How To Locate A Lost Smartphone

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How To Locate A Lost Smartphone

So you are one of those early consumers and you have already bagged yourself the iPhone 6, Samsung S6, BlackBerry Passport or any other latest smartphone to enter the market.

Few weeks down the road, you lose your phone. You can’t imagine the agony and frustration that comes with it; and it’s not always about the money value lost along with the phone, but mostly the contents the phone had. Sure you can always buy yourself another phone, (if ‘money ain’t a thing’) the information contained in your phone could be lost.

However, it should not be automatic that when you lose your phone your information goes away with it. There are many way to back up information contained in your smartphone, so this should not be a worry if you were cautious enough. But the information contained in that phone could fall into the wrong hands, and to prevent this, follow the following guide:

Android Smartphone

If you lost an Android smartphone, you can use the Android Device Manager to locate your phone from another Android device or use the website version. The good thing with Android smartphone is that the tracking feature is always on by default. The following are the steps you should take to track your Android smartphone:

  1. Go to the Android Device Manager by following this link.
  2. Use your Google Account to sign in; the one you were using on the lost phone.
  3. After logging in you will see your Android device on the top left side of the site.
  4. If you have a number of Android devices, you may not immediately see it, you will have to click the down arrow next to the device you see and then select the lost device from the list of devices shown.

At this point, you will be able to get the location of your lost or missing device. You will then have three options; you either Ring, Lock or Erase information on the device.

Ring option: This option will make your device start ringing. This is particularly handy when you can’t remember where you left your device, but you think it’s within the ear’s range from your current location. By making the device ring, you will easily be able to locate the device from the ringtone.

Lock option: If you have lost your device, then it would be wise to first lock it. This will prevent whoever came across it or stole it from accessing your private information. This is also the best tool at your disposal that you can use to prevent confidential information from getting to the wrong hands. But if it’s a case of somebody coming across your missing phone, and it was not stolen, then you have the option of entering a recovery message where you can say something like: “Hi, I lost this phone, please contact me at….” The message will appear as a pop-up message on the missing phone and whoever comes across it, may reach you.

Erase option: You should use this option when you have lost all hope of ever recovering your phone or if the information contained within it is so crucial that you won’t risk it falling into the wrong hands. One you select this option, the Android Device Manager will no longer work in tracking your phone. It will be the same as writing off your phone.

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