Switching phones when the old one is broken or lost
When the old phone isn't available anymore, there's no direct transfer of anything: you can only count on what you already had ready beforehand. What was saved to a cloud can be recovered; what lived only on that phone, can't.
In short: if your phone is broken, lost or stolen, the first priority is safety (lock the SIM and your bank, locate or remotely wipe the device if you can), and then recovery: every account and app draws on its own backup or its own recovery process, not a combined transfer.
What happens
Without the old phone in hand, you can't scan a transfer QR code, confirm anything from it, or copy a secret that only existed on that device. What you can recover is whatever was already outside the phone: photos and chats saved in a cloud backup, passwords from a manager with its own account, codes from an authenticator that was backing up, and your phone number (with a new SIM or eSIM from your carrier). Whatever lived only on that phone with no backup anywhere else — an authenticator with no account, a passkey "this device only," backup codes you printed and kept… inside the phone itself — can't be recovered: you have to rebuild it from scratch in each account.
Why it happens
Because everything on this site about "moving something to the new phone" assumes you have the old phone in front of you to start the transfer. Without it, every service treats the situation for what it is: signing into an account from a completely new device, without the one that held the trusted session. It's the same problem as switching phones by choice, but without the days (or weeks) of margin to check everything calmly.
Who it hits hardest
People who never backed up their chats or their authenticator "because the phone was never going to break." And people who, after a theft, take a while to react: the longer it takes to block the SIM and the banking apps, the more time whoever has the phone has to try using them.
If it already happened to you
This is the urgent part, do it now, and in this priority order, not technical steps:
- Call your bank at their card and banking block hotline (available 24 hours at every institution) and block access if you think someone could use the app.
- Call your carrier to block the line and request a duplicate SIM or a new eSIM for your number; that way no one else receives your verification texts.
- Locate or remotely wipe the phone if you have it set up: Apple's Find My, or Google's Find My Device, let you locate, lock or wipe a lost or stolen phone from another device or its website.
- Report it to the police if it was a theft (for the report, which your bank and insurance may ask for).
- Sign into your important accounts (email, Google or Apple, password manager) from another device and review their active sessions; if the broken phone still has an open session somewhere, close it remotely.
No one legitimate will ask you for a password, a code or your PIN to "help" with any of this: if someone does over the phone or by message claiming to be your bank or your carrier, hang up and call the official number yourself.
What to check for next time
- Do you have Find My (Apple) or Find My Device (Google) turned on on your current phone?
- Do you know from memory, or have handy, your bank's and your carrier's block hotline?
- Do your authenticator and your password manager back up outside this phone?
- Do you have any backup codes saved outside the phone, not just inside it?
Official sources: Apple: Find My and Activation Lock · Google: protect your device if it's stolen