Check these in order
- Is the device powered on? A flat or switched-off device broadcasts nothing and cannot be detected by any means.
- Is Bluetooth on for the app? Settings, Privacy and Security, Bluetooth, the permission can be revoked without you noticing after an iOS update.
- Is your own Bluetooth switched on in Control Centre? The Control Centre toggle temporarily disconnects rather than fully disabling; check Settings if in doubt.
- Have you waited long enough? Low-power devices advertise infrequently to save battery. Give a scan a full sixty seconds before concluding anything.
- Are you close enough? Ten to thirty metres indoors is realistic. Two floors away is not.
- Is it inside something? Metal, water and dense fabric attenuate 2.4 GHz badly. A device in a metal drawer or a full bag may be undetectable from two metres.
Devices that will never appear
- Anything using infrared rather than radio, including most older TV remotes.
- Standard car key fobs, which use a proprietary short-range radio rather than Bluetooth.
- Devices using Bluetooth Classic only, without a Low Energy advertisement.
- Anything switched off, out of battery, or in a hard power-down state.
Restart in the right order
Toggle Bluetooth off and on in Settings rather than Control Centre, then restart the app, then restart the phone. Doing it in that order avoids a phone restart you probably do not need.
Related methods
If this was not the situation you are in, one of these probably is.
- How to find a device without creating an account, Privacy
- What to do in the first hour after losing your phone, Checklist
- How to stop losing the same things, Prevention
- How to find something in the dark, Method
- What to do if you find someone else’s device, Guidance
- Clap to find your phone, Clap tab
- Find My network: Apple’s crowd-sourced finding
- All how-to guides, the complete list
Common questions
Why does my Bluetooth scan show nothing at all?
Most often the app does not have Bluetooth permission. Check Settings, Privacy and Security, Bluetooth. If the permission is on and you still see nothing, your own Bluetooth is likely disabled in Settings rather than Control Centre.
Why does a device appear and then disappear from the list?
Low-power devices advertise at intervals to save battery, so they blink in and out of a scan. That is normal behaviour, not a fault.
In the app: This is what the app is built for. Read about Bluetooth Scanner.