What to do, in order
- Check the pin before you report anything, If your item was a saved device, the last-seen position tells you whether it left with the car or is still where you were picked up. Those need completely different actions and people routinely take the wrong one.
- Report it through the app immediately, Uber, Bolt, Lyft and most local apps have a lost-item flow that connects you to the driver directly. Use it within the hour; contact routes degrade fast once the trip drops out of recent history.
- Have the trip details ready, Time, pickup and drop-off, and a specific description. Vague reports are the ones that go nowhere.
- For a black cab or a street taxi, Note the licence or plate number if you have it. Cities with regulated taxis usually have a central lost property office, and items are handed in more often than people expect.
- If it was a phone, Call it from another phone before anything else. Drivers answer.
Where it usually turns up
- Between the seat and the door: Where phones and cards go when you sit down.
- The seat crease: Where anything flat ends up.
- The footwell behind the front seat: Where bags tip over.
Worth knowing
- Save your regularly-carried devices under My Devices. A pin at the drop-off point versus a pin two miles away is the difference between searching your own hallway and calling the driver.
- Act inside the hour. The single strongest predictor of getting something back from a taxi is speed.
Lost somewhere else?
The first hour looks different depending on where it happened.
- How to find something you left on a plane
- How to find something you left on a train
- How to find something you left on a bus
- How to find something you left in a cinema or theatre
- How to find something you lost at a festival
- Save the devices you care about, My Devices tab
- How to find a lost camera, A few hundred shots
- All places, the complete list
Common questions
How long do I have to get something back from an Uber or taxi?
If your item was a saved device, the last-seen position tells you whether it left with the car or is still where you were picked up. Those need completely different actions and people routinely take the wrong one.
Where does it usually turn up?
Between the seat and the door is the most common. Where phones and cards go when you sit down.
In the app: A pin recorded at the moment you were last there is what separates these cases. Read about Last-Seen Map.