What to do if your phone is lost or stolen: practical steps to restore peace of mind

Smartphones contain the entirety of our modern lives, from photos, messages and memories to credit cards, bank accounts and all life admin, so when one gets lost or stolen it can be far worse than the cost of the actual handset.

Here’s what to do if the worst happens. Quickly taking these steps will help protect yourself against data theft, scams and fraud, and with luck could even lead to you being reunited with your phone.

Whether it’s lost or stolen, a missing smartphone spells lots of hassle and heartache. Photograph: Chris Rout/Alamy

As soon as you find your phone is missing

• Try to locate your phone with Find My on Apple or Google, if you have it turned on. You can use a browser on a computer, tablet or even a friend’s phone.

• Remotely lock your phone using Find My and mark it as lost, which helps protect your data, blocks the use of Apple or Google Pay and can leave a message on the screen for anyone who finds it. You can also remotely erase your phone from here too.

• Contact your network provider and block your sim to stop thieves running up bills. Also ask it to check for any new “charge to bill” activity and to disable the feature.

• Contact your credit card company for any cards you have stored on your phone and disable Apple or Google Pay.

• Report the theft to the police and give them your phone’s IMEI number, which may be on the box, in your Apple or Google account or their Find My services.

• Contact your insurance company if you have phone cover.

• Change your passwords for important accounts. Start with your email account so that thieves can’t gain access to your other accounts through password resets.

• Remove your phone from your accounts and services, which will log it out and stop thieves accessing saved details.

What to do as soon as you get a new one

When you get a new phone, set a strong pin, a short screen lock time out and turn on biometric fingerprint or face scanners to help keep thieves out of your phone. Photograph: Vladyslav Yushynov/Alamy

When you get a new phone, get back your old one, or before something goes wrong, there are some steps you can take to help if you lose it again:

• Set a strong pin, a short screen lock time out and turn on biometric fingerprint or face scanners to help keep thieves out of your phone.

• Turn on Find My on your phone in settings, which allows you to locate it, lock it or erase it remotely via a web browser or another device.

• Turn on Stolen Device Protection in settings on an iPhone, which blocks access to passwords, pins and credit cards without your face or fingerprint.

• Turn on Theft Protection in Google settings on Android, which locks your phone when it detects it has been snatched, enables remote locking, locks the phone if it goes offline and prevents access to passwords, pins and other settings without your face or fingerprint.

• Set a sim pin in your phone’s settings, which stops thieves being able to use your phone account by transferring the sim or esim to another phone.

• Take note of your phone’s IMEI (serial) number – dial *#06# to see it.

• Use biometrics for any and all banking and other sensitive apps that support them to block access for anyone other than you.

• Disable access to quick settings, Siri or Google Assistant/Gemini and notifications when your phone is locked. This prevents thieves reading two-step codes, turning off internet access, making calls or accessing data.

• Back up your phone’s data and settings using iCloud on an iPhone or Google Drive on an Android phone.

• Back up your photos to the cloud using iCloud Photos, Google Photos, Amazon Photos or other service.