If Your Phone Is Lost or Stolen
Your phone holds your email, banking apps, photos, two-factor codes and work accounts. If it’s lost or stolen, acting quickly can keep a thief from getting into your money and accounts.
- Everyone
Right away
- Locate it: use Find My (iPhone) or Find My Device (Android) from another device or a computer.
- Lock it and mark it as lost: this locks the screen and can show a contact number.
- Don’t try to recover it yourself from a stranger’s location; contact police.
- Erase it remotely if you can’t get it back and it has sensitive information.
- Call your carrier to suspend service and block the phone, so no one can use your number or take over your SIM.
Secure your accounts
- Change your email password first; it’s the key to resetting everything else
- Change passwords for banking, payment apps and social media
- Sign out of your accounts on the lost device from another device
- Call your bank if you had banking or payment apps on the phone
- Tell your employer if the phone had work email or apps
- Set up two-factor authentication on a new device; use backup codes if you saved them
Report a theft to police and get a report number. You may need it for insurance, your carrier or your bank.
Set up protection now
- Use a strong passcode and biometric lock.
- Turn on Find My or Find My Device, and know your login.
- Turn on your phone’s stolen-device protections, which require your face or fingerprint for sensitive changes.
- Set a SIM PIN and a carrier account PIN. See SIM Swapping.
- Back up your phone automatically. See Backups.
- Save two-factor backup codes somewhere safe.
Standards & references
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