I have lost my iPhone at home, and I have setup find my iphone on it (and used it before successfully).
The wireless on my iPhone is on, and it's at home, so it can connect to the wifi if it wants to.
BUT, seems that iPhone automatically turns off wifi (presumably to save power?) when it goes into lock screen mode, and never pings the wifi again.
How am I supposed to find it?? Very frustrating...
iPhone 5s, iOS 7.1.1
The phone does turn off wifi when the screen is locked to conserve battery power but it still would be online and able to be located if it is turned on and connected to your cellular data network. If it can't connect to the internet over cellular data network either, then you won't be able to locate it using Find My iPhone.
Thanks for the reply. My thread subject should have been "find my iphone" is useless....
so that's exactly my problem: I have lost my phone at home, and since it turns off wifi, find my iphone is useless...
I think it makes more sense for the wifi to go off to save battery, but wake up every, say, 12 hours and check to see if there are requests such as location requests by find my iphone.
kia_mn wrote:
so that's exactly my problem: I have lost my phone at home, and since it turns off wifi, find my iphone is useless...
That isn't correct. If your phone is turned on and can connect to the cellular towers Find My iPhone can still find it, even if it isn't connected to wifi. If it can't connect to the cell towers or wifi, then it can't be tracked. Try calling your number to see if you can hear it ring if Find My iPhone isn't working.
You can give your feedback to Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html.
iPhone useless when phone in lock screen mode even if wifi on
