Can you set up an icloud account without having your apple device in your hand?

go to

www.icloud.com

Apple - iCloud - Learn how to set up iCloud on all your devices.

TaraJoLou wrote:

I need to set up my iCloud so I can track my phone but I don't have it! Is there a way to set up my iCloud without my phone?

If you mean you actually need to enable the "find my iPhone" setting under your iCloud Account's settings on your iPhone, then no, of course not. You needed to have enabled that setting before it went missing in order to be able to remotely connect/communicate with it in the first place.

In order to remotely track an iOS device, that device needs to have an active iCloud account already on it, and the "find" setting already turned on - all before it is no longer in your hands.

The find my iPhone app has nothing at all to do with enabling a device to be tracked remotely. The app is used to track one iOS device from another iOS device.

To make a device trackable, you need to set up an iCloud account on the device. Under that iCloud Account's settings, there is a slider option to enable the remote tracking feature. Turning that slider to "on" then makes that device findable, either by the iOS find my iphone app, or via logging in to the same iCloud account in a web browser.

Unless you had an active iCloud account on the device already, and had enabled the find option under settings, there is nothing you can do to that device remotely now.