Losing your phone can be a devastating scenario for many. It’s not only about the money – you’d be losing your precious memories, contacts, and all of your sensitive data.
If you’ve found yourself in this unlucky situation, no matter whether you suspect your phone to be lost or stolen, there’s a couple of things you can try to get your device back.
Here, we’ll discuss this topic in detail to help you find your missing Android phone in no time whatsoever.
So, without any further ado, let’s get right to the bottom of it!
1. Call your phone.
If you’ve dropped your phone somewhere outside and it’s still turned on, you could try calling it to check whether someone has found it. Most people would gladly return it to you, so remember to check it out. If you’re lucky, you’ll have your phone back pretty quickly.
Now, if you suspect your phone’s been stolen, the thief probably won’t keep it on for too long. In those cases, calling is the last thing you want to do, as it can alert the thief and rush them into removing your sim card and deleting your data.
2. Use Google Maps.
You can locate your Android phone using Google Maps no matter where it is. This method requires you to have your Google account set up on your phone. If you do, and your phone is turned on and connected to the internet, you can hop onto google.com/android/find where you’ll simply sign in to your Google account and the service will locate your phone for you immediately.
You can also use this application to make your phone ring in case it’s somewhere nearby. Besides that, you’ll have the option of locking your device and deleting its Google data from a remote location (the latter should only be used in the worst-case scenario).
If your phone is not turned on, connected to the internet, and signed in to your Google account, this method won’t be applicable. Make sure to try it out as soon as you notice your phone’s gone missing.
3. Samsung phones have their own locator app.
Samsung phones have their own robust service for retrieving lost devices and saving your data. It’s much more powerful than Google Finder, so we recommend using it if you’re a Samsung galaxy phone owner.
To access it, you’ll need to know your Samsung credentials and your PIN. Then, all you need to do is head to their homepage where you’ll be able to prevent your phone from getting turned off, display a message for anyone who might find it, and most importantly, get a copy of your phone’s data. You can also turn on the tracking feature that will update you on your phone’s location every 15 minutes. Hopefully, this will be enough to help you retrieve your precious device.
4. Find your phone using its IMEI number.
If you haven’t checked your phone’s unique IMEI number by now, it’s time to do so! You can find a tutorial for every specific model online – it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to do and it can help you find your phone extremely quickly. Law enforcement and your service providers can use it to track the device down in a matter of seconds.
This is extremely useful in cases of phone theft, so we wholeheartedly recommend you keep a copy of your phone’s IMEI somewhere nearby at all times.
5. SIM card tracking.
Services such as find-my-phone.org allow you to track your device using nothing but your phone number. This method requires you to authorize the service via SMS (usually) before you can start using it. It’s an excellent precautionary measure you can take to prevent your phone from getting lost or stolen, but it won’t work if you haven’t set it up beforehand. Similarly, if the thief decides to remove your SIM card, you won’t be able to reach your phone using these useful services. That’s why you should always act as quickly as possible once you’ve noticed your Android has gone missing.
6. Prevention is always better than cure.
As you can see, all of these phone retrieving methods require certain „preventive“ measures to be taken in order to work as efficiently as possible. If you’re soon to be traveling to faraway touristic destinations or you’re going to a big gathering where you’d be at risk from pickpocketing, it’s time to put some work into protecting your phone.
You could even put a tracking app onto your phone to ensure you’re always aware of its location. Whatever you do, remember to have a plan ready for anything unexpected that might happen to your phone.
7. Don’t confront the thieves by yourself.
If you manage to track down your Android device using any of the above-mentioned methods and tricks, and you suspect it to be stolen, do not try to retrieve it on your own. Good people don’t steal from others, so you’d be risking getting hurt for nothing. It’s never worth the hassle.
Instead, inform the local authorities about your situation and your findings. They should be able to handle it just fine and in no time whatsoever.
Lastly, even if your phone never gets found, you’ll at least get some of your data back using the techniques we’ve mentioned in our list – it’s never all lost!
The bottom line
There are many ways to find a missing smartphone nowadays. Most of them require some preparation and some luck, but hopefully, you won’t have any issues finding your phone once you’ve tried everything we’ve mentioned in this article.
If you don’t manage to retrieve your Android device, make sure to delete all of your data remotely, if possible. There are always some private things on our phones that should never get to the wrong hands.
Either way, we hope our article helped you learn more about the topic in question and we wish you the best of luck in all of your future endeavors.
