Since the introduction of Find My iPhone over a decade ago, Apple has made it possible to Find My Nearly Everything. The current ecosystem encompasses people, Apple devices, and low-power, long-life trackers. Take Control of Find My and AirTags takes you through the many parts of Find My so you can configure and refine how you and your stuff is tracked and shared.
The book looks at three different kinds of tracking:
- People: Learn how to share your location safely, follow others who let you, and send and receive notifications about arrivals and departures.
- Devices: Apple lets you track the whereabouts of your and Family Sharing group members’ iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Watch, AirPods (all models), and Beats audio hardware (some models). Get to know the ins and outs of enabling Find My and taking remote actions, from playing a sound to wiping your data from a device.
- Items: Find out how AirTags make use of the crowdsourced network of other people’s Apple devices to help you find a lost or forgotten purse, backpack, or even car, and about third-party devices licensing the technology from Apple.
Also get to know the dangers of Find My stalking and how to identify the risk, deter unwanted tracking from happening, block it if you find it—and report it to law enforcement or get other help.
The book also digs into how Family Sharing interacts with personal and device location sharing and finding, and how to help other people find their lost stuff if they don’t have one of their own Apple devices handy.
Covered operating systems are iOS and iPadOS versions 13 through 16, and macOS 10.15 Mojave through macOS 13 Ventura—and all the new options introduced in the latest releases of each.
Here’s more of what you can find in this book:
- Find out the difference between device-based Find My tracking and the Find My network.
- Figure out if your Apple or Beats audio hardware can be tracked just over Bluetooth nearby or via the Find My Network.
- Experience the joy of playing a sound over the internet or nearby to help find a missing device or item.
- See the place in Apple’s ecosystem for third-party Find My tracking from Belkin (earbuds), Chipolo (ONE Spot tracker), and VanMoof (ebikes).
- Control and monitor the way you let others track your whereabouts.
- Get to know presence, the way you define which of your devices indicates where you are to other people.
- Learn about the capability in iOS 15/iPadOS 15 and later to track an iPhone or iPad even after it’s been erased!
- Dig into Apple’s efforts to prevent Find My from being used for stalking and unwanted tracking, and how to find out if someone’s trying to track you without your permission.
- Discover buried controls for configuring exactly how Find My updates your device’s location, including when power runs low.
- Understand Activation Lock, which protects devices from being reused even if someone has erased them.
- Help family members find lost and stolen gear through Find My’s Family Sharing support.
- Revel in an expanding list of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS features that improve Find My’s capabilities.
Glenn Fleishman is a veteran technology writer who has contributed to dozens of publications across his career, including Macworld, Fast Company, and Increment. He has also written dozens of editions of books in the Take Control series. He spent 2019 and 2020 building 100 tiny type museums full of real printing artifacts. Glenn lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
What’s New in Version 1.4
Apple’s release of macOS 13.1 Ventura and iPadOS 16.2 brought a few minor improvements to AirTags and Find My item tracking.
With macOS 13.1, Mac owners can now trigger a sound on AirTags and Find My items within Bluetooth range of the Mac. Previously, you had to use an iPhone or iPad to play a sound on a nearby item. See “Play Sound.”
Apple finally brought “item moving with you” alerts to iPadOS with the release of iPadOS 16.2. See “Unwanted Tracking via Find My Items.”
In the “Track Bikes” section, I added a paragraph about the Knog Scout, a bike-mounted Find My device with a Bluetooth-controlled alarm.
I also added a link about a lawsuit filed against Apple in early December 2022 related to alleged stalking aided by AirTags. See “Find My Items and Law Enforcement.”
What Was New in Version 1.3.2
Apple updated the design of the iCloud.com site for the first time in many years, requiring a few minor changes in portions of the book that refer to how to navigate at iCloud.com to the Find My app. Notably, Apple finally changed the label Find My iPhone to read simply and consistently as Find My in the list of web apps on the site. When you select Find My, the resulting page is labeled Find Devices. I’ve updated the wording throughout the book to reflect this change.
What Was New in Version 1.3.1
This update made minor changes to bring the book in line with the release version of iOS 16 on September 12, 2022.
It also included a minor update to address the new AirPods Pro 2, announced September 7, 2022, which contains precision finding for Find My. See “Find with Precision.” The book is also updated throughout to include the AirPods Pro 2 along older models.
What Was New in Version 1.3
With the upcoming release of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura, I’ve updated the book to reflect mostly minor changes in these operating systems. (I’ll update this book again if the release versions of those operating systems require changes.)
Note that Ventura renamed System Preferences to System Settings and reorganized where you find many system-wide options. I’ve updated that throughout for compatibility.
In this update, you can also find:
- How to use AirTags: I rewrote an expanded a section in Deploy an AirTag or Accessory to look at the many ways in which an AirTag could be used, and offer more product and attachment suggestions, particularly AirTag cases. See “Consider Your Purpose.”
- Revamped getting information from a Find My item: I reworked a section with more detail and a better ordering on how to retrieve information from an AirTag or other item that’s discovered. It now properly notes you can scan for items near you in the Find My app. See “Get Info from a Found Find My Item.”
- New Pebblebee Find My trackers: Pebblebee released two Find My items that I’ve added throughout the book when discussing third-party items.
- “More Light” error with Precision Finding: When using Precision Finding to locate a nearby AirTag while it’s relatively dark around you, you might see a “More Light Required” error. See “More Light? Why an AirTag Might Say It’s Dim.”
Posted by Joe Kissell on October 31, 2021
Glenn Fleishman joined host Chuck Joiner on MacVoices about his most recent books.
In part one, Glenn discusses Take Control of Find My and AirTags. He provides an overview of Find My, explains the differences between “devices” and “items,” and talks about privacy considerations.
In part two, Glenn covers updates to Take Control of iOS & iPadOS Privacy and Security and his more recent book Take Control of Securing Your Mac, including new security features in Monterey and iCloud+.
In part three, Glenn discusses Take Control of Cryptocurrency and more.
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