Why can't I use find my iphone?

Question

Level 1

0 points

Why can't I use find my iphone?

Hello,

so, I have an iPhone 4S with ios 7. Very nice. I also have find my Iphone installed, and iCloud enabled. All well. So I lost my iPhone 4S, thought to track it down with find my iPhone as I could still call my iPhone. My girl friend uses my old iPhone 3GS, so I thought just get "find my iPhone" on here phone, and track my 4S. Well, nice try, but doesn't work. It requires iOs 7!!! So I couldnt track my iPhone. Than I tried to use a friends iPhone 4, but he didnt have iOs 7 installed as well. I tried using icloud.com on Safari, it tells me to install the app............

Why can't I install an app, which used to work on a 3GS anymore? I would guess that most people keep their old iPhones, and use it when the new iPhone was lost or stolen. Big surprise that it doesnt work.

Thanks for that.

Regards,

Florian

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Nov 25, 2013 5:09 AM

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Answer 1

razmee209

Level 10

191,436 points

Nov 25, 2013 8:55 AM in response to Synapse306

Log into icloud.com on your computer, to track your phone.

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2013 8:57 AM in response to Synapse306

Open a web browser on any computer and just login with your account info to www.icloud.com and track it from there.

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Answer 3

robnuti

Level 1

125 points

Nov 25, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Synapse306

^^ razmee209 is correct. Log into any browser on a computer (not an iOS device) and go to iCloud.com. Sign in with your Apple ID and that click on the find my device button.

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Answer 4

Synapse306 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2013 11:49 PM in response to Synapse306

Thanks for all the quick answers. But dont you agree that when you are on a night out, that you do not carry a PC with you around? But most people have their Smartphones with them? When loosing an iPhone, you want to track it down or send a message as quick as possible, not to wait until you are at home, start your PC and log on to iCloud.com, then see that the phone is turned off. The quicker you track it the better, and thats not possible anymore.......

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Answer 5

Nov 26, 2013 4:58 AM in response to Synapse306

If you'd had access to another iOS 7 device you would have been able to use the find my iPhone app. Apple updated the operating system and that included changes to the find my iPhone service and the find my iPhone app. Your friends did not update their devices so nothing you can do about that, but no, the newer version of the app requires iOS 7. Just the way it is. The one common theme in IT and software is that things change, constantly, and inevitably things loose backwards compatibility.

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Answer 6

Synapse306 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 26, 2013 5:10 AM in response to Synapse306

I do understand the backwards compatibility argument only partly. If I had an iPhone 3GS with Find my Iphone installed ages ago, I would be able to track my iPhone even with an old iPhone. I do understand that new Versions of an App can not support als iOS, but they could keep old Versions for old iOS devices. It is bad enough that the 3GS is not supported anymore with iOS, now all the apps start to not work anymore.

There are other apps with offer that, a warning messages comes up that the latest for the iOS supported Version will be installed, but it is not the latest overall Version. I am happy with that, but apple doesnt seem to do it for their own, very usefull apps, which a very unusefull for me now.

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Answer 7

Nov 26, 2013 5:41 AM in response to Synapse306

Submit your feedback directly to Apple using the appropriate link on the Feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

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