Locate and Erase Your iPhone Using MobileMe

Did you know that you can remotely find and/or erase your iPhone? You can if you have a MobileMe subscription and you have the Find My iPhone feature turned on.

First, let’s enable this feature on our iPhone. Turn on your iPhone and go to Settings. Go to the Mail, Contacts and Calendar section and then select your MobileMe email account. Turn on the Find My iPhone feature using the slider button.

Now, let’s test this feature. Go to http://www.me.com and login to your MobileMe account. Click the green Find My iPhone button near the upper left corner of the web page. You’ll be asked to enter your MobileMe password a second time. Apple is just being extra secure by asking for this information.

Wait a minute or so while your iPhone is located. I should mention that this service relies on the GPS chip in your iPhone so if the iPhone is off then this won’t work. A map showing the approximate location of your iPhone will appear. This can help you determine if your iPhone is around the house, at your office or if you forgot it at the restaurant last night.

Below the map you’ll see three buttons: Display a Message, Remote Lock and Remote Wipe.

Display a Message lets you display a short text message on the screen and play an optional alert sound. This sound will play even if the phone is in silent mode. This sound can help you find the phone if its under a couch cushion. Or it could help a waiter find it if the phone is under a restaurant table.

The Remote Lock feature lets you enable the lock so nobody can view your data or run-up your phone bill. In my last blog article I recommended that you have the all the time.

The Remote Wipe feature allows you to remotely remove all data from the phone. As long as you have synced your iPhone recently then go ahead and do this. If you locate your phone eventually then you can restore all of the data by syncing it to your Mac.