NEW: Never Forget Your Phone Again with Apple Watch Alerts

Have you ever left your iPhone behind and didn’t realize it until it was too late? We’ve all been there! Luckily, your Apple Watch can now alert you if your iPhone, or other Apple products, have been left behind. Plus, there are other Apple Watch features to help you find your iPhone once you’ve returned to the location where you left it. I’ll walk you through the steps!

What's in This Article:

• Requirements to Enable the Notify When Left Behind Alert
• Apple Watch iPhone Left Behind Alert Set-Up
• How to Find Your iPhone Using With Apple Watch
  • How to Ping iPhone from Apple Watch
  • Use FindMy on Apple Watch to Find Your iPhone

Requirements to Enable the Notify When Left Behind Alert 

• iPhone running iOS 15 or later
• Apple Watch running watchOS 8 or later

Set Up Apple Watch iPhone Left Behind Alert

In order to set up the Notify When Left Behind alerts, you need to follow these steps:

1. Open Find My on your iPhone.
   
   
    
2. Tap Devices. Devices refers to all Apple devices, while Items shows your AirTag.
   
   
    
3. Tap on your iPhone.
   
   
    
4. Select Notify When Left Behind.
   
   
    
5. Toggle on Notify When Left Behind.
   
   
    
6. You can also select an exception for your home so that you won’t be notified if you leave your device there.
   
   

Pro Tip: The Notify Me, Except At feature can be useful for a device that you generally leave there, like a MacBook, but you may want to skip this for phones or an AirTag that’s on your keys or wallet so that you do get notified if you leave them at home as you likely want them with you at all times.

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How to Find Your iPhone Using with Apple Watch

If you receive the “Apple Watch iPhone Left Behind” alert, you can use your Apple Watch to help you find your phone. There are two ways to help you find it.

How to Ping iPhone from Apple Watch 

If you know your iPhone is nearby, but you can't find it, the simplest thing to do is to ping it using your Apple Watch. To do this:

1. Swipe up on your Watch Face to open the Control Center.
   
   
    
2. Tap the phone icon, and your iPhone will make a noise to help you find it.
   
   
    
3. If you can hear it but can't see it because it's too dark, you can also tap and hold the phone icon. Your iPhone will make a noise and will blink the camera flash.

If you can’t hear your iPhone, it may be out of range or turned off. In that case, you can try one more thing.

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Use Find My on Apple Watch to Find Your iPhone

Find My used to be limited on Apple Watch, but with watchOS 8 and later, it can work independently to find your Apple devices, including your iPhone. To do this:

1. Press the Home button.
   
   
    
2. Tap Find Devices. FindMy has been split into three separate apps depending on if you want to find an Apple device, AirTag, or contact.
   
    
    
3. Select your iPhone.
   
   
    
4. You’ll be able to see where your phone is on a map and an approximate address underneath.
   
   
    
5. Under Find, you'll be able to select Play Sound to play a sound on your iPhone.
   
   
    
6. You can also select Directions; this will help you navigate to your device by giving you directions to drive, cycle, use public transit, or walk to where your iPhone was last seen.
   
   

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Now you have the tools to never forget your iPhone! However, if you do, I'd walked you through the steps of finding it if you lost or forgot using just your Apple Watch. For more tips on using your Apple Watch to the fullest, sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter.