What to do if your iPhone is lost or stolen

Most of us have lost our phones or had them stolen from us at one point or another. Phones are an expensive luxury item and the higher end phones could be worth a lot of money but what could be worth more than the device itself is the information on the device. Our entire world is stored on our phones including cherished photos and videos, passwords, bank account information, personally identifiable information, in a nut shell pretty much everything. None of us intend to lose our phones or have them stolen but if you are well prepared before an event like this occurs and you know what actions to take after, the biggest hit you’re going to take is the price of your phone. And believe me when I say it could be so much worse if you’re not prepared.

Steps to take before your phone is lost or stolen

Set Up A Passcode And Face ID Or Fingerprint

First and foremost, set up a passcode on your iPhone and set up Face ID or Touch ID. I know that constantly putting in your code every time you want to get into your phone can be annoying but I promise you the risk of not having one is greater than the inconvenience of typing in your passcode and if you do set up face id and/or a fingerprint on your phone it negates the hassle of typing in your passcode.

I understand that some people don’t trust Face ID and Fingerprint biometrics on phones but iPhone’s face id technology projects thousands of invisible dots that creates and measures a depth map of your face and also captures an infrared image so only your face can open the phone. You can’t even use a picture of your face and your phone will not open if your eyes are closed so Face ID will not work if you’re sleeping. Just make sure you set your face id to Require Attention.

Never Forget Your Email And Apple ID Passwords

This one is super important. Well, all these tips are important but this one will make your entire life easier in so many other circumstances. I highly recommend you write down both your email password and your Apple ID password somewhere safe and DO NOT keep it in your phone. If it’s in your phone and you don’t have your phone it defeats the entire purpose. How are you gonna recover anything from your stolen phone if the password you need to do it is on your stolen phone? You can’t.

Most people use their gmail, yahoo, etc. as their Apple ID. There’s nothing wrong with that you just want to remember your password for both. If you set up an iCloud email then your Apple ID password and your iCloud email password will be the same.

You will need your Apple ID an email passwords for a variety of things if you lose your phone or it’s stolen.

A great option for password management is Nord Pass. If anything we’re to happen to your phone you could still access your passwords on Nord pass from another device and it’s a great way to keep your personal information safe and secure in the event that something does happen.

Keep Your Information Backed Up to iCloud

It is highly recommended that you use iCloud Storage. If your phone is lost, stolen, or damaged and you don’t use cloud storage and everything is stored on your phones internal storage then you will not be able to recover any of your information. This means that all of your pictures, videos, notes, passwords you shouldn’t be storing in your phone, contacts etc. will be lost an irrecoverable.

For iPhones, iCloud storage is the go to storage as it will mimic everything on your old device when you buy a new phone or get a replacement.

Now, when you do purchase iCloud storage you want to make sure it’s backed up. You can go to iCloud in your phone and go through the list of features you want to be backed up, ideally you want to make sure everything is on, then go to iCloud Backup and make sure it’s on. Your phone will typically back up when it’s charging and connected to Wi-Fi. You can also turn on Back Up Over Cellular Data on more recent iOS software versions.

Use An ESIM Instead Of A Physical SIM Card

If you have an iPhone 14 then you will have an electronic sim (ESIM) by default because they are ESIM only and do not have a physical SIM card slot. If you have a previous model of iPhone then they do have a physical SIM card slot. All iPhone models before the XS, XS Max, XR are not compatible with an electronic sim card.

The reason an ESIM is safer than a physical SIM is because you can take a physical SIM card out of a phone that is locked and put it in another phone. If someone has access to your phone number then they could attempt to change passwords to your social media accounts, banking accounts, email etc. With an ESIM you can’t take the SIM card out of the phone.

While an ESIM is preferred for many reasons (we’ll get to other reason later in this article) you could still secure your physical SIM card by putting a SIM PIN on your SIM Card. The things you have to remember about a SIM Pin is

• Any time your phone turns off, whether you power is off or it dies, you will be asked to put your SIM Pin in before you can access your phone.
• You will have three attempts to enter your SIM PIN correctly before your SIM is locked.
• The SIM Pin is different than your iPhones lock screen passcode.

Keep Find My iPhone Turned On

In the event that your phone is lost or stolen you can access Find My iPhone to track, erase, and disconnect your phone from your Apple ID and more (We’ll go over the usefulness of these in the next section).  Make sure it’s on in your settings and make sure you have your location turned on for the Find My iPhone app.

You could also set up a satellite connection to your phone so even if it is not connected to a Wi-Fi or Cellular network your phone can still be found.

Get Insurance On Your Phone

You can either get insurance through Apple directly or you can get it through your Wireless Carrier. Whoever you get it through the deductible you would have to pay for a lost or stolen phone will be approximately a 1/5 to 1/4 of the price that your phone actually costs.

What to do if your iPhone is lost or stolen

If you’ve already taken the following steps above the worst thing that can happen at this point is you have to get a new phone. So first step is don’t freak out because you’ve prepared for this because I told you how.

Log Into Find My iPhone On Another Device

First step is to log into Find My iPhone on a computer or someone else’s phone. This is why you need to remember your Apple ID and Password so hopefully you do or you have it written down somewhere safe and not in your phone.

If you don’t remember it then you will have to reset your password and it could take up to 24 hours. You will get an email that will be sent to the email you use for your Apple ID so hopefully you are logged into that email on another phone or computer or you can log into your email with your password on another device.

You may be able to reset your password if you have another device such as a watch, iPad or Mac Book as long as you are signed in to those devices with your Apple ID.

Track Your Device

If you think you just lost it and you can locate it then you should be able to track your phone in realtime. If you think or know someone stole it, you can still track your device but I highly recommend you contact law enforcement so you aren’t tracking your phone into a dangerous situation.

Mark As Lost

Once you’re logged into Find My iPhone from another device or computer you’ll want to go to the device you’re looking for and put the phone in Lost Mode. Lost mode will activate a few settings that keep your device safe and you can even add an alternative number to reach you at and a message if a good samaritan finds your phone.

Erase Your Device

If you know someone stole your device then they are probably not going to give it back. You’ll want to erase your phone before the device loses connection. If you have an ESIM on your phone, your device will erase as soon as it turns back on if they turned it off. If you had a physical SIM on your device it could be taken out of the phone so it doesn’t have service so you may not be able to do this but if you put a SIM PIN on your physical SIM card then they won’t be able to use your number for anything.

Also if you had your information backed up to iCloud then when you get a new phone you’ll still have all of your personal data and the hard drive of your previous phone will be wiped so your data will be safe no matter what.

Now Call Your Wireless Carrier and Apple

The next thing you want to do is call your wireless carrier and Apple and have your phone number suspended and the IMEI on the phone blocked and blacklisted. That way whoever stole it can’t do anything with the phone and they won’t be able to use your phone number for anything. If you have an ESIM on your phone or your put a SIM pin on your physical SIM card then your phone number being used isn’t the greatest concern. Keep your number on the ESIM active until your phone erases.

Get A New Phone

Now we have to get a new phone because some asshole stole it. Luckily you remember your Apple ID and password, you backed up all of your information to iCloud so you can get all of your personal data back and you have insurance on your phone so you don’t take a huge hit financially.