Tips for protecting your iPhone from loss
Worried about losing your iPhone? You aren't alone. While many people lose their phones, there are a few precautions you can take in advance before it happens to you. Luckily for us, Jason D. O'Grady over at ZDNet recently lost (and found) his iPhone after it went missing for a few days, and he decided to share some of his tips on how to protect your iPhone from loss -- and how to get it back if you ever lose yours. Some of O'Grady's suggestions are obvious, like enabling Find My iPhone (which we have talked about here before), but there are a few more ideas on his list that may surprise you which you should check out. In addition, our very own TJ Luoma has a few more suggestions to maximize your chances of recovering your iPhone, and Steve Sande learned a few things after losing his iPhone a while back. The important thing is to take these steps before you lose your phone so that in the event of loss you are already prepared to try to get it back.
While I don't do a ton to protect my own iPhone, I do use passcode lock, and I do a backup of it each and every day, just in case. Losing my phone would be bad, but losing the data on it would be even worse.
Share
Categories
Worried about losing your iPhone? You aren't alone. While many people lose their phones, there are a few precautions you can take in...
Add a Comment
HAHA, too bad the Apple Engineer in that bar didn't have these tips earlier this year!!!
December 10 2010 at 10:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply@Wonderboy honestly though, do you not think that keying in an unlock code before turning it off is a price worth paying to make the phone unpincheable?
I do speak from experience here...my wife dropped her phone and realised inside a minute. I called her number but it had already been switched off. The person who had it couldn't have been more than 50m from where we were standing, but we were unable to take any steps to recover it.
I dunno, it just seems crazy to me that a killer feature like Find My iPhone is so easy to work round for any common or garden tea leaf. Why not make it a little harder for them? At least force them to get it back home before they can stop it broadcasting its position...I just think that way people would be more inclined to do the honest thing and return the phone to a grateful owner who would probably give them a tasty reward anyway. I know I would.
I have my first name and work phone number on my lock screen
December 10 2010 at 9:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBeyond having everything important synced to the cloud and passcode lock (w/ erase after 10 failed attempts), I have a stuffbak 'reward for return' label on my iPhone. Haven't had an occasion to test out the service yet, but they claim to have a 'proven 75% recovery rate'
December 10 2010 at 8:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPaying a $1000 for a simlock free iphone (the only ones available here) and losing it would be even worse. US folks just pay up a few hundred bucks for it.
December 10 2010 at 5:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyRe: Find my iPhone....I admit that it is a stunning feature and incredibly effective assuming, that is, that the phone is still powered up. I don't understand why, when you have a passcode lock on the phone, you can still easily switch off the phone by holding down the power key. Surely the power off function should be disabled while the phone is passcode locked? I appreciate that might cause problems with any need to hard reset the phone while it is locked, but that could be overcome by a force reboot option in iTunes. I am convinced that if there was no way to stop the handset from broadcasting its position while still locked much of the casual theft of these handsets would be stopped. Thoughts people?
December 10 2010 at 6:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBut the number of times my phone is lost/stolen and turned off by the finder/thief is far outnumbered by the number of times I'll want to just turn off my phone without hassle.
December 10 2010 at 9:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI see you have no bars on AT&T ;)
December 10 2010 at 12:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI took a photo of my drivers license, and this is the lock screen wallpaper. If I leave my phone anyplace, there is no reason why someone [honest] would not know how to contact me.
December 09 2010 at 10:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyJust a thought, how about be responsible and just DONT LOSE YOUR PHONE?!?!?!
December 09 2010 at 9:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhile I do use passcode lock (and erase after 10 failed attempts), I'm not too worried about losing my iPhone, except for the high cost of replacement. Why? Because almost everything's in the cloud. If I lose my iPhone, I just restore from backup and synchonize with the cloud:
* Email is in the cloud.
* Contacts are in the cloud. I happen to use mobileme, but people can also use google or hotmail (I think) contacts.
* Notes are in the cloud. I happen to use evernote and dropbox, but something like droptext and dropbox could also be used.
* Social networking apps keep data in the cloud.
The only things that are not really in the cloud are photos/videos (taken by the iPhone). I save the important ones via mail, mobileme, or evernote, but the periodic backups are probably helpful. (I don't like to use the social picture/video saving sites for backups, as they seem to downconvert and mangle my pics/vids.)
My biggest reason for doing backups is to make sure that any purchased apps are in the backup. Otherwise, I'd have to remember, reinstall, and possibly reconfigure apps.
So, if I were to lose my iPhone, my biggest problem would be restoring from backup. This isn't a problem if I'm in town, but is a problem if I'm traveling. Yes, I could put the backup into dropbox, but I'm not comfortable with that.
They aren't going to be able to contact unless you give them CORRECT information... ;-)
December 09 2010 at 8:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyDeals of the Day
more deals- Used Apple iPad 32GB Wi-Fi Tablet for $200 + free shipping
- Apple iPod nano Multi-Touch 8GB MP3 Player for $100 + $8 s&h
- Cases for New iPad at HandHeldItems: Extra 20% off, $2 credit, from $3 + $3 s&h
- $15 Apple iTunes Gift Card for $8 for new Saveology customers
- Retro 80's Case for iPhone for $11 + $2 s&h
- HHI 360 Dual-View Stand Case for new iPad w/ $2 credit for $12 + $3 s&h
Software Updates
more updatesFeatured Stories
more stories
Popular Stories
TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
22 Comments