What should you do when your phone is lost or stolen - Android

A lost phone or stolen phone can be devastating in many ways. There are the obvious repercussions that’ll affect your wallet, but there are plenty of other things to worry about such as your passwords, photos, and credit card information that someone could obtain.

If you’ve had your phone go missing, there are some key things you must do as soon as you realize it’s gone. And if your phone isn’t missing, make sure to take some of these steps so you can be better prepared if you do lose it at some point.

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What to do before you lose your phone

While we hope to never lose our phones, it happens to many of us. Between the risk of it falling out of your pocket or being stolen by someone else, it can happen to the best of us. Rather than panicking after it’s gone, you’re far better off taking the proper precautions so the damage from losing it will be minimized.

Set a strong passcode

First of all, you should set a strong PIN or password. That means not using 1234 or 0000. If someone finds your lost phone, the first thing they’re going to do is try to unlock it with a simple code, and that can lead to a slew of problems that you don’t want to face.

To enable this on Android, do this:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Click Security.
3. Choose Screen lock under the Device security section.
4. Choose the screen lock style you want.
5. Enter new passcode or unlock pattern.

Note: The instructions above are for Google Pixel phones. Your Android phone settings may require different steps.

If you’re an iPhone user, you can turn on a passcode by doing the following:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode, depending on your device).
3. Turn Passcode on.
4. Enter a new passcode.

If your phone has fingerprint or face recognition, be sure to turn those on, as they add another layer of security that’ll be hard for a thief to crack. You’ll enable these options in the same area where you turned on your passcode.

Turn on Find My Device or Find My iPhone

You should enable Find My Device or Find My iPhone in settings so you can make sure that you can actually find, remotely disable, and wipe your phone if it goes missing. This will make it far more likely that you’ll actually be able to recover your precious device, thus saving you a ton of headaches and money.

To enable Find My Device on Android you need to:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Choose Security.
3. Choose Find My Device.
4. Ensure the toggle is turned on.

On an iPhone, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap your name on the top of the Settings screen.
3. Tap Find My.
4. Turn on the features you want to use.

Depending on what you keep on your phone, you’ll probably want to back up your data. There are tons of ways you can do this and any of the popular services will allow you to recover your data onto your new device if you aren’t able to get the old one back. See below for the best services for backing up your Android device.

• How to back up your Android phone
• The best Android backup apps we could find

Backing up your phone is more than worth the effort, as it’ll make setting up a new phone so much easier.

If you have an iPhone, you can use many of those third-party options above, but the best option is Apple’s built-in iCloud service. To enable backup on iPhone, you simply need to do the following:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap your name on the top of the Settings screen.
3. Tap iCloud.
4. Scroll down and tap iCloud Backup.
5. Tick the box to turn the backup on.

Write down your phone’s IMEI

We hate to say it, but if your phone is ever stolen, there’s a chance the thief will try to sell it online. Before this ever happens, you’ll want to write down your phone’s IMEI so you can verify the stolen phone is yours if it ever turns up.

On Android, you’ll want to:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down and choose About phone.
3. You’ll see your phone’s IMEI. Write this number down and keep it somewhere safe.

On an iPhone, you’ll want to:

1. Open the Phone app.
2. Dial the following characters and numbers: *#06# (No need to hit the call button!)
3. Your device’s IMEI should show up automatically.

What to do after if you lost your phone

If your phone is currently lost, there are some key things you need to do to minimize the damage. Some of them might help you get it back, and some will make it so you don’t have your personal information stolen should you have a hard time locating the lost phone.

Call or text your lost phone