How to Locate Your iPhone Using IMEI Number for Free
Using iPhone for years, you may have stored various types of personal data and information on the device, like precious photos, important contacts, text messages, and even passwords. That’s why your iPhone might be one of the most valuable belongs for you. It would be a terrible loss if your iPhone was lost or stolen. Thus, you might wonder how to track or locate a lost or stolen iPhone to get it back as soon as possible. It is well known that there is a feature of the iPhone, called Find My iPhone, which helps us locate and track the iPhone. But sometimes it could happen that you had not turned on this feature before losing your iPhone. In this case, you can try to track your iPhone with the IMEI number. In this article, you will read more about how to use IMEI to track iPhone.
Bonus Tip: When your iPhone is stolen or lost, you may care more about your data on the iPhone than the device itself. In this case, we recommend Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery to help you restore your contacts, photos, text messages, and many other data from your iTunes backup or iCloud backup to the computer.
- Part 1: What is IMEI Number
- Part 2: How to Know the IMEI Number without iPhone
- Part 3: How to Track Your iPhone with IMEI Number
- Part 4: Find My iPhone Instead
What is IMEI Number
Before proceeding further, you should know what the IMEI number is. If you have ever noticed the SIM tray of your iPhone, you will find a 15 digit serial number there, and that is the IMEI number. IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity, which is a unique number assigned to each mobile phone, including iPhone, for identification. Different from the SIM card, you can’t change your IMEI number. SIM number is basically given to identify the consumer while the IMEI number works for the device itself.
IMEI plays a vital role in the security system of mobile devices. If your iPhone is lost or stolen, you can contact your network provider to block the IMEI number. Once it is blacklisted from any GSM network, your iPhone cannot be used again with that network and sometimes other networks in the specific country, even if the SIM is changed. In this way, you can keep your information and data safe even you cannot find it.
How to Know the IMEI Number without iPhone
In the last part, you have learned what the IMEI number is. Now here comes the question – how to find it? As mentioned before, you can see the IMEI number behind the battery of your device. But what if you have lost your iPhone? Is there any way to know the IMEI number without the iPhone? You can try the following three ways.
1. Check the original packaging box
Usually, the IMEI number of your iPhone will be listed over the bar code label on its original packaging box. Thus, you can check the packaging box your iPhone came in to find the IMEI number.
2. Find IMEI in iCloud
You can find the IMEI of your lost iPhone in iCloud. Go to the website: appleid.apple.com, and sign in with your Apple ID and passcode. Click on your iPhone from a list of your Apple devices, and you will be presented with the IMEI number, as well as the model, iOS version, and the serial number of your iPhone.
3. From another iOS device
You are also allowed to get the IMEI of your iPhone from another iOS device if your iPhone is not with you. Go to the Settings of another iOS device and tap on [your name]. On the Apple ID screen, you can see a list of your other devices, including your iPhone. Flip on your iPhone to view the IMEI number.
How to Track Your iPhone with IMEI Number
If you want to use the IMEI to track your iPhone, you can contact your cellular service provider. Tell them that your iPhone is lost or stolen, and ask them to add your iPhone to the gray list of the IMEI database so that they can track your iPhone, even if it is being used with another SIM card or being turned off. When your iPhone is located, you can request your service provider to block your iPhone to prevent it from being used by others. You can also report the IMEI number to authorities so that they can inform you when your iPhone is found.
Sometimes the network providers may refuse to track your iPhone with IMEI number. At this time, you can report your IMEI number to some of the available IMEI databases on the internet, including IMEIDetective, GSMA IMEI Database, and MissingPhones. Submit your IMEI code, contact e-mail, and Finder reward to these IMEI databases, then you will be informed when your iPhone is located. If you were the one who found other people’s iPhone and wanted to return it to the formal owner, you could search the IMEI number in these databases to reach the owner. It may take a long time to report your IMEI code to the IMEI databases. But it is possible to find your iPhone, and worthy of a try.
Using Find My iPhone Instead
If you fail to track your iPhone by its IMEI number, you can try Apple’s own Find My iPhone feature. Chances are that Find My iPhone had been enabled on your iPhone before it was lost or stolen, then there is no way for you to locate it. Once you enabled Find My iPhone, it allows you to track your iPhone from anywhere by signing in to icloud.com/find on your Mac or PC. You can see an accurate location for the lost iPhone there if your device is online.
Conclusion:
In this article, you have read about what is IMEI number, how to find an IMEI number without iPhone, and how to track your iPhone with the IMEI number. Simply, the IMEI number is a unique number assigned to each mobile device, and it is not changeable. To track your iPhone with the IMEI number, you can provide your IMEI number to the network provider and ask them to locate your iPhone. Or you can report your IMEI code to the IMEI database. Frankly speaking, tracking your iPhone with its IMEI number is not as effective as using the feature of Find My iPhone, but it provides more possibilities to find the lost or stolen iPhone when Find My iPhone is not turned on. So it is still worth a try. Do you have any queries or suggestions about the IMEI number? If you have, please share with us in the comment section.