Track your mobile phone
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Should you happen to lose your phone, you can locate its whereabouts by logging into your Google account from any computer or even from another phone. If you are trying to locate your phone with Find My Device and it doesn't seem to be working, the most likely cause is that your phone is not currently connected to Wi-Fi or an available network.
In this case, it's important to keep trying; the moment your phone does make that connection, it will appear on the map. If you want to download a tracking app for fear of a missing phone crisis, there are a number of options to choose from, and we're highlighting some choice picks for you. This is only a selection of the features available in Find My Device.
Hit the guide below for more! It's embarrassingly easy to lose your phone by putting it down somewhere in your house and forgetting where you placed it. This can be frustrating if it's time to leave for work or some other appointment and you're frantically scrambling around your home looking for it. If you own a Google Home speaker , you can use Google Assistant to help find your phone.
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Your Android phone must be logged into the same Google account as your Google Home speaker, you must have linked your Google account and voice to your Google Home via the Home app, and your phone must be turned on and connected to the internet either via mobile data or Wi-Fi. You will also need to have Find My Device turned on, which you should absolutely activate for any Android phone you're using.
As long as your phone is still on and connected to the Internet, all you need to do is say "okay Google, find my phone," and Google will confirm which device you want to find and then turn the ringer on — even if you have your phone set to silent. With Google Home's multi-user support, everyone in your home can use Google Home to find their phones if they're lost as long as they've linked their Google Accounts to Google Home using Voice Match.
While Google's built-in option is definitely your best bet, there are some third-party options you might want to consider. We've broken down the best third-party apps for finding your phone below. The Family Locator app by Life is essentially a GPS tracker for phones but is especially useful for families with multiple phones in use. Your family members become a "Circle", the app's name for a closed group of people who consent to have their phones tracked in real time.
Your family members will appear on live maps within the app as little icons so that you can see where everyone is at any given moment. The app also allows you to chat with people in your Circle or broadcast a meeting time and location. And, of course, if a phone from within your Circle is ever lost or stolen, the app will track it on the map. Family Locator Free with in-app purchases. This locator app from Cerberus offers an impressive array of remote control features if you find your phone has been lost or stolen. You'll still be able to lock, ring, or erase your phone, but you'll also be able to remotely access your camera or sound a loud alarm from your phone, even if it was on silent mode when you lost it.
The advanced features allow you to hide Cerberus in your app drawer so that it can't be detected if and when your phone is found or stolen. Your missing phone will transmit data to you via the Cerberus website or via SMS text from another phone with the Cerberus app installed. Cerberus anti theft Free with in-app purchases. The Prey Anti Theft app is impressive in that three different devices can be protected through one download.
You'll have the ability to sound an alarm from your missing phone, take screenshots if it's in use, and lock down the device the moment you realize it's missing. Once you've downloaded the app, it will walk you through a series of tutorials to show you how to use your Prey Account to track your phone. The app itself is free and doesn't require additional purchases in order to access the high-end features.
Prey Anti Theft Free.
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Lost Android will allow you to have remote access to your missing phone via their website. Here, you'll be able to erase sensitive information if you fear that your phone may never be returned, or send messages to your phone in the hopes of someone finding and returning it. Additionally, you can choose to remotely forward any calls you may be missing to another number and record a running list of any calls or messages made or photos taken with your phone.
Lost Android Free with in-app purchases. The basic features of the Where's My Droid app allow you to ring your phone if you misplace it, locate it via GPS on Google Maps, and use a passcode to prevent unauthorized changes to apps on your Android phone.
Stealth Mode also prevents anyone who finds your phone from seeing your incoming text messages; instead, they'll see a customizable attention word that alerts them of the phone's lost or stolen status. The Pro version of the app, which you pay to use, lets you remotely wipe data from your phone, use a landline to access your phone, and remotely lock the device.
Where's My Droid Free with in-app purchases. Google's phone location tools are your best bet — as long as you've gone through the process of setting things up ahead of time. Really, this should be something you set up on any device you care about or that will have sensitive data stored on it, especially with how easy Google has made it to locate your device should you lose it. Of course, one of the benefits of Android is having the freedom to customize your experience as you see fit.
