Does Find My Network Really Work Without Internet?

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Level 1

8 points

Does Find My Network Really Work Without Internet?

What conditions must be met for Find My Network to work properly?

I'm using an iPhone 6s without internet, but Find Me and Find My Network are on. There are 3 iPhones nearby (8+, 7, SE), Internet, geolocation, Bluetooth and Find My Network are enabled on these devices. All devices have the latest version of iOS 14.4. But, unfortunately, I cannot see the location of my iPhone 6s even after 2 days of continuous being near other devices. Besides that I tried to enable Lost Mode on the Find Me page in the browser, but after 2 days nothing happened.

My understanding is that Find My Network should work even when there is no Internet connection by using the location of nearby Apple devices and connecting to them via Bluetooth.

Please help to solve this problem. Thx.

Posted on Feb 28, 2021 10:58 PM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

158,910 points

Mar 1, 2021 9:09 AM in response to adminrooot

In theory "Find My Network" uses Bluetooth to detect missing devices and report their approximate location back to the device's owner by using a crowdsourced network of literally millions of Apple devices. It is supposed to be encrypted end-to-end and anonymous.

So, it should not completely rely on the Internet as you suspected. Regardless, to understand more about this feature, and hopefully, answer your question, I suggest that you get a copy of the Find My Network Accessory Specification - Developer Preview and give it a good read.

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