Ugh, you know that sinking feeling when you can't find your phone. Did you leave it somewhere, or did someone steal it? All of those priceless photos, important files, passwords, and so many other vital parts of your digital life feel so vulnerable.

Even if you almost always use your face to unlock your phone, the sinking feeling that someone could find your phone and somehow crack the code to break into it is headache-inducing.

Or, who knows if someone purposely took your phone because they saw you input your passcode? Now, they have immediate access, possibly more quickly than it took you to realize you left it sitting somewhere.

Enter the Stolen Device Protection feature, which will thwart the bad guys who have somehow gotten ahold of your code or anyone who comes across your lost phone and simply plans to wipe it and sell it.

Jolana Miller/Townsquare Media
Jolana Miller/Townsquare Media
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Stolen Device Protection

According to the Associated Press, Apple's Stolen Device Protection feature will make it much harder for thieves to access key functions and settings on your iPhone and iPad.

How To Activate It

Go to Settings, scroll down to Face ID and Passcode, input your passcode when asked, scroll down to Stolen Device Protection, and Turn it On.

Basically, according to AP, your phone tracks your habits and “familiar locations,” adding extra biometric security hoops to jump through if things change, even if it's you.

READ ON: What's the 'E' That Randomly Pops Up in the Top, Right Corner of Your Phone?

Honestly, it's nice to know there's a positive to our phones "watching" over us

It also reduces the importance of passcodes, which thieves can steal by peering over someone’s shoulder or threatening and forcing victims to hand them over.

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