About My Old Number
A plain-English guide to what happens to a phone number after you cancel it — and how to avoid the security headaches most people never see coming.
My Old Number exists because almost nobody is told how phone numbers really work until it's too late. People cancel a line or switch carriers assuming the number simply switches off. In reality it enters an aging period and is later handed to a stranger, who can inherit calls, texts, and — most worryingly — two-factor authentication codes tied to accounts the previous owner never unlinked. Plenty of people only discover this after they've been blindsided by it, from either side of the exchange.
Our goal is simple: explain this clearly, honestly, and without hype. We cover how the number lifecycle works, how to keep a number you care about, how to clean up your accounts before you let one go, and what to do if you've received a recycled number that won't stop buzzing with someone else's life.
What we are — and aren't
We're an independent information site. We are not a phone carrier, we are not affiliated with any carrier, phone company, or government agency, and we have no relationship with the FCC, the FTC, or any provider. We cannot look up who owns a number, we cannot restore a number you've lost, and we cannot reassign, release, or change any specific number. Anything tied to your actual account has to go through your carrier — that's not us being unhelpful, it's simply the only place that work can happen.
How we write
Everything here is written and maintained by the site's editors, in plain language. We deliberately avoid inventing false precision: where the honest answer is a range — like how long a number sits before reassignment — we say so rather than quoting a tidy figure that isn't true. Where we reference well-documented issues, such as the FTC's warning about recycled numbers and account recovery, we describe them plainly and point you toward doing your own cleanup rather than trusting any single source blindly.
The site is free to read. Like many independent sites, it may display advertising to cover its costs; see our privacy policy for how that works.
Start here
If you're about to cancel or switch, read how to keep your old number and how to unlink 2FA before you cancel. If you've just received a recycled number, start with recycled number problems. Questions about timing go to how long until a number is reassigned.