If for whatever reason Google's offering just doesn't cut it for you, you should consider the third-party options we've highlighted above, as they include some clever features that might give you some added peace of mind if your device goes missing. If your phone is stolen or found and it's then factory reset, you will not be able to rely on any apps or services to find it; a factory reset will wipe out any of the original data, accounts, or passwords that are needed to remotely find your Android phone.
As always, exercise caution when retrieving a lost or stolen phone. If you have any concerns about it being lost or stolen, it's best to set up and test your preferred tracking system as soon as you buy it and contact the police. Check the left sidebar and make sure that your device is connected to your account.
Mobile phone tracking
If your device is online and remote controls is enabled, you should see its approximate location. Find my mobile also allows you to do other things such as locking your device, letting it ring with a message and wiping its data. So, if he or she takes a nice selfie you might be able to identify the thief. Should that be impossible, simply start a blog and show the world all the pictures your thief has taken. This is only possible for Desktop PCs and laptops until now. I hope you are reading this just out of pure interest and not because you lost your phone!
How do you find your Android phone? Let us show you how.
They usually offer more remote control features and can add an additional layer of security. Cerberus is our top recommended tracking app which features a large selection of remote control options. This includes basic location tracking, secretly recording audio or video, taking remote pictures, triggering an alarm and wiping your data. There are a lot more options which make Cerberus the Swiss army knife or tracking apps. What makes this app even better are some of the more advanced features. For example, you can hide the Cerberus app in your app drawer which makes it harder to spot and delete.
This way, even if a thief resets your phone back to factory settings, Cerberus will still be installed on your device. For more infos on that, check out our article on Cerberus. Download Cerberus free with in-app purchases. Lost Android is quite similar to Cerberus and offers a lot of different remote control options including tracking your phone, wiping its data and taking pictures remotely.
The installation is pretty easy. After installing the app via the Play Store, open it and give it device administrator permissions.
Lost your phone? Try some simple steps, like showing the location or locking the screen, to help you secure it. GoogleTerms & PrivacyHelp. Google apps. Consult this guide for tips and tricks on how to track a phone. That includes Apple's Find My iPhone, Google's Find My Device, and Samsung's Find My Mobile.
Should you lose your phone, visit the Lost Android website , log in with the same Google Account as on your phone and choose one of the available tracking features. The convenient thing about Prey is that it offers up to three devices you can track with their free account.
Download Prey Anti Theft free. With the large number of questions people posted in the comment section, we figured it makes sense to address the most asked ones. This is a common scenario. It needs to have an active internet connection to send its approximate location. For this to work, location history needs to be activated on the phone.
Changing your Google password after you losing your phone is a totally logical thing to do right? You can go ahead and change your password without losing the ability to track your device. Methods like Android Device Manager will still work.
Find your phone
As the name already implies, resetting a phone brings it back to its factory settings. A more realistic thing you can do is to block your phone so that no one can use it to make calls, send texts or use the web. To do so, the best thing is to contact your provider. This code should work on most phones. The only needed thing in this scenario is that your phone keeps an internet connection. This can have many reasons. Your phone could be off, disconnected from the internet or your Google account. I recommend that you keep trying to locate your phone every half hour or so.
Your phone might have a bad connection or someone else turns it on and connects to the web. Do you still have unanswered questions? We received a lot of emails, tweets and comments the last months from people that found their phone thanks to this article. Both tools can be a great help when you lose your device. With Find My Device you can track your device, make it ring and erase its data. Location history shows you the last recorded locations on a map.
Quite a lot of people already use lock screens to keep unwanted people from accessing private files like images, texts or videos. It also prevents thieves of changing any major settings such as disabling mobile data or disconnecting your phone from your Google account. Have you been able to get back your mobile device after it got lost? How did you get it back?
Share your experience with us in the comments! Are you interested in more Android related guides?