Find Your Parked Car With Your iPhone

If you have your iPhone linked to your car using Bluetooth, then it will automatically remember where you parked. You can access your parking location in the Maps app and get directions to walk back to your car. You can also add notes and an image to help.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. So one time or another we've all forgotten where we parked our car. Fortunately our iPhone remembers. This has been a feature for awhile but a lot of us don't know it exists.
You see if you pair your car with your phone using Bluetooth, you know so you can talk on the phone using your car's speakers or you even play music over it, if you've done that then your iPhone will automatically remember where you parked because simply when you turn your car off and the Bluetooth connection is broken it will then remember the current location and later on you can ask your iPhone where that was.
So, for instance, I recently went to a restaurant and in the restaurant I decided to look at this feature. All I did was open the Maps app, the official Apple Maps app. At the bottom I had a few options. For instance directions and traffic about how to get home, see it says 12 minutes to get home from my current location, and also you can see it says Parked Car. 
If I tap on Parked Car it will actually show me the location of my car compared to where I'm at. You can see I'm not too far from my car here so there really wasn't a problem but if I had been further away or in some big parking lot I could have seen where my car was.
I've got some options at the bottom that are really useful. There is the Edit Location option. If I tap that I can actually go in and reposition the dot where my car is. So if it's not accurate for some reason I can actually get a more accurate location recorded.
I also have the Note feature and I can add a note there if I tap on that. I can enter a note and I can even take a picture. So if this isn't the kind of thing where I've forgotten where I parked my car but by specifically remembering I can add a note at the time that I parked my car. I can even take a photo that is stored that will maybe help me remember. Like, for instance, in a parking garage I can take a photo of the sign at the elevator that says what level I'm on. That kind of thing.
Then you can use the Directions button to actually give yourself walking directions back to where your car is located.
So it's a very useful feature. Try it out the next time you've parked somewhere that's quite a distance from where you're eventually walking to so you can see how it works. So that in the future when you need it you'll know how to use it.

Comments: 12 Responses to “Find Your Parked Car With Your iPhone”

John L

8 years ago

Hi Gary,
Nope that doesn't work for me. I have a iPhone 5S. Any advice?

Gary Rosenzweig

John: Do you connect to the Bluetooth on your car? Is it working? I can't find list of which iPhones this work for, I guess it is possible that you need a 6 or newer.

Dennis Cox

Make sure this option is set to on, settings/maps

Mike Kobrick

Tried it with iPhone 5S and iPad Pro, IOS 10.1.1. Both link up with the car, Settings>Maps>/show Parked Location turned on, but no joy.

Of course there a number of apps that do this (search in App Store for "find car", but having it in Apple Maps would be awesome. Time to upgrade? ;-)

From the Apple support website

You need an iPhone 6 or later and iOS 10 to use this Maps feature.
Also, check these things:
Turn on Location Services. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
Make sure that Frequent Locations is on. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations > Frequent Locations.
Turn on Show Parked Location. Go to Settings > Maps > Show Parked Location.
Make sure that your iPhone is paired to CarPlay or Bluetooth in your car.

Lynda

What sort of device would have/be Bluetooth as we don't have CarPlay.

Lynda: Any car stereo that has Bluetooth. Most made in the last 5 years have it. Check your car's owner's manual, or the one that came with the car's radio. If it doesn't mention Bluetooth, then you don't have it. CarPlay is a more advanced set of features that includes Bluetooth functions. But far more cars have Bluetooth now. It is a standard used by many phones and other devices going back 10-20 years, not just Apple.

Tanis

Thanks enjoy learning about features of iPhone. This works well

Colin

Does this work in the UK? I have an iPhone 7+ on 10.1.1 & have confirmed the settings by Mike Kubrick & it shows recent places but no joy at all... Any ideas?

Tom Gonser

Not working with 2016 Jeep Trailhawk with bluetooth paired to my iPhone 6. I'm reading elsewhere the bluetooth must have a "compatible head", which I don't understand. Note above from Apple person says "Make sure that Frequent Locations is on. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Locations > Frequent Locations". But "system services" does not appear within "Location Services". Could it be that some cars with bluetooth iPhone connections just don't work?

Colin: I don't see any reason why your location should affect this feature. I'd confirm the settings again, and maybe try disconnecting and removing the Bluetooth connection, and reconnecting to see if that helps.

Tom: I suppose it is possible that this requires a certain version of Bluetooth for it to work, though I don't see that mentioned anywhere.

Comments Closed.

Find Your Parked Car With Your iPhone

Comments: 12 Responses to “Find Your Parked Car With Your iPhone”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information