5 Tips on How to Avoid Losing Your Smartphones

Smartphones nowadays has become more and more important to people’s daily live. They could not seem to get through their daily life without it. When you lost your smartphone, it is not just about the face value of your smartphone but also the intrinsic value of the data and information kept in your smartphones. Based on study by Lookout, the highest value the data on your smartphones are your photos and your contacts.

So, where and when do people normally lost their phone? Based on a survey conducted by Lookout Mobile Security, 44% of smartphones were stolen once the owners forgot and left them in public places. The most common places people left their smartphones are in restaurants and nightclubs. This fact shows that you can avoid the theft of your smartphone only if you have not forgotten to put back your smartphone into your pocket or purse. From the survey also shows that only 14% got their smartphones stolen or rob from their car or in their house.

However, with risk comes also the mitigation plan. You need to be prepare and do precautious step to avoid losing your most important device. Here are five tips on how to avoid smartphones lost and theft

5-tips-on-how-to-avoid-losing-your-smartphones

MAKE IT A HABIT

Make it a habit to put your smartphones immediately in your pocket or purse after using it. How to make this into a habit? You can start forming a new habit by consciously putting your smartphones in front of your pocket for 21 straight days. This will make your action to a subconscious action in which you will always make sure your smartphone guarded consistently.

Another bad habit is by putting your smartphones on the restaurant table once you use it. This increases the risk of you forgetting the smartphones once you left the place. Make it a habit to immediately put your smartphones back into your pocket or in your purse once you have used it. Also never make it a habit to give your smartphones to your kids during your outings in public places.

AUTOMATE YOUR SILENT MODE

Another main reason people lost their phone is that could not locate it because it is in silent mode. Therefore this makes finding your phone a bit more difficult. Probably many people are not aware of this is that you can actually automate your phone’s silent mode. Therefore you do not have to worry if your phone suddenly ringing when you are in the meeting just because you forgotten to put it in silent mode. This also will ensure that your smartphones are not in silent mode each time you are in public places. You can set when your phone should be on silent mode when it should not. Read and view here on how to automate your iPhone’s silent mode.


PUT YOUR SMARTPHONES IN FRONT OF YOUR POCKET

Study made by Lookout shows that 11% of people who lost their phones through either pickpocketing or got robbed. If you are being robbed, there is not much you can do as your life is more important than your smartphones. However, you can avoid your smartphones being pickpocket by simply putting your smartphones inside your front pocket.

The one problem people have about this is that the smartphones now are getting bigger and bigger. There is also an increase of trend for people to put their smartphones on the table or just bring it in their hands. To avoid pickpockets, put your smartphones in your front pocket always especially in public places.

PUT YOUR EMERGENCY NUMBER OR CONTACT DETAILS

Study from Lookout shows that most people lost their phones in public places that eventually lead them to be stolen afterwards. However, you can increase the chances of getting your phone return back to you by putting your emergency number or contact details in your phone. This emergency number can also be seen by anyone who found your phone even if your phone is locked.

Another best practice is to put your business card inside of your smartphones cover. So, if you left your phone in public places, people who found it can take their own initiative to return it to you or they give them to the police for further action. Read here on how you can set your emergency contact for iPhone users.

BE LESS DEPENDENT ON SMARTPHONES

People have become too dependent on their smartphones and must bring it to all places that they go. Smartphones is a very recent invention but it already have altered the daily habits of people around the world. People before this have live without smartphones. Learn to live without it too often. The less you bring your smartphones around, the lesser the chance of the smartphones will be lost or stolen. The statistics shows that people usually lost their phones in public places such as restaurant and nightclubs.

So, learn not to bring your smartphones if you are going to this places. After all, the reason you go to this places is to eat and social. And if you are worried that people could not contact you if there is emergency, buy a cheap phone when you are out socialising. The advantage is that you will not be distracted so much by your cheap phone and if you lost it, the impact would not be so much affecting you.


5 Steps To Do If You Lost Your Phone

If you just got your phone stolen or lost, keep calm. These are the 5 steps that you need to do first. These few simple steps may help you to secure back your phone.

1. GIVE YOUR PHONE A CALL

The easiest thing to do once you realised your phone is no longer in your pocket to is to give your phone a call. However, this would not work if you set your phone on silent and non-vibrating. Just borrow your friends or family’s phone and try calling your phone.

