What to do When You Lose Your Iphone

find-iphoneHere’s what to do when you lose your iPhone.

Don’t panic. All is not lost. The more your freak out, the less likely you’ll be able to think clearly. Trust me on this.

Retrace your steps right away. Go back and look where you were.

Check lost and found. Mine went missing at a street festival.

While there was no real lost and found, there was an info booth that did not have any missing items. They did suggest checking with bars and restaurants, which would prove to be the answer.

Turn on Find My Iphone ASAP.

Set it up right now, if you haven’t already.

Thanks to my daughter, Phoebe, for attempting to get me to calm down enough to try it. She reassured me that she’d found phones for friends before. And, she herself had lost her iPhone at a festival last weekend. When the DJ announced someone had found an iPhone in a sparkly case with a Captain America screensaver, she knew it was hers.

Know your icloud log in info. This may seem like a duh step, and it is, but I couldn’t recall my login info right away.

Find someone with a phone you can use to log in and check your location.

Go to find my iPhone and add in the option to enter a call back number and a message.

Make sure you have quick access to the number you use. Again, duh, but duh.

Track your iPhone’s location online. Mine showed up on a street corner.

Go check. Thanks to my super incredible husband for driving all the way back into the city to search for my phone on a Sunday night at 10:30.

Click on the make a sound option. He looked. I turned on the make a sound. And, nada.

Be patient. My iPhone is was a big red device that would be easy to miss in broad daylight. At night? Not so much – or maybe it helped.

At 3:57am a guy walking on Division found my iPhone. He followed the screen directions to call our home number and left a message with its location.

At 9:59am, Jason from Parlor Pizza followed the screen directions, called our home number and let me know that they found my iPhone – in their mailbox.

My husband did get to be my iPhone’s rescue hero after all. He took the train from his office to Wicker Park and brought my phone home safe and sound, we thought. You can see how the tracker works in the accompanying image.

Except . . . it had water damage. While it worked for the two notification calls, it died out after that. I took it to a phone repair place and left it there only to get this message a few hours later.

“There’s nothing we can do to save your phone. I’m sorry.”

After I picked the dead device, I stopped by the ATT store. They recommended I submit an insurance claim. Even though there’s a $168 deductible, I can trade the phone in for $235.

Goodbye, beautiful red iPhone. Up next? The jet black iPhone I always wanted. It’ll be here tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Have you ever lost a phone? Did you find it?

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