Can You Ping Your Apple Watch If It’s Lost Or Stolen?
Sometimes life necessitates you take off your valued Apple Watch.
It could be to shower, to go into a courthouse or federal building, or just because it’s becoming uncomfortable.
When you find an occasion where you need to take it off outside your normal routine, you may forget where you left it, or someone may have taken it, either accidentally or intentionally.
Regardless of the circumstance, you want it back.
Can you ping your Apple Watch if it’s lost or stolen?
Can You Ping Your Apple Watch If It’s Lost Or Stolen?
It is possible to ping your Apple Watch with the Find My app when you’re trying to locate it. In addition to pinging it, there are several other options to help you locate it, depending on the situation.
Learn how to use the Find My feature to locate your Apple Watch, and what to do when you find it.
How To Find Apple Watch If You Can’t Locate It
Your Apple Watch offers numerous ways to locate it, and keep your data safe if it’s been lost or stolen.
Discover what you need to know to use these features effectively.
It Starts With The Proper Setup
You cannot use the Find My features to ping or find your Apple Watch unless it’s set up before you need it.
Fortunately, if your phone has this feature turned on before pairing your watch, it’ll automatically activate on your watch during the pairing process.
It’s easy enough to confirm you have the feature active, for a little peace of mind. On your watch, open the Settings app and tap on your name.
Then tap on your Apple Watch in the list of devices, which is usually the first in the list.
From there, tap on Find My Watch, and you can toggle it on and off.
Ping Your Apple Watch
The first step to finding a lost or stolen Apple Watch is to ping it, or cause an audible alert so that you can find it.
You can access this feature directly in the Find My app or by going to the Watch app.
In the Watch App, tap All Watches in the upper-left corner, then tap the “i” icon next to your watch.
From there, tap Find My Apple Watch. This will open the Find My app.
To start in the Find My app, simply look for your watch in your devices list. Once you locate it, tap it.
You’ll have several options from which to choose.
Simply tap the Play Sound option, which will sound an audible ping on your watch.
In order for this to work, you either have your watch connected to your phone via Bluetooth or it has to have Internet connection.
Track Your Apple Watch
In addition to using an audible ping to find your watch, you can also track your phone to see where it’s located.
This only works consistently with Apple Watch models that have cellular service and signal.
Log in to your Find My app on your phone, and then wait for it to refresh your watch’s location.
Depending on the signal you have, this will either be the exact location, or a radius within which your watch is located.
The app doesn’t rack your watch in real time, but just shows you a snapshot of where it is when the location is pinged.
If you think your watch is on the move, simply refresh the list, and you can continue to see where it’s at as long as there’s a cellular signal.
Activate Lost Mode
If you believe your watch has been stolen or is lost in a place outside your home or vehicle, you can activate Lost Mode.
This prevents anyone from logging into your watch and accessing sensitive information.
Additionally, it allows you to show a message on the watch face, asking whomever might have it to contact you so that you can retrieve your watch from them.
To activate Lost Mode, go into the Find My app, and locate your watch in the device list and tap it.
Scroll down, and under the Notifications section is Mark As Lost. Tap Activate.
You’ll see a list with what happens in Lost Mode. Scroll down and click Continue.
The next screen allows you to provide a phone number, which can be to your iPhone, or any other line you want.
Add that number, then tap Next in the top-right corner.
You can then enter a message to display on your watch face, or you can leave the default message.
It’s a maximum of 70 characters, so brevity is the key.
It’ll show you a summary of the information, then you tap Activate in the top-right corner.
What Happens Next?
In most cases, you’ll either find your watch using the ping, or you’ll remember where you left it when you see it on the map.
If someone happened to find it or pick it up accidentally, they’ll hear it going off and see the message on the watch face.
They’ll call you so that you can arrange how to get your watch back.
In the rare case that doesn’t happen, Apple recommends contacting local law enforcement to report the missing watch.
You can let them know where the tracking has located your device, and let them attempt to retrieve it.
Finally, Apple also recommends changing your Apple ID password to prevent any access to your account by unauthorized users.
When you get your watch back, you’ll gain access again with the normal pin for your watch.
Some functions, like your Wallet, won’t be accessible until you enter your Apple ID password on your phone.
Does Find My Work Without Internet?
Find My requires internet connection to work properly.
If your watch doesn’t have a connection, it won’t play the sound.
It’ll also not show you the location of your watch.
Rather, it’ll show you the last known location from when your watch last had a connection.
It also must have a connection to activate Lost Mode. If your watch doesn’t have an active connection, Lost Mode will go into pending, and will activate as soon as it gains connection again.
Options For Using Find My
The most commonly used way of accessing Find My is through the Find My app on your phone. There is a similar app on iPad, and also on the watch itself.
Additionally, you can access the Find My function through the iCloud website.
Simply log into www.icloud.com, sign in with your Apple ID, and access Find My.