Apple’s Find My app is not working for some users.

Apple’s Find My app appears to be facing an ongoing outage in its services, as confirmed by the company itself on its System Status webpage. As a result, find My app is partially or entirely offline for some users this Saturday.

Apple says that “users may be unable to use” the Find My app right now. According to the company, the outage began at 12:30 PM PT and is still ongoing. 9to5Mac was able to confirm that the Find My app is not working at the moment, as it shows a message saying, “Unable to connect to the server. Please try again later.”

Apple’s Find My app is used to locate lost and stolen iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other Apple devices. The app is also required to track Air Tag and other accessories compatible with the Find My network.

Unfortunately, Apple does not say when the problem is expected to be fixed. Today’s Find My app outage follows an outage in Apple Card services on Friday, preventing users from paying and managing their Apple Card.

Apple’s Find My app is not working

Given the rising threats of identity theft, smartphone manufacturers ensure that every device they release, especially high-end appliances, must integrate certain security features for device owners to use. For instance, Apple’s flagship smartphones offer an anti-theft feature widely known as Find My iPhone, a security tool that helps users track and locate their missing iPhones.

But for some reason, other iPhone users, including those who owned the special edition iPhone (iPhone SE), we’re having trouble with Find My iPhone. This post highlights the common issues encountered by iPhone SE users when trying to use the feature. As a result, the Find, My iPhone, is not working in locating their lost Apple device, along with potential solutions and applicable workarounds for troubleshooting purposes. Read on to learn more.

Before we proceed with our troubleshooting, if you have other concerns with your new iPhone SE, drop by our troubleshooting page, for we have already published some guides and tutorials. You may also contact us by completing our iPhone issues questionnaire. This is a free consultation service we offer, and all we need is information about the problem. So please give us that so that we can help you better. 

Read Grab the best deal on Apple products exclusive offer.

Possible causes and factors to consider

If Find My iPhone is not working when you need to track down your lost or stolen iPhone or iPad, consider these possibilities:

• Find my iPhone or iCloud is not enabled on your device. Among the key requisites to use Find My iPhone is that both iCloud and Find My iPhone must be enabled on the device that you need to locate before it gets stolen or lost. If these services are not turned on, you will not be able to use Find My iPhone through a website or appdevice, but because the service won’t be able to know what device to locate or how to get in touch with it. For this reason, it is highly recommended to enable both features the very first time you setup your device.
• The device is turned off. Find My iPhone is only able to track devices that are turned on because the device needs to be able to communicate with Wi-Fi or cellular networks and send GPS signals to send its location to Find My iPhone. So even if Find My iPhone is enabled on your device but it is turned off, you won’t be able to track its current location on the map. What you will see is the device’s last known location for 24 hours.
• Not connected to the Internet. The missing device needs to be online or connected to the Internet in order for Find My iPhone to access and track its location. Thus, if it is not connected or online, it wouldn’t be able to tell where it is. Your phone might be out of range to Wi-Fi or cellular networks or the person who has it turned off these features on your device. In this case, you will only be able to see the last known location of your missing device for 24 hours just like with no power.
• SIM card issue. If the SIM card has been damaged or removed from the missing device, it won’t be able to communicate with Find My iPhone as it couldn’t connect to the network (unless it connects to Wi-Fi). Nonetheless, the device will become visible to Find My iPhone the next time it goes back online even when the SIM card was replaced for as long as it’s connected to Wi-Fi.
• Incorrect date and time settings. Another factor that can trigger Find My iPhone is not working issue is an incorrect date or time on your device. In fact, it is a common source of iTunes errors affecting various Apple devices. What happens is that the Apple servers except that the devices attempting to connect to them have the correct date and time but if then it’s not. There is where problems ensue.
• Feature is not available or supported. Find My iPhone may likewise not be able to locate your device on a map when using it in other countries. Maps data may not be available for certain countries and Apple does not have access to that data worldwide. As a result, it won’t be able to track the device on a map using Find My iPhone.

The Bottom Line

If you cannot sign in to the Find My iPhone app on your iPhone SE, try to use the website instead. For example, if you have a computer available, open a browser and go to iCloud.com on your computer. Try to sign in to iCloud, then select Find My iPhone and see if it works.

If you are prompted with a message saying that No devices are registered, try these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap [your name].
3. Tap iCloud.
4. Make sure Find My iPhone is turned on.

Find My iPhone also needs to be enabled on the missing device, though.

If you are prompted with a message saying that “Your device is no longer locatable,” here are your options:

• Use Find My iPhone to play a sound, display a message on the device’s screen, lock or erase the missing device. This message tells you that Location Services was turned off on your missing device, when using Find My iPhone to locate it. Find My iPhone won’t be able to locate your missing device but  the last known location will be displayed for up to 24 hours.

If you don’t see your device in the list or you see an unexpected device or an alert message saying that your device is offline, follow these steps:

• Verify and ensure that you have signed into iCloud and Find My iPhone is enabled on your device. If Find My iPhone is off, turn it on then tap Allow.
• Verify and make sure you signed in with the correct Apple ID. It is possible that you signed in to iCloud.com or Find My iPhone with a different Apple ID than the one on the device that you don’t see in the list. To eliminate this from the possible causes, sign in to Find My iPhone or iCloud.com with your other Apple ID accounts and locate your device.
• Make sure that your device has a cellular or Wi-Fi network connection. If you can access your device and see that it has an active Internet connection, try to turn Airplane on for a few seconds and then turn it back off.

If you see a large circle, it means that your device is still trying to determine a more accurate location. In this case, all you can do is wait for a few minutes or refresh the map again. If it is still stuck on a prominent location circle, check your network connection. It’s possible that your iPhone SE does not have access to Wi-Fi or GPS signals at the moment.

Read Elon Musk wants to become the CEO of Apple.