The mobile phone is an incredible gadget that helps us stay in touch with family and friends. As technology has advanced, this gadget has evolved along. And today it is nothing but a mini-computer.
You can access your social media and email accounts, click and backup photos. And the list goes on. But if you accidentally lose it or it gets stolen, all those accounts and your data will become vulnerable.
We know that you will try to avoid such scenarios, but not everything goes according to plan. But that doesn’t mean you can’t track your lost phone. You track your phone as soon as possible with the right and possible measures. And with that, we have compiled these measures in this guide below.
8 Ways to Find a Lost Android Phone
If the phone is stolen, the hope of recovering the lost device depends on luck. But this does not mean that there are no ways to find a mobile device.
In this tech-advanced era, there are several ways to track your phone. Even if the phone’s battery is low or it is in power off mode. Learn more to learn more about these effective measures.
Find your lost Android phone with dead battery
- Use the Google Timeline
- Use the tracking apps installed on your phone
- Using the IMEI number
1. Use the Google Timeline
The Google Maps location history is now known as the Timeline.
The timeline from Google maps has the main function to use your phone’s location. This is handy when you are traveling or planning a trip. In addition, it also keeps a record of your previous visits to different cities.
However, this service may be hindered if your phone loses its backup battery. However, it can display the last active and recorded location. And this is the key to finding a lost phone without a battery.
Before we get into the detailed steps, this process has some prerequisites. They are:
- Your Google account must be registered on your phone.
- Your device must be able to access the Internet. This works if your phone is currently turned off or if the battery is low.
- The ability to send location reports and location history has been enabled on your mobile device.
Since they are active in the background, let’s start searching for your lost phone.
1. Open your timeline. Sign in to your Google account on a trusted device and open your timeline. Or Use Google Maps to open your travel history. You can access accurate data anyway.
2. Date update time. Sometimes the system chooses a default date other than the current day. To avoid confusion from this point of view, you should check the system’s calendar. And update it if necessary.
3. Follow the map
Now that you can access the timeline, you can visualize the route or places on the map.
And you can find the last known location where your phone was busy online.
Interestingly, this location history feature uses the internet and cell tower IDs to mark the location. This helps track your phone in the possible places where it has been used; before his communication skills were hindered.
2. Use the tracking apps installed on your phone.
There are many tracking apps available for Android users on the Google Play Store. And they are useful if your phone gets stolen. But you can only use any tracking app if it is installed on your lost phone. Also, some apps require administrator rights on your device.
Some of the useful features they offer are:
- Basic location tracking
- Activate alarm according to settings
- Wipe your phone data
- Take hidden pictures of the surroundings
- Hidden in the app drawer – this is available among several apps.
- Install Flash ZIP: This is useful for rooted Android devices. The tracking app will still be there if the thief resets your phone. As a result, it can be convenient to track a lost mobile phone.
- Remote access to your phone. Some tracking apps allow remote access to a stolen device. This is possible through their desktop or mobile website. But you will have to sign in using the same account you used on your phone. Once you sign in, you will be able to use remote features provided by a third party.
3. Using the IMEI number
Although it is a long way, it can help you find your lost cell phone. The basic rule is that you must have the phone’s IMEI number with you.
Assuming you do this, you have 2 approaches.
1. Report the incident to the local authorities and they will help you trace it. This is usually associated with the use of a government portal. The name of the portal is the Central Equipment Identification Register (CEIR). Although, this may take a considerable amount of time.
2. Second, you can use tracking apps that use IMEI to track your lost phone. Provided that they have been installed and configured on your phone.
Find your lost android phone with battery
But they don’t always steal. It may happen that you left your phone in a store or in a bag in a public place by mistake. In such cases, you can hope that someone in good faith left it aside so that you can return it.
There are also ways to track down a lost phone for those rare but possible scenarios. Let’s look at the methods one by one.
- Google “Find my device”
- Use Google Photos
- Use Samsung Find My Mobile
- Use Dropbox
- Use Lost Android
1. Google “Find my device”
One reliable way to find your phone yourself is to use Google’s Find My Device service. It was previously known as Google’s Android Device Manager.
Before continuing, it’s important to understand that this interface is different from the search results feature. Find my device offers a better feature set than the last one.
But in order for his abilities to be put to good use, he has certain requirements as listed below.
- Connecting to a Google account
- Internet connection
- Permission to discover your device – It is enabled by default.
- The permission to lock the device and wipe its data is disabled by default and should have been enabled.
Now that the prerequisites are available, let’s move on to the steps.
