iPad Essentials: Use iCloud to Find and (Hopefully Not) Remote Wipe an iPad

In my last post, I mentioned using the Passcode Lock feature to protect data on your iPad, as we do use our device as a clinical tool.  An additional, and hopefully never necessary, safeguard involves the use of iCloud to delete your iPad's data.  iCloud confuses many people and for good reason- there is a lot to it.  Much of what happens with iCloud is actually more for personal than professional use, so I am not going to go into detail about its many features here.  Here is a post about what iCloud does, and here is a link on how to create an account/switch it on.

What I want to focus on in this post is iCloud's ability to help you find and/or "remote wipe" (which does exactly what it sounds like) your iPad. After setting up iCloud on your device, you can, as it mentions in the above post, download the Find my iPhone app.  This app also locates iPad, but further confuses people because if your iPad were lost, what good would it be to have an app on that missing device to find it? That sentence made me feel like a tree fell on me in the forest with no one around to hear it.

Presumably the Find my iPhone app would be helpful if you have multiple devices, but the whole function is also accessed another way.  If you have turned on the Find My iPad function in Settings>iCloud, as is shown in the picture from the above post:

Find My iPad=ON

You can also find your iDevices by logging into iCloud.com on a computer with the Apple ID (iCloud) login and password that you have used on your devices.  You can then select Find My iPhone (I know, it works for your iPad also), and your devices will be located, as long as they are online somehow.  Check it out, all of my devices are at home:

Click to enlarge

Perhaps I have an Apple Problem.

From here, you can Remote Lock or Remote Wipe (Erase) your iPad, thus protecting your student data. You can also play a sound that may help you locate your device, or send a "this device is being tracked" message that sometimes gives you a better chance of having a thief abandon your device (or you can freak out your teenager this way).

I hope you never have to use these steps, but it's really helpful to know about iCloud.com!