Why does "play sound" not work if my iPhone is offline. That defeats the purpose of using the sound to find my device. I know your device did not have to be online in ios6 to play a sound. I couldn't find a way to change this either. Seems ridiculous.
iPhone 5s, iOS 7.0.3
Welcome to the Apple community.
You've never been able to play a sound or do anything else for that matter from find my phone if the device is offline. It should be reasonably obvious that if a device is offline, it can't be contacted to give it any instructions.
I know I was able to play a sound when the iPad or iPhone was in sleep mode previously. It seems sleep mode is now considered "offline". Meaning if the iPad is in our house, fully charged, but asleep, it won't play a sound until someone wakes the iPad. Am I missing something?
Asleep isn't offline, my device can play a sound from sleep, I'm not sure what your problem is, you may have a problem with your network.
I did not have any network issues but my problem seems to be resolved now. I had one device that had not been updated to iOS7 but is now updated -not sure if that is why I wasn't able to play a sound on a device that was asleep but everything is now working.
Your device has always had to be online in order to have a sound played to it. Trying to play a sound on an offline device is like trying to talk to a deaf person.
I should have been clearer. My device that I wanted to play a sound on using "find my iPhone" was online but asleep, however when I launched the find my iPhone app, that device appeared with an offline status. To test the app, I grabbed my wife's iPhone checked to make sure it was online, put it asleep, then opened the find my iPhone on another one of my iPads. The status of my wife's iPhone appeared as "offline" which was not accurate. That was the problem I was trying to resolve.
Interesting. Play Sound has always worked for me even if my screen is off.
I have the same issue with my iPad mini. I have both an iPhone 6s, iPhone 5 and iPad mini 2. All are running up to date iOS, on the same wifi network and have the correct date and time. I regularly misplace all
l devices. If I'm looking for the phones, it's not a problem. I use Find My iPhone, locate them, play a sound and hunt them down in the house. The problem is the iPad. If it is sleeping, it will appear as "offline" in Find My iPhone. If I play a sound, nothing happens. I roam the house until I find my iPad on my own. As soon as I press the home button, the find my iPhone alert starts playing. The iPad can only be located while awake. The iPad does not have cellular data. Does the cellular network keep iPhones a tIndy bit more awake (connected to the system) when sleeping? It's almost like he phones have a secret "Wake for network access" setting and my iPad doesn't.
You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.
So right. I really didn't pay attention to the dates when I replied to the last person. As this seems to be common and has been going on for years, I'm not actively looking for a fix. I'll just wait and hope an update changes things.
My phone will not play a sound if it asleep. I have tried many times. It will never play a sound and always shows offline. I have had iPhones since 2002 and I have never been able to play a sound when it's asleep. Is there something I need to change in my settings
Why does "play sound" not work if my iPhone is offline.