For iPhone users

If you are using iPhone, you can make your phone to ring by either going to iCloud.com or use the “Find iPhone” app. You can use the “Find iPhone” app from other Apple devices such as iPad. Here are the steps to make your iPhone to ring

And if you are using Android, you can use Hangout or Skype to call to your phone from a laptop. Depending on the instant messaging application, there might be cost to call your phone.

lost iphone

2. LOCK YOUR PHONE

After you done step 1 but you still could not find your phone, you must always assume that it is stolen. Even though there is a possibility that you misplaced or left it at other places, always lock your phone immediately if you are not sure where they are.

This is a security precaution to protect your valuable confidential data in your phone. The loss of monetary value is not that significant if compared to the loss of your private confidential data in your phone. So, how do you lock your phone immediately once lost?

Here are the steps

For iPhone Users
You can remotely lock your phone by using this simple steps. You can also visit iCloud.com to do the same function.

Step 1
Tap on the “Find iPhone” app or go to iCloud.com

Step 2
Choose the “Lost Mode” option to lock your phone.

iphone lost mode

When your iPhone is in Lost Mode, you can basically Lock your iPhone and can only be open with the passcode that you have set earlier on.You can display a custom message on the screen iPhone remotely. You can type a message asking anybody who found your iPhone to return it back to you. Any credit or debit cards in the wallet for Apple pay will be suspended immediately.

For Android phone users, you can use these steps to lock your phone

Step 1
Go to android.com/devicemanager and sign in to your Google account.

Step 2
Choose the device that is lost.

Step 3
Choose Lock


3. PROTECT YOUR DATA 

So, after you have lock your phone, the next best thing is to protect the data in your phone. This must be done if you feel that your phone have been stolen and might be in the wrong hands. Here are steps you can do to protect the data in your lost phone

For iPhone, you can erase your data remotely by using this simple steps.

erase iphone

Step 1
Go to the Find iPhone App or iCloud.com

Step 2
Choose the Erase iPhone Mode

The erase process will only begin once your device is online. However, if you have erase your iPhone but you manage to found it later, you can restore the information on your iPhone using the iCloud Backup.

For Android Users, you can erase your data by following these simple steps.

Step 1
Go to your Android Device Manager at Android.com/devicemanager

Step 2
Choose Erase

Log out from your Gmail account on your phone

Another step that you need to take to protect your data is to quickly log out from your Gmail that is connected to your phone remotely. This is to protect any private and confidential data from your Gmail to fall onto the wrong hands. Follow these simple steps to log out from your Gmail account in your phone remotely.

Step 1
Go to myaccount.google.com

Step 2
Log onto your account

Step 3
Choose the ‘Find Your Phone’ option

Step 4
Choose the ‘Sign out on your phone’ option

4. TRACK YOUR PHONE’S LOCATION

After locking and erasing your phone, the next best step is to try tracking your phone’s location. Luckily, we are now in the era of smartphones and therefore tracking your phone either by GPS or IP is now possible. Here are the steps you need to take to locate your phone.

For iPhone users
The best method to track your lost iPhone is by using the ‘Find iPhone’ app that already pre-installed in your iPhone. With the iCloud environment, you are able to track where are your Apple devices are located in a map. Follow these simple steps

find iphone

Step 1
Tap the Find iPhone app or go to iCloud.com

Step 2
Choose the device that you have lost

Step 3
The app or the website will immediately shows you the location of your device if it is on or the last location it is on.

Read more on the top 3 ways how to track your iPhone here.

For Android Users
You can use Google Maps to see the Timeline of your location. The timeline tracks the device that you singed into using your Google account. Google uses your location, search and browsing info to track the location.

Step 1
Go to Google Maps and logged into your account

Step 2
Click on Your Timeline

Step 3
Google Maps will show you the route your devices have taken. You need enable this prior to using this feature

Read more here on the top 3 ways you can track your phone using Google

5. DO A POLICE REPORT

After all of that steps have been done, you then need to do a police report if you are convinced that your phone have been stolen. Important information to put in the police report are
1. Description of your phone. (Model, Colour, etc.)
2. IMEI number of your phone. Read here on how to find your IMEI number
3. Last place that you remember having your phone
4. Suspected place where it was stolen or missing
5. Show the location of the phone that you have tracked using Step 4 (Applicable only if you manage to track that phone)

So, there you have it the 5 steps you can immediately do if you just got your phone stolen or lost.