For the day your phone is the problem.
Short, practical guides for a phone that is lost, stolen, dead, or being replaced. Each one covers what to do first, what people usually get wrong, and how to keep your contacts and caller ID in the meantime.
Lost your phone? Here's what to do, in order.
Locate it, lock it, protect your accounts, and keep your contacts and caller ID while it's gone.
Phone stolen? Six things to do right now.
Lock it, suspend the line, protect your email and bank, file the report, and stay reachable.
Phone dead or broken? Here's how to get through it.
What actually works, what the repair will cost you in days, and how to keep your contacts and caller ID meanwhile.
Your phone is gone. Here's how your number finds its way to the next one.
How a number moves to a replacement phone, the SIM or eSIM steps, the days-long gap, and how to stay reachable while you wait.
Second phone number apps, compared.
Google Voice, Burner, Hushed, Sideline, TextNow and Line2: what each is actually for, what they cost, and when you don't need one.
Switching carriers? Here's the gap nobody warns you about.
The window where the old line is off and the new one isn't live yet, how long it really lasts, and what to do before you start.
Phone suddenly saying "no service"? Here's what to do, in order.
Lock your carrier account, secure email and 2FA, and report it, before a SIM swap gets any further.
Lost your phone, and every login wants a code? Here's how to get back in.
Backup codes, signed-in devices, and account recovery for email, Apple, and Google, without the phone that gets your codes.
Lost your phone on a trip? Here's what to do, in order.
Locate and lock it, suspend the line, protect your bank, and get a stopgap phone for the rest of the trip.
Mom or Dad lost their phone? Here's how to help.
Find it, lock it with your number on the screen, deal with their carrier, and spot the scams that follow a lost phone.
Text from your number on a computer, or another phone entirely.
What iMessage, Google Messages for web, and carrier apps can do, and where they fall short.
Staying reachable through a PCS move or deployment.
Phones get swapped, upgraded, or handed down mid-move. Here's how to keep one number working through all of it.
Phone fell in water? Here's what to do, in order.
Power it off, skip the rice, dry it the right way, and stay reachable while it recovers or goes to a shop.
Phone stuck on the Apple logo? Here's what to try, in order.
Wait and charge, force restart, recovery mode, then repair, and how to stay reachable meanwhile.
Your contacts and messages, on any phone you sign into.
MobileyMe keeps an encrypted copy of your contacts and messages in the cloud. If your phone disappears, you sign in on any other phone and your contacts are there, and calls you place from the app show your number. When you sign out of MobileyMe on a phone, the app removes your MobileyMe data from that phone.
Set it up now →