1. Visit the Find My Device website using your Google account. You can also achieve this by entering guest mode. Then enter your account email address and password. As soon as you log in, the site will automatically start working.
But you can have more than one device registered under this account. You will then need to specify which one the site should manually focus on.
2. Once detected, you can use the call function or erase all data of your phone.
Additional benefits include accessing this site from any device such as a laptop or tablet. You can also use mobile browsers to work with the interface.
2. Use Google Photos
Google Photos has a lot more than just organizing and backing up your photos. But because it does everything neatly, they can also do a good job of helping you find your phone.
Let’s look at the requirements to make this approach successful:
- Active internet connection
- The photo app has a sync option enabled.
- Some photos are clicked using your mobile phone.
So, according to the situation, whoever has your phone is trying to access his camera. As soon as they click on a photo, it is backed up since sync is allowed. While this is happening, your image and location will also be uploading. This feature can work with both mobile data and public Wi-Fi networks.
Assuming this happens, here’s how you can check for new images:
1. Sign in to photos.google.com in a browser using your Google account that was used on your lost phone.
2. Try to determine if any new images have been added recently and if they belong to you. If not, then someone else is using your phone.
3. Click on any such unidentified image. Then click on the icon in the top right corner of the website.
4. You will see the option to view the information associated with the image. This will also include the download location.
If enabled, this feature can give authorities the ability to locate your phone.
3. Use Samsung Find My Mobile
If you have been a Samsung mobile phone user, then you have the option to use this approach to find your phone. You can use the Find My Mobile service provided by Samsung.
You will need the following:
- An active internet connection on your Samsung phone
- The device must be registered with a Samsung account.
- The Find My Mobile service is fully configured on the mobile phone.
So let’s find your Samsung device by following these steps:
1. Log in to find my mobile phone website with your Samsung account.
2. Use the menu bar on the left and check if your device is associated with this account.
3. If yes, click the Find My Device icon and then the Find button.
With all the minimum requirements, you should have the update on your Samsung device. This should not take more than a few minutes. Now that you have a remote control at hand, you can lock your screen or phone and secure your device. You can also make it ring and wipe all data.
4. Use Dropbox
Dropbox is another digital world utility that provides online storage. This is applicable for documents and images and saves the load on SD cards. These files can be backed up on Dropbox servers for Android and iOS users.
But for it to work in case of loss of the phone, certain conditions are necessary. They are:
- Active mobile data or internet connection
- Dropbox app installed on lost device
- Permission to upload camera files to Dropbox.
- New photos to click with lost phone
With this backup working fine, you should be one step closer to your phone’s location. Now background work starts when someone uses your phone to click on some images. Once instructed to upload images, Dropbox will begin uploading new files.
Dropbox currently only uses desktop and laptop IP addresses. So the trick is in the background of the images you upload.
If you’re lucky, the background of the new images that this unauthorized user clicked on might give you some clues about their location. If any of these images contain their face, it could be a jackpot for the authorities to help you better.
5. Use your lost Android
Android Lost is an app designed to help you find your lost phone. There are no requirements to use this approach. Hence, follow these steps to find your phone.
1. You will have to arrange other people’s smartphones, such as family members and friends.
2. Log in to the Android Lost website using a mobile browser. You must use the same Google account as on the lost phone.
3. After that, you will be able to send SMS to your Android phone. The message will contain the keywords – “Android lost registration.”This is important because you cannot manually activate the app on your phone.
4. After receiving the SMS, the Android Lost application will be installed on your device.
5. After installation is complete, check the mobile website again. It would be helpful if you now have remote control of the device. Now you can track your lost device. You will also have a set of other options such as wiping SD cards, wiping data, remote pressing images, and more.
FAQ
Can I track my Android phone if it runs out of battery?
Yes, there are several ways to track your Android phone even if it’s not working. You can use Google Timeline (location history) and report your IMEI number to local authorities. You can also try third party apps to track your phone if they were installed on it before it was lost.
How to find a lost Android phone?
First, you can contact local authorities to report the incident. Alternatively, you can request their help using Google Timeline, Photos, and similar interfaces. You can also use third party tracking apps if they are installed on your mobile phone.
Can you find a lost android phone with IMEI number?
You can track your lost android phone by IMEI number using government portal. In addition, you must notify the authorities of the incident.
Can I find my device if someone changed the SIM card?
Yes, you can find your phone even if only the SIM card has been replaced. In this case, the IMEI number will help more. It is also possible that the user is using your phone with active internet. And if they haven’t logged out of your account, it can also help track down the location of your lost phone.