Pro tip: Disable Apple Pay from Find My iPhone

Cory Bohon
Updated
Disable Apple Pay
Disable Apple Pay

If you've ever lost your iPhone, then you know the horrors in the hours that pass when you can't find your beloved device. Fortunately, iCloud-enabled devices can easily be disabled using the Find my iPhone feature of iCloud. But, what if you use Apple Pay? Having your credit and debit cards linked to your lost device definitely doesn't put your mind at ease -- even if the cards can't be used without a valid Touch ID fingerprint.

Let's take a look at the basics of reporting your device as lost in iCloud and disabling the Apple Pay feature so that it can't be used at all if found.

What you'll need

  • iPhone 6/6 Plus

  • iCloud account

Enabling Find my iPhone/iPad

In order to disable Apple Pay on your device, you must first have Find my Device enabled. To enable this feature, you'll need to perform the following steps on your iPhone or iPad:

  1. Open Settings | iCloud | Find my [iPhone/iPad] (Figure A)

  2. Flip the Find my [Device Name] switch to the ON position

  3. Optionally, enable the Send Last Location switch, and when your device is about to shutdown due to low battery, a last-known location will be sent to iCloud

Figure A

Figure A
Figure A
Enabling Find my Device is a great way to protect yourself in a worst-case scenario, like when you lose your device.

With this enabled, you can submit your device as being missing, which will place it in lost mode and display a message. Now, let's take at how to disable Apple Pay.

Disabling Apple Pay remotely

If you've lost your device, visit iCloud.com in your web browser and follow these steps:

  1. Once you're logged in, select Settings

  2. Under the My Devices section, you'll see all OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 devices that are linked to your iCloud account (Figure B), with an Apple Pay logo designating those that have credit cards associated with them
    Figure B

    Figure B
    Figure B

  3. Select the device that you wish to disassociate with Apple Pay

  4. A new dialog will open with information about the device that you selected, including a listing of Apple Pay cards on the device. Select Remove All... (Figure C)
    Figure C

    Figure C
    Figure C

Once you've selected Remove All..., you'll get a dialog that states, "These cards will not be available for payments on this device. You will be able to add these cards again on your device, in Passbook. It may take a few minutes to remove the cards."

Accept the dialog, and your cards will be removed from your device. Note that this can take a number of minutes for the request to process and your cards associated with your device to be removed. Rest assured, however, that once removed, no one will be able to make any payments with the cards.

Apple Pay is very secure in that it requires your fingerprint to unlock the cards and make a payment. However, even if someone were able to make a replica of your fingerprint, this will stop any cards associated with your device from being able to be used -- giving you a little more ease when trying to recover your lost or stolen device.

Have you had any difficulty enabling or disabling Apple Pay? Share your experience in the discussion thread below.

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