Find My only shows one moving dot.
findmy-trail shows the whole trail.
A self-hosted tool that records every Find My location ping into a readable map — then turns those pings into hotspots, an overnight home-base, activity patterns and a printable report. For locating devices you own.
PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 · Free for personal, non-commercial use
The problem
One pin that jumps every 10–30 minutes isn't a trail.
Apple's Find My shows a single dot at the last reported location. It refreshes on its own schedule and then overwrites itself — so you never see movement, you can't tell where a device keeps returning, and there's no record to look back on once the pin moves again.
When something is lost or stolen, the pattern is the lead. findmy-trail keeps every ping, lines them up over time, and makes that pattern obvious.
What it does
From scattered pings to a clear picture
Trail map over time
Every ping plotted in sequence — see the whole route, not just the latest pin.
Manual + auto logging
Paste a Maps link by hand, or run the iCloud sync script to pull pings automatically.
Optional 2-way sync
Keep multiple devices or helpers in sync with optional cloud backup.
Hotspot detection
Surface the places a device keeps returning to — your strongest leads.
Overnight home-base
Detect where the device parks overnight — often where it really is.
Live “came online” alerts
Get a push the moment the device reconnects, via ntfy.
Battery & accuracy capture
Each ping records battery %, charging state and GPS accuracy.
Activity-time patterns
See which times of day the device tends to move.
Printable PDF report
One click to a report you can hand to police or keep as a record.
Mobile-first + PIN lock
Use it from your phone in the field. PIN-locked to keep your data private.
How it works
Three steps from ping to plan
Log locations
Paste a Find My / Maps link, or run the iCloud sync script to pull pings automatically.
Watch it build
Pings plot into a live trail map with hotspots, overnight home-base and activity-time patterns.
Export a report
Generate a printable PDF to support a police report or keep for your own records.
Why it exists
findmy-trail was built in the middle of a real crisis — a stolen iPhone.
Find My only ever showed one moving dot. So I started recording every ping into a map, watched where the phone kept going back to, and used that pattern to work out where it actually was. The phone was recovered.
I've open-sourced the tool so the next person in that situation starts with a head start instead of a single, jumping pin.
Use it only on devices you own
findmy-trail is for recovering your own property, or devices you are explicitly authorised to locate. Using it to track a person without their knowledge or consent is illegal in most countries and strictly against its license.
If you don't own the device and don't have permission, don't use this tool. No exceptions.
License
Free for personal use. Commercial use by arrangement.
findmy-trail is source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 — free to run, modify and self-host for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Commercial and government use requires a separate license, reserved by the author.
See the whole trail, not one dot.
Clone it, self-host it, and turn scattered Find My pings into a recovery plan.
View findmy-trail on GitHubgithub.com/FixITSukil/findmy-trail