if Location is Turned Off 1

Step 1

Go to https://www.icloud.com/find

Login in to your Apple ID account

Step 2

Choose the Apple device that has the location turned off

How to Track iPhone if Location is Turned Off 2

Step 3

Enable the “Lost Mode”

Step 4

A pop-up menu will be shown.

Tap “Ok” to enable the Lost Mode.

The Lost Mode will remotely enable your iPhone’s Location Services even though it was disabled previously

How to Track iPhone if Location is Turned Off 3

Step 5

You can immediately see your iPhone’s location on a map.

Your lost iPhone will also be locked when it is in the “Lost Mode”.

So, there you have it – Simple ways how you can track your lost iPhone even though you have previously disabled your location services feature.

This feature helps people to find their lost iPhone even though they have disabled their location services previously.

Please feel free to leave us a comment below and also don’t forget to read our previous article on top 3 ways how to find a lost iPhone.

Top 5 Ways How to Share Your Location Using iPhone

Your iPhone is a very powerful tracking device due to the embedded GPS chip in your iPhone. Coupled with the applications that are installed in your iPhone, many added-value functions are created to fully utilize the iPhone’s ability for location sharing. Due to that factor, there are now many ways on how you can share your location using the iPhone and the apps.

WHY SHARE LOCATION?

There are many reasons why you should be sharing your iPhone’s location. Here are some of the top reasons.

  1. LET FAMILY MEMBERS KNOW YOUR WHEREABOUTS – By sharing your location, your family members would know where you are and in case of emergency, they could immediately know where to find you
  2. ARRANGING MEETUP – If you are arranging a meetup in somewhere unfamiliar to your friends or families, the best way is to let people know where you are by sharing your location. This way they can use the GPS app to meet where you are located
  3. SHARING TRAVELLING INFO – Another reason to share a particular location using the iPhone is for other people’s reference when they visiting the location. This would come in handy if you are travelling someplace that you are not familiar with. 

Here in this article, we are going to show you the top five ways how you can share your location using the iPhone to any of your family members and friends.

HOW TO ENABLE “SHARE MY LOCATION” USING IPHONE

Step 1

In your iPhone, go to “Settings”

Step 2

In the Settings, go to your Apple ID account

Step 3

In the Apple ID menu, go to “Find My”

Step 4

Enable the “Share My Location” there. This would enable your friends and family to find you using Apple devices

SHARE LOCATION USING IPHONE WITH FAMILY MEMBERS

Step 1

In your iPhone, go to Apple ID

Step 2

In the Apple ID menu, tap “Family Sharing”

Step 3

In the Family Sharing section, tap “Add Family Member”

Step 4

Tap “Share Your Location”

Step 5

Send a message to your family on your location by tapping “Send A Message” button below

Step 6

Type your family email address and tap the send button to send the email

SHARE IPHONE LOCATION USING “FIND MY” APP

Step 1

In your iPhone, go to “Find My” app

Step 2

In the Find My app, tap the “People” icon below

Step 3

Tap the “+” button below to share your location with your contacts

Step 4

Add your contact the “To:” section and tap “Send”

SHARE YOUR IPHONE LOCATION USING IMESSAGE

Step 1

Open your contact address. Select the person you want to share your location with

Step 2

Under the contact’s name, tap “Message”

Step 3

At the iMessage screen, tap the contact’s name there

Step 4

Tap the info icon there

Step 5

At the info menu, tap “Share My Location”

Step 6

You can choose how long you want your contact to be able to track your location.

You have the option to choose to share for “One Hour”, “Until End of Day” or “Indefinitely”

SHARE YOUR IPHONE LOCATION USING PHOTOS

Step 1

In your iPhone, go to “Photos”

Step 2

In your photo album, choose a photo and tap the three-dot icon above the photo

Step 3

Tap “Share Photos”

Your contact will be able to see the photo’s location in a map by tapping the “Show Map” in their iPhone or Apple devices

So, there you have it – top 5 ways how you can share your location using your iPhone with your family members and friends. Please leave us a comment below on which option that you prefer to share your location with your contacts.

Please also read our previous article on how to track the location of your friends using the mobile phone.

Your iPhone is Keeping Track of Your Location (How to Turn it Off)

The iPhone is not just a smartphone. It is a very powerful small computer that can help you in many ways. The GPS chip embedded in your iPhone serves as to utilise the location data for the functional aspect of the iPhone system as well as a third-party app. Due to that ability, the iPhone can utilize the location data in your iPhone to serve you better and also to improve their services.

However, this is where the boundary of privacy versus functionality exists. Should you sacrifice your privacy for the sake of better functionality of your iPhone? Fortunately, iPhone allows you to control the privacy settings and therefore limit the location sharing according to your preference.

WHY IPHONE IS TRACKING YOU?

The iPhone system services that might be actively tracking your location are as follows:-

Apple Pay Merchant Identification – This is for Apple to know your current location and therefore any purchases made using your Apple ID account outside your location would trigger a notification

Compass Calibration – This is used for the Compass app on your iPhone. 

Emergency Calls & SOS – This function is important as your iPhone needs to know your location so that the SOS sent will be more effective

Find My iPhone – This will help you to track your iPhone if it goes missing or stolen

Location-Based Alerts, Ads or Suggestions – This location will help Apple or third-party to serve better ads based on your location

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF TURNING THE LOCATION TRACKING OFF IN IPHONE

There are some advantages and disadvantages when it comes to location tracking. One clear advantage of turning off the location tracking is that you can rest assured that no third party are actively tracking your location. This will protect your privacy and keep the peace in mind.

However, if you turn off the location tracking, some of the useful system services in your iPhone will become not effective. This will limit the full ability of your iPhone in giving the best experience to you as an iPhone user.

So, if you are conscious about the privacy of your location, here we show you how to turn it off.

Here are the steps.

iPhone is tracking your location step 1 step 2

Step 1

In your iPhone, go to “Settings”

Step 2

In the Settings, go to “Privacy”

iPhone is tracking location step 3 step 4

Step 3

In Privacy Settings, go to “Location Services”

Step 4

In Location Services, go to “System Services”

iPhone is tracking location step 5

Step 5

Here it will show you which system services in your iPhone that is actively tracking your location

You can also choose to limit the location sharing to Apple

So, there you have it – Simple steps on how you can check how iPhone is tracking your location and how to turn it off. Please leave us a comment below on what are the location-sharing apps or services that you always use in your iPhone.

Please also read our previous article on how to know who is tracking your iPhone.