The iPhone Feature That'll Protect You If Someone Steals Your Phone

A lost iPhone is stressful enough to deal with, but it can be way worse if you know your iPhone has been stolen. While there are measures you can take to recover your missing Apple device — and prevention rather than damage control is always preferable — sometimes the best you can do is make it more difficult for potential thieves to access or change your account details. Or in this case, set it to metaphorically "self-destruct" when tampered with.

Obviously this won't turn your iPhone into "Mission Impossible," but what it will do is completely erase all of your data after 10 consecutive failed passcode entries. It's a good way to make sure nobody who takes or finds your phone will be able to do anything with your Apple account or other sensitive apps and information, however there are a few things to keep in mind first.

Erasing all of your data in this matter effectively resets the iPhone to factory settings, which protects your info, but does increase the chances of your phone being pawned off or sold (and never recovered) since it will basically act like it just came out of the box. 

This setting also only applies to passcode entry, not biometrics like FaceID or TouchID. If you often forget or mistype your passcode — or live with a young child that may play with your phone screen — you run the risk of accidentally deleting everything when you don't want to.

Assuming you're aware of the risks and still want to have your iPhone factory reset itself after too many failed passcode attempts, here's what to do:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone (it looks like a gear app icon).
2. If your iPhone has a Home button, select Touch ID & Passcode from the Settings menu. If your iPhone supports FaceID, select Face ID & Passcode from the menu instead.
3. Enter your iPhone's passcode to continue.
4. Locate "Erase Data" at the bottom of the menu, then tap the toggle switch to turn the feature on (the toggle will turn from gray to green).
5. To turn the feature off, navigate back to the menu and tap the Erase Data toggle again.

Keep in mind that, with this setting turned on, your iPhone will be completely erased after 10 failed passcode attempts. So if your iPhone does receive enough failed inputs and erases everything, you'll either need to set it up again as a new phone, or restore it using a backup.