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Losing your iPhone is pretty much the digital equivalent of losing your house keys, your camera, and your very, very expensive wallet, so obviously You will wanna do everything in your power to get that phone back as soon as you realize it's gone missing.
Now the good news is there are a few things you can do to get it back.
Now the bad news is that you would've had to do a couple preemptive steps ahead of time.
First up, you should've put a pass code on that phone.
Now this may seem like a no brainer but it's really the best way to protect all your information in the event your phone is stolen.
the longer the better in this case.
But if you really wanna keep it safe, use biometrics aka touch ID, or face ID to unlock.
Just go to the settings and set it up under face ID in pass code.
Now with that Out of the way, let's figure out where your phone is and for that, we'll need to get familiar with the find My Phone app.
The app comes pre-loaded on your phone and it's activated by default in your phone's iCloud settings But it's worth the check just to make sure that it's on.
Now obviously if your phone is missing, you won't have access to the app on your phone, but you can log into the app from one of your other apple devices or from your friend's iPhone using your iCloud credentials.
If you have a computer handy, log into your iCloud.com account and click on the find iPhone app
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Once you're in the Apple, pinpoint the location of all your Apple devices on a map, or the last place where they were connected.
And if you are on a web browser click on the all Devices tab on the top of the screen and select the phone that's MIE.
Next you'll get a list of action.
First thing to do is play sound.
If it's nearby, you'll hear it ring, regardless of whether or not you've left it on silent.
And who knows, it may not actually be lost, just misplaced, or eaten up by the couch cushions.
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Now if you can't hear it, or it's turned off, then it's time to activate lost mode.
You'll be asked to enter a phone number and a message that will be displayed on the lock screen urging whoever has your device to get it back to you.
Once you've set up lost mode, your iPhone will be on lockdown.
You can continue tracking it, but you won't have any notifications and messages showing up on your lock- Screen.
Additionally, all credit and debit cards added to Apple Pay, student IDs, transit cards, anything you store in the wallet app will be disabled until you regain access to the phone.
Your iPhone will still get incoming phone calls and FaceTime calls in the case the person who's decided to answer it wants to return it back to its rightful owner.
And if your phone happens to be off when lost mode is enabled, you will receive an alert when the phone is turned back on, complete with it's current location, assuming it has some sort of data connection.
Now, if you are unable to recover your phone, but you are able to track it down to a nearby house, apartment building, or an alley way for that matter, do not, I repeat, do not attempt to retrieve it yourself.
Leave that to the authorities because you never know what you may encounter, and trust me, your phone is just not worth putting your life at risk.
Contact your local police department and give them the tracking information.
Now, worst case scenario, if gone for good Time to activate self destruct mode, aka erase phone on the Find My iPhone app.
This does exactly that.
So even if the thief is able to bypass your password, there will be nothing to find.
And it wouldn't hurt to call your carrier To disable the line just in case.
Now the one downside with this step is that if you do find your phone later then your stuff is gone for good, but it was probably worth it in the long run.
And for more of these how tos, you can check out cnet.com.
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