How to Locate Your Car With Your Phone, Even if Someone Moved It

The short answer

To locate your car with your phone, check the parking spot your maps app saved. On iPhone, open Apple Maps and search Parked Car. On Android, open Google Maps, tap the search bar and choose Parking location.

Those are the two main ways your phone helps: it remembers where the car was when you parked, or it asks the car itself through your carmaker's connected app. The first way works well when you park in a lot, a garage or an unfamiliar street and just need to walk back. It falls short when nothing got saved or when someone else drove the car after you left it. For those cases, the car's own location is the better tool.

iPhone: let Apple Maps remember for you

On iPhone, this is built in and only needs a few settings turned on. Apple Maps drops a parked car marker when you disconnect your iPhone from your car's Bluetooth or CarPlay and leave the car.

This only works if your iPhone connects to your car by Bluetooth or CarPlay. No Bluetooth in your car? Use Google Maps on iPhone and save your spot by hand, as shown further down. Apple Maps also does not mark your car when you park somewhere you park often, like home or work.

Apple treats these as separate settings, so check each one:

• Location Services: Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services, turned on.
• Significant Locations: In Location Services, go to System Services › Significant Locations (it may be called Significant Locations & Routes) and turn it on.
• Show Parked Location: Settings › Apps › Maps › Show Parked Location, turned on.
• Alerts (optional): Settings › Notifications › Maps, turn on Allow Notifications and pick the alert types you want.

iPhone: finding the car in Apple Maps

When you are ready to head back, you have two quick ways to get there.

• From Maps: Open Maps, search for Parked Car and choose it from the results. You can view the spot, edit it or add notes, such as the garage level. Then tap Directions.
• From the Home Screen: Swipe down from the middle of your Home Screen to open Search, then tap Parked Car under Siri Suggestions.

Android: save your spot in Google Maps

On Android, Google Maps saves your spot when you tell it to, so do this each time you park. The spot stays saved until you remove it. Google Maps lets you save your spot by hand on both Android and iPhone, with no Bluetooth needed.

• Save it: After parking, open Google Maps, tap the blue dot that shows your location, then tap Save your parking.
• Add details: Search for Parking location, then tap More info to add photos or notes, such as the floor or how much time is left on the meter. You can also tap Share from there.
• Find it: Tap the search bar, then Parking location, then Directions.
• Fix or remove it: Change location moves the pin. Clear removes it when you are back at the car.

Google Maps on iPhone

If you use Google Maps on an iPhone, it can save your parking spot automatically. It saves your spot when your iPhone disconnects from your car's Bluetooth, CarPlay or USB cable. For Bluetooth, your car's audio needs to be playing through Bluetooth. It can also use your phone's motion to tell when you have parked.

Saved parking lasts 48 hours unless you remove it or start driving.

• Turn it on: In Google Maps, go to Settings › Navigation › Automatically save parking, and turn on Let maps use your motion to save your parking if you want that option.
• Help it work in the background: Go to Settings › Apps › Google Maps › Location and choose Always.
• Find it: Look for the pin labeled You parked here, or search for Saved parking.
• Save by hand: Tap the blue dot, then Saved parking.

When your phone has nothing saved: ask the car

Many newer cars can report their own location to the carmaker, and the carmaker's connected-services app shows it to you. This helps when your phone never saved the spot, or when a family member or valet moved the car. Check your carmaker's app for a vehicle location option.

The Ford app is one example. Its Vehicle Location feature works on a parked car that has a built-in modem and has been activated. Turn on location services on your phone, log in, open the Vehicle screen and select Vehicle Location. You will see the last detected address and when it was last updated, and you can pull down to refresh.

If you think your car was stolen, Ford's own guidance is to contact your local police. Ford says it is not able to track or disable vehicles.

These apps show the last location the car reported. Ford, for example, says Vehicle Location history is not available and the feature is turned off while the car is moving. If the location looks wrong, refresh it and check that the car is activated and connected services are on.

Seeing your car's location in one app

CarConnect shows where your car is using the car's built-in GPS and connection, which reports to the carmaker's cloud. You don't need to buy a separate tracker, and you can check from anywhere, as long as the car has cell signal when it reports in. Because the position comes from the car itself, if someone else moved and parked the car, the map shows the last location the car reported. That is usually where it was left. If the car is still being driven, it may be somewhere else by now.

What you can use depends on your car's make, model and year, and on having an active connected-services account with the carmaker. You need that account first: the app links to it and does not replace it. Run the free in-app compatibility check to see what your car supports.

• On the map: Your car shows as a pin with its street address. If you own several cars, they all appear on the same map.
• Getting there: In the iPhone app, tap your car on the Map tab to see a route from where you are, with the distance and an estimated time. If the car is within walking distance, you get a walking route, and if it is farther away, you get driving directions. The Navigate button opens Apple Maps with turn-by-turn directions.
• From your car's page in the app: On iPhone, tap Find your vehicle, then choose Apple Maps, Google Maps or Copy coordinates.
• Updates: The location updates when the car reports in, and how often that happens varies by carmaker. You can also refresh by hand. If the car has no location to report, the app says Location unavailable instead of guessing a spot.

Common questions

Why didn't my iPhone mark where I parked? Apple Maps sets the marker when your iPhone disconnects from the car's Bluetooth or CarPlay, so it needs that connection plus Location Services, Significant Locations and Show Parked Location turned on. It also skips places where you park often, like home or work.

How long does Google Maps keep my parking spot? On iPhone, 48 hours, unless you remove it or start driving. On Android, it stays saved until you remove it.

Do I need to buy a GPS tracker to find my car? Not if your car has connected services. Its carmaker's app can show the car's last reported location using the car's own GPS. For an older car without connected services, a separate GPS tracker is the usual option.

Can I see where my car is while someone else is driving it? It depends on the carmaker. Ford, for example, turns off Vehicle Location while the car is moving and keeps no location history.