With iOS 15 you can locate an iPhone even if it is turned off. The functions that Apple integrates into compatible devices make locating a lost device even easier and preventing it from being found even more difficult. In iOS 15 we will be able to locate an iPhone even if it is turned off or all its contents have been erased.
An iPhone that never shuts down and is always reachable
Until now a turned-off iPhone could not be located in any way, something that could be exploited to prevent the location of a phone. Now with iOS 15, iPhones never just turn off, but go into a very low power mode similar to that used by AirTag. Using this mode the phone emits the Bluetooth signal necessary for surrounding devices to pick up the message and relay the location to the network’s cloud Search.
And if this new system wasn’t enough, Apple has gone a step further by ensuring that an iPhone fully restored to factory settings will remain discoverable as long as we keep Activation Lock enabled. This means that as long as we don’t remove an iPhone from the Find app manually we will be able to locate it.
While Apple does not recommend using the Find My iPhone system to prevent device theft, the truth is that this system will discourage any friend of the unwary from looking for a phone or two. Undoubtedly, the impossibility of preventing the iPhone from being located is something to be taken into account.
In just a few months we have seen great advances in device location. First was the opening of the Find network to third parties, so that more and more manufacturers can join the system, then we saw the launch of the AirTag, which allow us to locate any device, and now with iOS 15, currently in beta, the location of our iPhone reaches a new level. Nothing replaces having always present where we carry or leave the iPhone, but it is certainly an important advance so that an oversight remains only a scare.
