8 Phone Settings Delawareans Should Change Before Traveling

Delaware spent years as the only state in the country without a single commercial flight, until Avelo started flying out of Wilmington in February 2023.

Catching a flight from home may be easier now, but your phone can create trouble after landing if you don’t prepare it for the trip too.

These are the phone settings Delawareans should change before traveling.

1. Old Location Shares

Your iPhone or Android phone still shares your live location with whoever you added on your last trip.

Avelo Airlines started flying out of Wilmington’s airport in February 2023, and an old location share can be older than that.

They don’t expire.

On an iPhone, open Find My, tap People, tap a name, and tap Stop Sharing My Location, or turn off Share My Location entirely under the Me tab.

On Android, tap your profile photo in Google Maps, tap Location Sharing, then tap anyone you don’t want tracking a new trip and stop it.

2. Your Lost-Phone Feature

A phone slips out of a pocket at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint or gets left behind on a rideshare’s back seat more easily in an unfamiliar city.

That almost never happens at home.

Find My or Find Hub can only lock, locate, or wipe that phone from far away if the feature was already switched on before it went missing.

There’s no walking back to a familiar counter to ask around once the flight’s already boarding.

Google renamed Find My Device to Find Hub, and the setting can hide behind a different menu depending on the phone.

On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, tap Find My, and make sure Find My iPhone is turned on.

On Android, check Settings, Security, Find Hub, and confirm Allow Device to Be Located is switched on.

Some current phones list the same setting under Security and Privacy, Device Finders instead.

3. Notification Previews

An iPhone can hide sensitive lock-screen alerts before a trip starts: Go to Settings, tap Notifications, tap Show Previews, and choose When Unlocked or Never instead of Always.

Android carries the identical fix under Settings, Notifications, Notifications on Lock Screen, where turning off Sensitive Notifications does the same job.

That setting matters especially somewhere a phone lights up on a nightstand, in a rideshare, or in a hotel lobby, and anyone glancing over can read whatever just landed.

A one-time verification code sitting right there on the lock screen is exactly what a stranger in an unfamiliar city wants to see.

4. AirDrop and Quick Share

A phone set to share files with Everyone for 10 Minutes will hand a photo to a total stranger standing at the next gate, whether it’s running iOS or Android.

Android’s version works almost the same way, and it recently traded its old name for a new one, too.

Google renamed Nearby Share to Quick Share.

Ten minutes isn’t long.

Switch AirDrop to Contacts Only or Receiving Off from Control Center’s connectivity controls, or under Settings, General, AirDrop.

On Android, search Quick Share in Settings, tap Who Can Share With You, and pick Contacts or Your Devices instead of Everyone.

5. Wi-Fi Auto-Join

A phone keeps a record of every hotel and airport Wi-Fi network it has ever joined, and it reconnects to each one automatically the next time it’s nearby.

That includes a network from a trip years ago that might not even be secure anymore.

They don’t get safer.

On an iPhone, go to Settings, Wi-Fi, tap the info button next to an old network, and turn off Auto-Join, or tap Forget This Network to remove it completely.

On Android, go to Settings, Network and Internet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Preferences, and turn off Connect to Open Networks so the phone stops linking up to unfamiliar hotspots on its own.

6. App Location Access

Dozens of apps on a phone are allowed to track location Always, not just while they’re open, and a trip is when that setting does the most damage.

An app tracking Always keeps logging every stop for the whole trip, building a timestamped record of exactly how long the house at home sits empty.

That record sits inside apps that get hacked, sold to data brokers, or opened by someone with old login access, not just on the phone.

The trip leaves a trail.

On an iPhone, go to Settings, Privacy and Security, Location Services, and switch apps that don’t need constant tracking to While Using the App or Never.

On Android, go to Settings, Location, App Location Permissions, and do the same under Allowed All the Time.

7. Roaming and Travel eSIMs

A phone with data roaming switched off goes silent the moment it crosses out of the home carrier's coverage area, and that matters the second a flight lands somewhere new.

iOS now prompts travelers to turn on a travel eSIM as soon as it recognizes a new country.

Not every trip needs one.

On an iPhone, check Settings, Cellular, Cellular Data Options, and make sure Data Roaming matches the plan in place.

Add a travel eSIM under Settings, Cellular, Add eSIM if the trip needs one.

On Android, go to Settings, Network and Internet, SIMs, flip Roaming on or off, or tap Add eSIM for a data plan built for the destination.

8. Your Phone's Backup

A phone that goes missing somewhere without a nearby Apple Store or carrier shop is a bigger problem than a lost phone at home.

There's no easy walk-in replacement and no spare device to borrow until the trip ends.

Every hotel confirmation, boarding pass, and trip photo taken so far lives only on that phone unless it was already backed up somewhere else.

iCloud Backup and Google's device backup both run on their own once they're switched on, but many phones head through security without ever finishing that first backup.

Nothing to reconstruct from memory.

On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, tap iCloud Backup, and tap Back Up Now before heading out the door.

On Android, go to Settings, tap Google, tap All Services, tap Backup under Backup and Restore, and turn on Backup by Google One, then tap Back Up Now.

Google One then covers photos, messages, and contacts no matter what happens to the phone.