July 26, 2026
Remote Lock vs. Remote Wipe: Which Should You Use First?
Lock first, in almost every case
Locking is reversible in every way that matters — it doesn't touch your data, and if the phone turns up in a couch cushion an hour later, nothing was lost. It's also faster to trigger, since there's no confirmation step standing between you and cutting off access.
When wiping is the right call
If the phone is confirmed stolen rather than just misplaced, or if it holds information you can't risk sitting on a locked-but-intact device indefinitely, wiping removes that risk entirely. There's no undo — treat it as a decision, not a reflex.
A reasonable default
Lock immediately, always. Wipe once you're reasonably confident the device isn't coming back — after a location check shows no movement for a while, or once you've decided to file an insurance claim, which typically requires the device to no longer be recoverable by you anyway.
Locking a phone isn't just a personal precaution
When Apple rolled out Activation Lock in 2014, iPhone theft dropped sharply within months in the cities that were tracked most closely — by some measures around 40% in San Francisco and roughly a quarter in New York and London within about a year, because a locked phone stopped being resellable. More recently, reporting in mid-2026 tied a further citywide drop in London phone theft to an expanded default lock rollout, with some boroughs seeing reported thefts fall by close to half year-over-year. The mechanism is the same one at work here: a phone a thief can't unlock or resell is a much less attractive target in the first place, which is as much a deterrent as it is a recovery tool.
Related feature
Remotely lock or wipe a stolen phone
See how it works →Start protecting a device in under five minutes — free 7-day trial, no card required.
Create free account
