How to find your iPhone with your Apple Watch

By Christine Chan
Contributions from
Joseph Keller
 published

Can't find your iPhone? Use your Apple Watch to ping it!

Apple Watch on arm clock
(Image credit: Apple)

Have you ever misplaced your iPhone at home or think you've lost it? Chances are maybe it went under the couch, but how can you find out for sure? If you have an Apple Watch, then you can use it to ping your iPhone, instead of rushing over to your computer and iCloud.com.

I mean, you could use iCloud.com to ping your phone, but then your inbox will get hit with a flood of emails saying that a noise has been sent — annoying! Using your best Apple Watch to find your iPhone, such as the iPhone 14 Pro, is much easier. Here's how it works.

Note: Your phone needs to be turned on and have Bluetooth enabled for this to work, and it will only ping the iPhone your Apple Watch is paired with; you can't currently find other devices in this manner.

How to find your iPhone with your Apple Watch

  1. Press the Digital Crown button to return to the watch face.
  2. Swipe up from the bottom of the watch face. It should show your iPhone at the top as "Connected" in green text.
  3. Tap the Find iPhone button in the bottom left corner.

(Image credit: iMore)

Within a few seconds, your iPhone should ring out with a small submarine-style ping. You can tap this button to your heart's content until you discover where your phone has been spending its time.

Pro-tip: Sometimes that submarine-style ping isn't enough to help you track down your device. If you tap and hold the Find iPhone button on your Apple Watch, it'll make your iPhone's LED light flash as well as chime.

Always know where your iPhone is

As you can see, it's easy to find your best iPhone when you have your Apple Watch with you. Just swipe up and tap that Find iPhone button until you actually find it! And yes, you can hold that button down and even get the LED flash to light up, making it easier to find, especially in the dark.

And if you ever lose your Apple Watch, you can also do the reverse and use your iPhone to locate your watch through Find My iPhone.

Originally written June 2017: Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Updated September 2022: These steps are still the same with current versions of iOS 16 and watchOS 9.

Christine Chan
Christine Chan

Christine Romero-Chan was formerly a Senior Editor for iMore. She has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade at a variety of websites. She is currently part of the Digital Trends team, and has been using Apple’s smartphone since the original iPhone back in 2007. While her main speciality is the iPhone, she also covers Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac when needed.

When she isn’t writing about Apple, Christine can often be found at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as she is a passholder and obsessed with all things Disney, especially Star Wars. Christine also enjoys coffee, food, photography, mechanical keyboards, and spending as much time with her new daughter as possible.

With contributions from