What to Set Up on Your Parents' Phone Before You Head Home

You're visiting family, you have a few hours before you have to leave, and you just realized your parent's phone is in rough shape — tiny text, four pages of apps, a battery that drains by 2pm, and no backup in two years. Here's the exact list of what to fix before you go.

Display and Accessibility

On iPhone: Settings → Display & Brightness → Text Size. Slide it up. Also turn on Bold Text. These two changes alone make a phone dramatically easier to read. On Android: Settings → Display → Font Size and Style.

Also check: Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Larger Text. This increases text size even further across most apps.

Simplify the Home Screen

Most people's phones have accumulated years of apps they never open. Spend 10 minutes removing apps that aren't being used. Then move the most important ones — Phone, Messages, Camera, and the apps they actually use — to the bottom row or the first page. Everything else can go on page two or in a folder. Fewer decisions = less confusion.

On iPhone, you can also enable App Library mode so unused apps are automatically hidden from the home screen.

Label Contacts Clearly

Go through the contacts list and make sure names are recognizable. "Jenny" should be "Jenny — Daughter." "Bob" should be "Bob — Son." This matters most when someone is stressed or tired and scanning a list quickly. Also add your number as a Favorite so it's one tap from the Phone app.

Set Up Find My (iPhone) or Find My Device (Android)

This lets you or your parent locate a lost phone from another device or a computer. On iPhone: Settings → [their name] → Find My → Find My iPhone → turn on. On Android: Settings → Google → Find My Device → turn on. Takes two minutes and prevents a major headache later.

Emergency SOS

On iPhone: Settings → Emergency SOS. You can enable "Call with Side Button" so pressing the side button five times calls 911. Also set up Medical ID (Health app → Medical ID) with their name, any conditions, medications, and emergency contacts. First responders can see this without unlocking the phone.

On Android: Settings → Safety & Emergency → Emergency SOS. Similar functionality, varies slightly by phone model.

Back Up the Phone

Do this before you do anything else, actually — and again before you leave. On iPhone: Settings → [their name] → iCloud → iCloud Backup → Back Up Now. On Android: Settings → Google → Backup → Back up now. If anything goes wrong during your visit, you want a fresh backup to restore from.

Check Storage

A phone near full capacity behaves strangely — slow camera, can't download updates, apps crash. On iPhone: Settings → General → iPhone Storage. On Android: Settings → Storage. If it's over 85% full, help clear space by offloading unused apps or enabling iCloud Photo Library to move photos to the cloud.

Set Up Video Calling

Make sure FaceTime is set up (iPhone) or Google Meet/Duo is installed (Android). Do a test call with yourself before you leave so they've actually done it successfully at least once. That one practice call makes all the difference.