What should you do if you lose your phone?

When a phone goes missing, the real danger isn't what the device costs but what's inside it: banking apps, your messages, your photos, the open session of every account you have. The good news is that both Android and iPhone come with tools for remotely finding, locking and erasing a lost device.

The steps below are listed in order of importance — when panic hits, work through them from top to bottom. The last step, on the other hand, is the one preparation to make today, while your phone is still in your pocket: confirming now that these features are turned on. Once it's lost, there's no way to turn them on.

1. Find its location from another device From any browser, go to google.com/android/find for Android or icloud.com/find for iPhone, and sign in with your account. Your phone's last known location appears on the map; if it's nearby, you can also make it play a sound.
2. Lock it remotely and leave a message on the screen From the same screen, lock the device and write a short message on the screen with a number where you can be reached. If the person who finds it means well, they'll reach you through this message; if they don't, they can no longer unlock the phone.
3. Call your operator and have the line suspended Your line being in someone else's hands means the verification codes arriving by SMS end up in their hands too. Call your operator's customer service and have the line temporarily suspended; if you find the phone, you get a new SIM with the same number.
4. Change your important passwords From another device, change your email password first, then your banking and social media passwords. The 'sign out of all devices' option in your account settings also ends the open sessions on the phone.
5. If it was stolen, report it With the lost/stolen IMEI report on e-Devlet, you make sure the device can't be used with any line in Türkiye; if it was stolen, go to the police as well. The IMEI number on the box or the invoice comes in handy at this stage.
6. If there's no hope left, erase it remotely Once you decide you won't get the device back, use the remote erase command on the 'Find' screen. The moment the phone connects to the internet, everything on it is wiped; if your backups are in the cloud, you lose nothing.
7. Today's homework: check the 'Find' feature While your phone is still in your hands, check in Settings that 'Find My Device' (on iPhone, 'Find My') and location are turned on, and that backup is working. This five-minute check is what makes every step above possible on a bad day.

⚠ This guide is general information. Yudum cannot be held responsible for the outcome of following it; for official procedures always rely on the institution's own statement. Steps and fees change over time.

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