What do a bar, the back of a cab, and a public bathroom have in common? They're all places I've enjoyed Wendy's chili, and forgotten my phone. Fortunately, my friends or a helpful stranger have always spotted my phone before I left it behind for good.
I won't be so lucky forever, though. At some point, I'll end up like a lot of people, and lose my precious smartphone. When it happens I'm going to have to take a few steps to make sure that my data doesn't end up in someone else's hands. And if you lose your phone, you'll need to follow these steps, too.
For iPhone owners
So your smartphone is currently sliding around the backseat of an Uber halfway across town, and you want to get it back. Well, good news. If your phone is still powered on, you can use location tracking to find it on the map, and retrieve it.
If you've got an iPhone, you might have heard of a little feature called Find My iPhone. It works exactly like it sounds it should in that it helps you find your iPhone, or any other Apple device you own. Since your phone is missing, though, you'll have to open the app on another iOS device like your iPad to use the feature.
Don't have another iOS device, then you can sign into iCloud.com using your Apple (AAPL) ID, and use Find My iPhone via your web browser. From here you can locate your iPhone on a map. You can also use the feature to locate your iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or AirPods. If your phone was stolen, call the police and let them handle it. Don’t go looking for it on your own.
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If your phone is dead, Find My iPhone will still let you know its last location before its battery gave up the ghost.
If your phone's battery is still running, you can use Find My iPhone to make your device play a sound, which helps if you lost your phone or tablet between your couch cushions. The distance on this is unlimited since it uses the cloud to send your phone a signal to make noise. Similarly, you can put your phone into Lost Mode, which will let you display a number on your phone's screen so that whoever finds it will know how to reach you.
When in Lost Mode, Apple Pay will be disabled, so no one will be able to use your credit or debit cards stored in your Apple Wallet. Find My iPhone also automatically enables Activation Lock, which means someone can't turn off Find My iPhone or reset your device without also entering your username and password.
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But what if you've lost your phone and there's no chance of getting it back? Then your best bet to ensure the data stored on your device stays private is to erase your iPhone. To do that, navigate to Find My iPhone, and choose the Erase option. If your iPhone is dead or turned off, it will erase itself as soon as it connects to the internet. If you do end up recovering your phone, after erasing it, you'll have to restore it from a previous backup.
