What To Do If Your Phone is Lost or Stolen

What To Do If Your iPhone is Lost or Stolen

Hopefully you never have to experience the anxiety of having your iPhone lost or stolen, but if you do, here are a few things to consider:

– All of your lock codes, Apple ID passwords and two-factor authentications that can sometimes be so bothersome to remember now prove to be an asset, as they offer both protection for the data on your device and also ways to find if it is lost.
– Having a lock code and associated fingerprint you use to open your phone will allow someone without your code or your finger to not be able to access your sensitive data such as photos, notes and much more.
– One preventative measure you can use to reduce the probability of permanently losing your iPhone is to have Find My iPhone activated. You can check that out by going to Settings, [your name], iCloud, Find my iPhone. Nobody will be able to turn this feature off without knowing your iCloud password.
– If Find My iPhone has been activated on your lost or stolen device, find another phone or computer and log on to iCloud.com. Once you enter your Apple ID and Apple ID password, you will be shown a map with the general location of your iPhone.
– Once your device has been located, you will have the option to play a sound from it to help you find its specific location, to erase the data from it or to place it in Lost Mode, which will display a phone number and message on the device and render every other feature unavailable.
– Keep in mind that Lost Mode, Play Sound and Erase Phone will no work if the phone is not connected to either cell service or Wi-Fi, but will be activated whenever the phone is connected to either of these two.
– If your phone is stolen, don’t try to retrieve yourself. Call the police.
– Contact your cell phone carrier to report the phone as lost or stolen to block its use on another carrier’s network.