Protecting Your Phone from Theft: A Simple Tip
It’s a good idea to keep this advice handy—not on your phone, but in your mind.
Having your phone stolen can feel incredibly overwhelming. These days, we rely so much on our phones—think about boarding passes, hotel keys, and even payment cards. Losing your device, whether due to theft or simply misplacing it, can really throw a wrench in your plans. Plus, there’s the hefty price tag of replacing it.
If you’re an iPhone user, there’s a straightforward method to boost your chances of getting your phone back if it’s lost or stolen.
In many cases, people turn to Apple’s Find My app to locate their missing iPhones. But here’s the catch: this app needs your device to be connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network. Unfortunately, one of the first things a thief might do is switch your phone to airplane mode, cutting its connection to the internet.
Locking your phone alone isn’t enough to safeguard it. Thieves can easily activate airplane mode without needing a password or Face ID.
Why? Accessing the Control Center, which can be done by swiping down from the upper-right corner of the screen, doesn’t require authentication. Anyone can do this on your iPhone, making it crucial to tweak some settings to safeguard against this.
When you head into the Settings app, scroll to the Face ID & Passcode option and enter your passcode. Within this menu, look for a section that reads “Allow access when locked.” By default, Control Center is enabled, but you can toggle it off.
Once you’ve done that, you can still access the Control Center, but it will require your passcode or Face ID. So, if a would-be thief tries to swipe down from the screen, they’ll hit a wall. They won’t be able to turn on airplane mode or disconnect from networks. This makes it more likely you’ll be able to track down your missing device.
For Android users, you can use Google’s Find My Device. However, there isn’t a similar way to restrict Control Center access. Still, you can remove the airplane mode option from easy access. To do this, swipe down twice from the top of the screen to bring up Android’s Control Center, click the three dots in the upper-right corner, and select Edit. Then tap the minus sign next to the airplane mode icon to remove it.
Regardless of whether you’re using an iPhone or an Android, both platforms allow you to wipe data remotely, lock the screen, and change passwords after a theft. It’s a good safeguard to consider.
