How to locate your lost Apple Watch

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Whether you are missing your Apple Watch because you took it off somewhere in your house or because it mysteriously disappeared from your gym locker., there are several built-in features to help you locate it (as well as to mark it lost and even delete it ).

What you need to find your Apple Watch

RELATED: How to update your Apple Watch to Watch OS 2.0.1 (the superior)

Para hallar su Apple Watch, you will need updated software and a bit of prep work. First, to take advantage of the find my watch function, must run iOS 10 or higher and watchOS 3 the superior. (If you've never updated your watch before and want to check it out, check out our guide to updating your Apple Watch here).

At the same time, The type of Find My Watch features you will have access to and the range in which they work is limited by the hardware version of the Apple Watch you have. All functions work on all Apple Watches as long as they are within Bluetooth range of your companion iPhone, but only the Apple Watch Series 2 It has built-in Wi-Fi and GPS that allow the functions to work if the phone is far away.

RELATED: How to track, disable and remove an iPhone, Lost iPad or Mac

Finally, and we absolutely understand the bitter discovery that this will be if you are reading this post after having lost your watch and are in a panic, You must enable the Find My Phone feature on the iPhone your Apple Watch is on. Paired with in advanceor you will not be able to enter the functions. Despite this, do not worry, no additional configuration: Any Apple Watch that is paired with an iPhone that has Find My Phone enabled automatically adds the Apple Watch to its list of devices.

How to find your Apple Watch

You are running updated iOS and watchOS, ha habilitado Find My Phone (automatically dragging your Apple Watch for the ride) and now his watch is missing. Let's first look at how to simply locate your watch when it's close by and then move on to more drastic measures like remote locking and cleaning..

To enter basic and advanced functions, just open the Watch app on your paired device and select the remaining watch, So:

Inside the clock menu, click the additional information icon “i”:

Please select “Find my Apple Watch” to begin the search procedure.

That selection will take you to the app “Find iPhone” on your phone, with the app focused on your watch (Besides, you can always use the Find iPhone app from scratch or even log in icloud.com to use the web-based locator, but using the Watch application takes you directly to the respective menu).

In the location menu, you will see your Apple Watch (whether your phone can connect to the watch or whether your Apple Watch Series 2 can connect to the internet) with an approximate location. Sometimes, this is enough: if your watch appears to be in your car parked on the street, it's very probable that, well, your watch is in your car parked on the street. But, you have other options.

Locate your phone with an audio alert

Despite this, if you need more than a reminder of what your watch is in your gym in the back of your car, it's time to record the most advanced alternatives, seen at the bottom of the screenshot above: “Open the Tracker Detect app and then press the Scan button”, ” Lost Mode " and "Delete Clock".

RELATED: How to find your iPhone using your Apple Watch or iCloud

The function “Open the Tracker Detect app and then press the Scan button” it's great for those occasions when you just lost your watch, And it works exactly like the Apple Watch feature that enables you to find your lost iPhone: tap the button and your watch plays a loud chime. The loud chime will continue to sound with the following message displayed on the watch, until you locate and press it “Discard”.

If your watch just gets lost on the sofa cushions, this should be more than enough to alert you.

Mark your watch as “lost”

When squeezing a chime from your watch doesn't narrow your search pattern, it may be time to consider that your watch is truly lost. In this point, it's time to play “Lost Mode” and mark your watch as lost. Tap it and then select “Enable Lost Mode”.

First, You will be prompted to enter a contact phone number which will be displayed on the remaining Apple Watch.

Next, you will be prompted to use the canned message provided (or edit it with your own message). This message, along with the phone number provided, will appear on your watch.

When you click “Ready”, your selections will be saved and the iCloud network will try to send them to your lost watch. Back on the main screen, there is a final setting you can toggle: email notifications. You can do this by playing “Notify when you are”: Notification emails about the status of your Apple Watch will be sent to the primary email associated with your Apple account.

After these changes, the watch, whether it can be accessed via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, will be marked as lost, as if someone picked it up, will display your message like this:

The watch can only be unlocked with your current or last used access code. At any time you can modify the Lost Mode settings or disable it by tapping the “and this is how it works”. You will be presented with the following menu:

Here you can change the number, the message, whether or not you receive email updates, as well as disable Lost Mode completely. It is essential to pay attention that, in the same way as the search function itself, these changes, except to disable email updates, will not take effect if the watch is out of communication range.

The nuclear option: clean your watch

Let's say you can see your Apple Watch on the satellite map, knows that it is still active, but there is some extenuating circumstance that prevents you from getting it back. Maybe you're not in that part of the country anymore, Or maybe the watch is in a dangerous part of town and neither you nor the police are interested in taking the risk of getting it back. Whatever the reason, you may want to wipe it remotely to remove all personal data.

To do it, tap the trash can icon with the label “Delete clock” in the find my watch interface. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete your watch.

When choosing “Remove Apple Watch”, you will be asked once again to confirm the procedure by entering your password. As soon as the watch can connect to the internet, will be remotely erased to its factory state.

What if you can't find your watch?

Ideally, you will find your watch. Much less than ideal, you will never see it again. Even if you never see a map sign or an email alert, you can rest easy knowing two things. First: even if you can't delete your watch, the data on your watch is still encrypted, and if you use an access code, no one who finds the watch can enter it (nor can you pair it with your iPhone to extract the deactivated data).

In second place, activation of each Apple Watch is locked on the phone it was originally paired with (unless expressly authorized by the owner of such watch and phone). Though it's no fun losing your watch, at least you can rest easy knowing that even if some jerk in your gym lifted it, has absolutely no value to them. Stolen Apple Watches can never be paired with another iPhone.

As a final note, if you are reading this post out of curiosity (because your watch is still firmly attached to your wrist), take a moment to set the passcode for your watch and enable Find My iPhone, Plus I should do it that fateful day. If you get where the couch or the skillful hands of a pickpocket steal your watch, will have some resource.

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