Find your Missing or Stolen iPhone

There are things in life that even if we tend to avoid it, still, it happens to us. No one wants to lose their beloved iPhones. But if you do, here’s how you can find it without breaking a single sweat.

The night is good, and you decided to go out on a bar with your friends. Everyone’s drinking and partying like it’s their last day on earth. In the midst of your party, you received a text from your parents telling you to go home early. You remembered that you’re already in the legal age, that’s why you put your phone down on the table. Then after 5 mins of taking a piss on a bathroom, you planned to check again your phone and upon reaching it — there’s an empty space on your table, with your iPhone missing.

Hopefully, you just dropped your iPhone underneath the table, or the bartender put it on his pocket for safekeeping. However, the sad truth is that, although thefts, smartphone thefts, in particular, is not nearly as common as it used to be, they still exist and lures in the dark, waiting for the right opportunity for them to seize. Smartphones may be quotidian as of this moment, but they’re actually powerful, pocket-sized supercomputers and a lot of people are more willing to pay a hefty amount for a powerful mini-computer without asking where it came from.

Now, if your iPhone did actually got stolen and was not simply lost, the chances of getting it back are, to be honest, not that good at all. Yet, it isn’t impossible, either. By taking some quick and intelligent precautionary action, the possibility of recovering your iPhone or help the police pinpoint its location is very likely high. You may not get your iPhone back, but trying surely beats worrying all day, doing nothing and making your wallet cry out again for another few hundred bucks without having a solid fight for your lost iPhone.

Track its Current Location

Before losing your mind over your stolen iPhone, the first thing you need to do is check to see whether it’s just missing or actually been stolen. Countless times, we thought our phones are lost in the abyss only to find out that its been stuck under our couch cushion, in a different bag, or, for whatever reason, in our mom’s pocket? (or in your pocket. Seriously, check your pocket; it may be there right now.)

The great news is that both Android and iOs smartphones have a user-friendly, complete suite of tools to help its users track down their smartphones: the Android Device Manager and Find My iPhone, to be exact. These simple applications enable the users to access their phone’s security options without the need of touching them. With the aid of any computer, you can have your smartphone ring loudly, make a message appear on its screen, lock it with a new password or entirely remove all the data, if needed to be. Both of them requires some initial setup, so in a sense, it’s better to prepare your phone in case of any worst-case scenarios ever imagined occurring to it.

Preventing your Phone From Getting Lost

If you just discovered this information today, and your phone has been stolen or lost in the just the night before, then it’s already too late and let the fate decide what will happen to it. But whether you get your smartphone back or have to purchase a new one, this is the first thing you probably should do.

What to do First

For example, you’ve managed to locate your smartphone remotely, but its a location you’re not familiar with. A few common sense rules are still applicable. Firstly, contact your number to know if it’s in the hands of a good Samaritan; if so, they’ll pick up and return to you willingly. But if not a single soul responded, then it’s best to lock it remotely, but only perform a remote erase if you’re sure you can’t get it back to your arms again.

If Your Phone Got Stolen

If you believe that your smartphone is in the hold of a thief, don’t take the law into your own hands. You might end up getting booked for assault, and the worst-case scenario is a thing that only with the most resented minds could ever imagine.

If your smartphone is in a public place, by all means, go and check out the situation. But don’t defy someone on a street corner, or throw a coffee shop into a frenzy, or break into someone’s home. Getting a good glimpse at the possible thief will be helpful, but putting him on warning may ruin any chance you have of recovering your smartphone.

Contact your provider ASAP

If you read all of our lost/stolen phone guides, you’ve probably already contacted your wireless carrier by now. If not, then, the time to do so it is now. Here are links to Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T’s support pages for stolen or lost smartphones.

Follow the guide on the pages linked, which mostly include trying to locate your smartphone through the means described above, then suspending service. The websites also give information on how to restore a smartphone if your original device is beyond recovery.

Contact the Authorities

We’re going to be 100 percent straightforward here: the possibilities of the authorities helping you finding your stolen smartphone are not that high. Most police stations won’t even create an incident report except when you are certain past a shadow of a doubt that your phone was in fact, stolen, and not just misplaced or dropped.

Depending on your phone’s insurance, you may want the police report in order to cash in on your policy.

Given the chance to file a decent report, what are things you’re going to tell them then? An entirely unusual stranger stole your smartphone in a highly trafficked public area? Especially if you reside in a populated area, the police aren’t going do anything to help you obtain your smartphone back except if you can provide them with a lot of proof to tell them where they can start. (This is where tracking your smartphone, as mentioned above, can be useful).

File a Report

Even if you do manage to file a report, what are you going to tell them? A completely unknown person took your phone in a highly trafficked public location? Especially if you live in a populous area, the police aren’t going to do anything to help you get your phone back unless you can provide them with a lot of evidence to tell them where to start (This is where tracking your phone, as described above, can come in handy.)

Nonetheless, there is a secondary advantage in filing a police report. Depending on your smartphone’s insurance, you may want the police report in order to cash in on your policy. Besides, if a thief utilized shopping apps or financial information on your smartphone to rack up fraudulent purchases, having a police report handy will be an easy peasy when dealing with captious credit-card companies.

Cautious Positive Thinking

In all sense, the possibility of recovering your stolen smartphone requires, not exactly a miracle, yet if you managed to get it back, let’s just safely presume that you’ve probably used all of the good luck credits you have for the whole year.

This guide may help you locate your stolen smartphone, but it’s really been written more to lessen the harm done once the smartphone is already gone. To be honest, if you want to recover a stolen smartphone, most of the effort has to be done before it disappears, just like when you’re locking your door before your house gets robbed, not after its been robbed.

Also, always remember that your smartphone must have a PIN, password or pattern lock on its lock screen.

Set up Your Smartphone Location Features

Set up your smartphone location features, before doing anything else. Double check whether your smartphone has a PIN, password or pattern lock on the lock screen. Require passwords for app store shopping. In Android, installing a security app or an antivirus that takes images after repeated incorrect login attempts are very helpful.

Now, if your smartphone ends up being more nuisance than it’s worth, a thief may just drop it in a trash bin somewhere else – dirty, perhaps, but still, it can be recovered. The possibility of he or she may even returning it back to you with some lame excuses for mistaking for his or her own is also high.

The greatest way to keep your smartphone, though, is to treat it like your wallet or your keys. Keep it always with you, not in your purse. Check it often to make sure it’s there, especially in highly trafficked locations. Last, just like keeping the cash in your wallet to a minimum, the less financial information you keep on your smartphone, the less a thief will be able to access with.