Our dependency of our smartphone

Early February, I woke up, and my phone had a full memory.  Just half awake, I figured he had tried to download an update or so, so I quickly rebooted the phone.  But then it got stuck on the login screen.  Totally stuck.  It seemed on and when I pushed the side buttons I got the screen to turn off again, but any swipe on the screen didn't respond. After a while it asked my login code again, but I could not enter it. And there I was stuck.  No functioning phone.

Jan was about to leave abroad and shrugged because I still have a professional smartphone as well, so he did not see an issue. But I did. I was stuck partially immobile at home, and have tried in the past to really split private and professional use on my phones.  Hence, my banking app only exists on my private phone...which was no longer functional. I also was convinced I could activate my banking app on only one phone, but I was wrong about that. Also, my medical app that I'd need that week to book my hospital appointments for my scan was on my private phone. And It'sme can only be activated on one device.  So I pictured me home with the children alone, needing to order everything while not being able to make payments, neither not being able to follow up on my medical appointments. What an awful timing. 

Ok so let's not stress.  Let's first check if my phone is really broken by going to the repair store, which I can reach by bus.   But how do you buy a bus ticket without phone? My professional phone might block those paying sms numbers, and in the app I probably need a connection to my banking app.   

=> some googling taught me that you can also pay by contactless bank card in the bus .   So I'd try that at lunch time.

I also tried to find back-up plans : you can bank with a web browser and the more traditional bank control device. And I could install the banking app on my professional app with It'sMe (which I didn't have) or with a banking control device.  But our banking devices were out of battery.  And you can go and get a new one in a bank office where I couldn't get. 

=> one week later I did find in one of my unchecked drawers a banking device that wasn't out of battery, so I managed to install the banking app on my other phone and also on my Ipad etc...

I found an old phone from Jan which I could wipe and reinstall because fortunately I do back-up my phone in the cloud all the time. At least that didn't stress me out. But I'd still need It'sme to reactivate my banking app...or my banking app to activate It'sme and so I was stuck in an endless loop. 

Another back-up is to access personal files online via a web browser and my electronic ID card and a card-reader.  But where the hell was a card reader in our house?   It took me a few hours searching to find one.  And once I found one, it was a card-reader with a traditional USB 2.0 connection while our laptops only have USB-C connectors anymore.
I tried Kabouter's Chromebook...but that's an Android device and the Belgium E-id software to download doesn't work on an Android. 
I ordered a new card reader with USB-C connection but never managed to make it work
I tried to use my traditional work pc on Windows but I could not install the Belgium E-id software without the local IT using their administrator password (and of course they were off that week). 

Anyway...it all worked out.  I went with my bank card to the phone repair shop during lunch and they pushed a few buttons, just like Jan and I had done all evening before following online tutorials but unlike us, the shop manager turned on my phone just like that and it was working again. All worries resolved.

Nevertheless, the situation had made me awfully aware how dependent I had become from my phone. 
So the next week, I had continued to follow-up on all my back-up plans :

• My professional phone now has also more personal apps duplicated from my private phone
• I can use my e-ID and card reader on my work PC right now and I'm still searching why I can't make it work on my Macbook with an USB-C connection
• It'sMe has been reinstalled thanks to my working banking app again.  As a matter of fact, I reinstalled my personal phone a few times just to ensure I got that memory issue fixed too and each time it was quite troublesome to reactivate It'sMe.  Each time it gave an error during a few hours...but a few hours of perseverance work out and all of a sudden it reconnected to my banking app and got reactivated. 
• I also spent some time to back up my pictures from the cloud better in an additional space, but I'm not quite done with that as that's a huge job. 

Well that was quite a wake-up call!