Keep a Secure Record of Your Device Serial Numbers

If your laptop or phone gets stolen, the police report will ask for the serial number. Your insurance claim will ask for the serial number. The tracking service will ask for the serial number. And in that moment of stress, you will not remember it.

Spend ten minutes today photographing the serial numbers of your main devices — laptop, phone, tablet, camera — and store them in an encrypted note or password manager. This is one of those tasks that costs almost nothing to do now but saves enormous headaches later.