There are a few things you should be doing if your iPhone iPad or iPod touch is lost or stolen, and we’re going to walk you through them. The first thing you should do is to protect your data – you never know where (or in this case who) someone might have seen it before. Plus, there are some programs, such as Apple Care, that will give them a replacement device for your use – making the loss a little easier to handle.

As you reach the point where you think you might have misplaced your iPhone, try to be less intense about it. You do not want to overthink it and instead, there could be a couple of ways that you can approach things to alleviate a sense of tension. Missing your phone should not cause any stress, so if you do find it, you’ll want to take it easy on yourself.

Locate your device

To locate your device, the first thing you want to do is sign in using your iCloud account. If you can’t remember which devices are on and looking for them, simply go to icloud.com/find and select what kinds of devices might be on. You can track it down by getting online or via a computer or another phone, no matter where you happen to be.

Follow these steps:

• Simply log in with your credentials for your apple account. If you have another phone or older device you can also do that as well.
• After logging into your iCloud account you can actually go about finding your devices that are connected.
• Once you do that all of your devices that are signed into that iCloud account are displayed over here.
• You can actually start tracking them and to do that it’s going to be pretty straightforward. Go ahead and look at the device and whatever you have.
• If it was connected to your data or something and then you can actually track that on the location of the map.

If you’re looking for an iPhone that’s been missing, you might have a better chance of finding it if you know where it went last. This helps you figure out which location is most likely to have your lost phone. If it isn’t at home, work, the office, or somewhere you’ve been before, then don’t worry! You can click on any one of these options to mark it lost and then record when and where you last saw the device. The key is not to erase your phone yet — don’t forget about all those pictures and important contacts. You can get more iPhone tips and tricks on Cell Phone Time in order to help you through your daily life routine.

If you have misplaced your iPhone and cannot find it, even if it has been stolen, put it in Lost Mode. When you are in Lost Mode, you can lock your device remotely with a passcode to keep your information secure or disable Apple Pay if necessary.

Custom Message

Another thing you could do when this happens is to give the person who finds it a custom message. You might put something like, “Please return my phone!” so they’ll understand that they should go ahead and give the device back. If they want, you can even offer a reward as well. If you order a location and let’s say you think the phone is in the house. You can actually play a sound it’ll play a sound on the device so if you’re in the house and you see that it’s at your house but you can’t find it. Keep on playing that sound maybe you’ll be able to find it.

Report to the local law enforcement

If these methods don’t work, your phone could potentially be lost or stolen. Go ahead and report the device to your local law enforcement. If you think it’s actually lost or stolen, they’re going to most likely ask for the serial number in order to help with their search. The serial number of an iPhone is located in different places on the device. You can find the number if you had the original box it came in, or even check your iCloud account if you’re not sure. By looking at your devices, you should know which one is missing and also have access to its serial number.

File a Claim

The next thing you want to do is get apple care plus protection. Apple care plus comes with a plan that specifically covers theft and loss. You can file a claim by signing in to start the claim from your phone or computer through the app, which will walk you through the process. Your claim status can be tracked in multiple ways: on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC through the app, through their website, and even in-store.

Erase the Device

If you had a claim open with apple, but the device isn’t available anymore, the next logical step is to erase it. If you can’t find the device and have since submitted a claim, you want to go ahead and remotely erase it. But don’t do that yet! Apple support might be looking to locate it for you so they can figure out what happened. Don’t delete your Apple ID until it has been approved – otherwise, you won’t be able to log into your account or find more information about this claim. This will completely erase your Apple ID from your phone; once apple thinks you’ve deleted all traces of that device’s data, they’ll give you a replacement device or refund.

Contact your wireless carrier

Due to your account being associated with the lost or stolen phone, you’ll get a big bill when you are trying to access your account and see it’s been deactivated. You can contact your carrier to let them know that they’re no longer associated with the lost or stolen phone so they can disable the device from making any calls, texts, or data usage. The next thing you want to do is if you have your apple care. If you have the loss in prevention and you were able to get that approved and everything was good to go and you know what you should do is probably you will get a tracking number. That they give and then you’ll be able to get your device and you can pretty much be safe to go. If you want to go ahead and completely erase the other phone you can by hitting that erase and it will erase that phone. Remember if you erase this phone this will also allow the next person to be able to use the phone. So if you don’t want them to be using the phone or you don’t want your information completely gone don’t do that.

Replacement

If you get your phone approved for you, the last step is usually to get a replacement through either your carrier or apple care. There are also times when a theft and lost loss warranty might be replaced with a claim. So it all depends on what you do. That’s why it’s important to file a claim with law enforcement because they can help to assist you in replacing the stolen device.