Keep this tip in your back pocket instead of your phone.
Getting your phone stolen can feel especially daunting since we now use our phones for everything — plane tickets, hotel room keys, credit cards and so on.
Pickpockets snagging your phone can throw your whole trip off, not to mention the risk of dropping hundreds of dollars on a new device.
But iPhone users can use a simple trick to increase the chances that they’ll be reunited with their phones.
If your iPhone is nowhere to be found, whether that be because it’s been stolen or simply lost somewhere in the house, many people turn to Apple’s Find My app to locate their device.
However, the Find My feature requires the phone to be connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, and the first thing many pickpockets do when they steal a phone is put it on airplane mode to prevent the device from being able to connect to a network.
Simply having your phone locked can’t prevent this from happening — criminals can still turn airplane mode on without a password or facial recognition.
All a thief needs is access to the control center, which they can get to from the lock screen by swiping down from the upper right part of the screen.
Anyone can do this on any iPhone without entering a password, but there’s a simple way to change these settings to make sure a pickpocket won’t be able to turn your iPhone on airplane mode while it’s locked.
In the Settings app, scroll down to Face ID & Passwords, select it and enter your passcode. Once you’re in, scroll to the section that says “Allow Access When Locked.”
“Control Center” will be turned on by default, so simply toggle it off to change the settings.
Once that setting is turned off, you’ll still be able to swipe down and access the control center — but you’ll have to use a passcode or facial recognition.
If a stranger tries to swipe down from the upper right corner, they won’t be able to get in and the iPhone will lock them out.
There will be no way for them to turn on airplane mode and disconnect the phone from a nearby network. That means if you realize your phone is missing, the probability of you being able to track it down and find it is higher.
When it comes to Androids, you can still use Google’s Find My Device app, but there’s no way to turn off the easy access to the control center like on an iPhone.
There are other things you can do, however, such as removing the airplane mode button from the control center entirely.
Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to show Android’s control center, then click the three dots in the upper right corner and press “edit buttons.” Tap the minus sign on the buttons you want to remove — including airplane mode — to get them out of the control center.
If needed, both Apple and Google’s Find My features can be used to remotely erase data, lock screens or change passwords after a phone has been stolen.
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