This past weekend in Seattle my good friend @bookis lost his iPhone. He thought he left it at the bar, but maybe it was in the taxi on the way home? He’s not really sure. We called the bar the next day and also tried getting a hold of the taxi company. It was a lost cause.
But even if someone had found the phone and wanted to return it, they’d have no idea how. His phone was password protected (as it should be), so all they’d be able to do is try to guess his password and make an emergency call. That’s it. There would be no way for these hypothetical good samaritans to have any idea who’s phone they’d found and do the good deed.
Why hasn’t Apple addressed this issue?
Well, there is a very simple solution to this problem, and it starts with a piece of scrap paper and a sharpie marker.
The first step is to write your contact info on that scrap piece of paper with that sharpie marker I mentioned a second ago. I’d recommend your name, email address, and a phone number of a friend or family member. Then take a picture of it with your iPhone. Make sure you put the paper down somewhere with good lighting and hold steady when you snap the photo.
Once you’ve got a good photo, you’re ready to set that photo to your lock screen. Tap the button on the bottom left corner.
Tap “Use as Wallpaper”
Zoom and drag the photo around until it looks good and fits on the screen. Make sure that all your contact info is clearly readable and in between the lines, then tap “Set”.
Then tap “Set Lock Screen”
And that’s it! Done and done. The next time you see your lock screen it should look something like this.
Oh, and you should password protect your iPhone. Now.
[Big ups to @brke for helping me simplify this process immensely. Also, I wrote this entire post (including uploading the photos) on my Dell Mini Hackintosh while riding Amtrak Cascades from Seattle to Portland.]
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