{"id":596255,"date":"2026-04-20T21:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/596255\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T21:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:23:10","slug":"the-iphone-hack-to-stop-pickpockets-from-stealing-your-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/596255\/","title":{"rendered":"The iPhone hack to stop pickpockets from stealing your phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keep this tip in your back pocket instead of your phone.<\/p>\n

Getting your phone stolen can feel especially daunting since we now use our phones for everything \u2014 plane tickets, hotel room keys, credit cards and so on.<\/p>\n

Pickpockets snagging your phone can throw your whole trip off, not to mention the risk of dropping hundreds of dollars on a new device. <\/p>\n

But iPhone users can use a simple trick to increase the chances that they\u2019ll be reunited with their phones.<\/p>\n

If your iPhone is nowhere to be found, whether that be because it\u2019s been stolen or simply lost somewhere in the house, many people turn to Apple\u2019s Find My app to locate their device. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Simply having your phone locked can\u2019t prevent this from happening \u2014 criminals can still turn airplane mode on without a password or facial recognition.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Anyone can do this on any iPhone without entering a password, but there\u2019s a simple way to change these settings to make sure a pickpocket won\u2019t be able to turn your iPhone on airplane mode while it\u2019s locked.<\/p>\n

In the Settings app, scroll down to Face ID & Passwords, select it and enter your passcode. Once you\u2019re in, scroll to the section that says \u201cAllow Access When Locked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cControl Center\u201d will be turned on by default, so simply toggle it off to change the settings.<\/p>\n

\"FingerThe Find My feature requires the phone to be connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network. PixieMe \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Once that setting is turned off, you\u2019ll still be able to swipe down and access the control center \u2014 but you\u2019ll have to use a passcode or facial recognition.<\/p>\n

If a stranger tries to swipe down from the upper right corner, they won\u2019t be able to get in and the iPhone will lock them out. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"AAll a thief needs is access to the control center, which they can get to from the lock screen without a password. Alla \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

When it comes to Androids, you can still use Google\u2019s Find My Device app, but there\u2019s no way to turn off the easy access to the control center like on an iPhone.<\/p>\n

There are other things you can do, however, such as removing the airplane mode button from the control center entirely. <\/p>\n

Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to show Android\u2019s control center, then click the three dots in the upper right corner and press \u201cedit buttons.\u201d Tap the minus sign on the buttons you want to remove \u2014 including airplane mode \u2014 to get them out of the control center. <\/p>\n

If needed, both Apple and Google\u2019s Find My features can be used to remotely erase data, lock screens or change passwords after a phone has been stolen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep this tip in your back pocket instead of your phone. Getting your phone stolen can feel especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[4536,27077,165,172,74,2427],"class_list":["post-596255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-iphone","tag-iphones","tag-mobile","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}