You can do various things if your iPhone is misplaced or stolen, all of which will assist preserve your data and possibly even allow you to retrieve your device. Here is what you need to do if you misplace your iPhone. Some of us will certainly misplace our phones at some point.
You may have walked away from it without realizing it or that it fell out of your pocket when you were running. Regardless, it can be a distressing experience when you can’t seem to find something as important as your iPhone. If your iPhone is misplaced, you have several alternatives available, thanks to Apple’s privacy and security protections.
Use Find My iPhone to try to find your phone.
As soon as you discover that you have misplaced your iPhone, it would help if you started looking for it using the Find My app. Do it as soon as possible, even before you start searching a particularly broad area, if at all possible. This reduces the time wasted searching and increases the likelihood that you will find your phone before somebody else.
Or, if it is already in possession of another person, you will be able to track where your iPhone is going. You can use Find Me by enrolling into iCloud on the internet or the Find My app on another Apple device you own, such as an iPad or a MacBook.
Mark your lost iPhone
If Find My is the most useful tool available, then reporting your iPhone as lost takes advantage of its most useful feature. A few different effects are caused when you report your iPhone as missing. First, it protects your iPhone by locking it with a passcode, making it impossible for anybody else to use it.
It also disables Apple Pay, which prohibits would-be criminals from being able to purchase something, even if they somehow managed to guess your passcode. This is because Apple Pay is tied to your Apple ID and password.
It permits you to show a personalized message on the Lock screen and a contact number. If someone locates your phone and requires you to be a good samaritan, they will have a far easier way to return it to you rather than leaving it at some arbitrary lost and found location. The implementation of this measure will ensure this.
How to set the iPhone to Mark as Lost
- Launch the Find My app on any of your Apple products or login to the iCloud website using your web browser to get started.
- Recording Equipment
- Tap the button on your misplaced iPhone.
- Tap the “Mark as Lost” button after scrolling down.
- Follow the manual on the page to join a personalized message along with your contact information.
- To activate, tap the button.
A police report should be filed.
After your gadget has been stolen, it is recommended that you register a report with the local authorities. This allows the officers to watch for any missing phones brought into the department. In addition, your wireless carrier may demand it to process replacement claims, and Apple may require it to process AppleCare+ claims.
To accomplish this, you will need to contact the local police department in charge of protecting the region where you misplaced your iPhone. In our experience and based on feedback from a sampling of users, the next step that the police department takes after being given Find my information is rather unpredictable and depends on the level of training and technological familiarity the officers have.
Make a theft and loss claim.
You are eligible to submit a claim to have Apple replace your iPhone if you have an AppleCare+ plan that includes Theft and Loss as one of its coverage options. You can file a claim for a stolen or lost iPhone by going to the appropriate page on Apple’s website. Before you file the claim, you will also need to make sure that the device has been tagged as lost, and it is a good idea to submit a police report anyway in case.
Remotely erase your iPhone.
If you are unable to discover your iPhone within a reasonable period or that you are unable to find it or catch up with it using Find My, you will be required to wipe it remotely. When you erase your iPhone, all the information previously stored on the device will be removed.
This includes any media that has not been uploaded to iCloud for backup. However, this is the most effective method for preventing unauthorized users from accessing the contents of your iPhone and gaining access to your private information.
The good news is that beginning with iOS 15, and you’ll be able to continue using Find My even after you’ve deleted everything on your iPhone. After you have erased your iPhone, you cannot use Find Me to locate it if it is running iOS 14 or an earlier version of the operating system.
If you have a current loss claim with your operator or AppleCare+, you shouldn’t delete your iPhone until your claim has been fully authorized. This is because erasing your data could compromise the validity of your claim.
How to remotely delete your iPhone
- Launch the Find My app on any of your Apple devices or visit the iCloud website in your web browser and navigate
- Tap the Devices
- Tap the button on your misplaced iPhone.
- Select the Erase This iPhone option.