Apple iPad:
Cloud location services
This course shows you how to locate your other Apple devices and your friends and family using your Apple iPad, the in-built Find my app and the cloud.
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Transcript
Welcome to the "iPad: Cloud location services" course. When you choose to create an Apple ID as part of setting up an iPad, you also get a free service called iCloud. In this course, you'll learn how iCloud and the Find My app can help locate your iPad if it goes missing, share your location with friends and family and ask others to share their location with you. It should take around 10 minutes to complete the video, but you can pause or rewind to check any steps you're unsure about. Before you begin, check that your iPad is fully charged and has the latest version of its operating software. You'll need an internet connection over home Wi-Fi or via a mobile data plan. And you'll need to be signed in to your Apple ID using its email address and password. Finally, your iPad should be switched on, unlocked and showing the Home screen.
To get started, find the Settings icon and tap on it to open it. Because you are signed in to your iPad with your Apple ID, your username will be at the top on the left. Tap on it. The Apple ID menu will appear on the right. Look for Find My, in the list of options and tap it. The Find My menu opens. At the top, tap 'Find My iPad'. On the next screen, tap the switch next to Find My iPad to turn on the service. The switch will move to the right and change colour. When you turn it on, some more options appear. 'Find My network' is a special service that makes it possible to find your iPad even if its battery is flat, or if it has no Wi-Fi or mobile data reception.
To test Find My, you can go to the web browser on a computer, type in icloud.com/find, sign in using your Apple ID and see your iPad's location on a map. To learn how to locate your iPad using an Apple computer, watch the video called "Sharing photos and location with the cloud". For now, let's look at how to share your location with friends. Your iPad should still be showing the Find My iPad menu. In the top left corner, tap the back arrow to return to the Find My options screen. Under 'Find My iPad', you can see My Location. To the right of this it should say, 'This Device'. If you have an Apple computer or iPhone, you could change your location to either of those devices too. Because you are likely to take your iPad out of the house with you, our demonstration will use it to show your location. Under My Location is Share My Location. Tap the switch so that it becomes coloured to turn this feature on. Turning on Share My Location here doesn't mean everyone can see your location now. Instead, it makes it possible to share your location with specific people, using the Find My app. To see your whereabouts on their iPad or iPhone, friends or family must be signed in to their mobile device with their own Apple ID.
Let's look at the Find My app now. Press the Home button to go back to the Home screen. Now locate the Find My app icon. It looks like a radar screen. Your iPad will come with the Find My app already installed, but if you can't see it, you can download it from the App Store. Tap the Find My icon to open the app. The Find My app's main screen is a map with a blue dot showing the current location of your iPad and a panel on the bottom left. If the panel looks a little different to our demonstration, check that the Me icon at the bottom right is highlighted blue. If not, tap it. Remember, the blue dot on the map is the location of your iPad. If you go out and leave your iPad at home, anyone who you are sharing your location with, will see your location as still being at home. In the panel, tap the People icon on the left to see a list of contacts you are sharing your location with. In our demonstration, we haven't shared our location with anyone yet, so let's do that now. Tap Start Sharing Location. Enter a contact name or a mobile phone number in the To field. And when the right contacts name appears, tap on it. Then tap Send. You might get a message pop up warning that this person may not be using Find My.
Find My location sharing only works on an iPad or iPhone. You can continue to share your location by tapping OK and then tapping Send again. After you tap Send, a pop up will ask if you want to 'Share for One Hour', 'Share Until End of Day', or 'Share Indefinitely'. Tap the option you prefer. The Share My Location page will close and you'll see the Find My map again. Your contact's name will be on the list in the People panel, with a note that they 'Can see your location'.
You won't be able to see their location, until they share it with you. If you'd like to stop sharing your location with this person, tap their name in the People panel. The panel changes to show some options. Scroll down the panel until you see 'Stop Sharing My Location' in red. Tap Stop Sharing My Location to stop this person from being able to see your location. Then tap it again in the confirmation panel that pops up. If someone offers to share their location with you, a notification will appear at the top of the screen and the People panel will open at the bottom. To accept their offer, tap the Share button. A notification will also appear if someone changes their location. Now that you've exchanged location information, press the Home button to return to the Home screen and finish this course. Congratulations!
You have learned how to set up your iPad so you can find it using the Find My service, as well as share your location with friends or family. When you're ready, you can learn how to use your Apple computer to access the photos you've backed up to iCloud, by watching the Apple desktop or laptop video called "Sharing photos and location with the cloud".