First ten minutes: find it
- Clap twice, if clap detection is armed.
- Call it and listen in silence, room by room.
- Check Find My from another device or a browser and look at the last known location.
- Retrace the last hour by pocket and bag rather than by room.
Next twenty minutes: contain it
- Put the phone into Lost Mode in Find My. This locks it, displays a contact message and suspends payment cards.
- Do not erase it yet. Erasing removes your ability to keep locating it, so it is a last step rather than a first one.
- Change the password on your primary email account from another device. Email is the reset route into everything else.
Next thirty minutes: report it
- Contact your mobile network to suspend the SIM and, if relevant, blacklist the handset by IMEI.
- Report it to the police if you believe it was stolen. Many insurers require a crime reference number.
- Tell your bank if payment cards were on the device, even though Lost Mode suspends them.
- Check where you last were, venues, taxis, transport lost property, sooner rather than later.
Afterwards
Whatever happens, set up the things that would have shortened this: a passcode and biometrics, Find My enabled with Send Last Location, a recent backup, and a way of making the phone audible when it is on silent.
Related methods
If this was not the situation you are in, one of these probably is.
- How to stop losing the same things, Prevention
- How to search a room systematically, Method
- How to find something in the dark, Method
- How to find something lost in a garden, Method
- How to help someone else find their phone, Method
- Get warmer, get colder, Inside Scan
- How to find a pet tracker or collar tag, Months on a coin cell tag
- All how-to guides, the complete list
Common questions
Should I erase my phone remotely straight away?
Not immediately. Erasing ends your ability to keep tracking it. Lost Mode locks the device, shows a contact message and suspends payment cards while keeping it locatable, which is the better first move.
What should I change the password on first?
Your primary email account, from another device. Email is the account-recovery route into almost everything else you own.
In the app: This is what the app is built for. Read about Last-Seen Map.