How To Locate/Find 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:
iPhone:
Millions of people have an easy access to the online purchase of attractive and entertaining apps and software from various apps stores. This is mainly done through the following three major channels: Android Play store, Apple App store and Windows market, these three giants have made their best to cooperate with their users in the unfortunate event a user losses their iPhone. To further improve their assistance in such an event, they have now availed the Find My iPhone app which when activated can easily locate your device. With this app it hardly takes five to six minutes to find your lost device which has an Apple ID and very impotently has the iCloud account. The process is simpler and prompt and can save you a lot of headaches over your lost device. The good news here is that you can easily switch to iCloud using your Google play account, with a little effort on your part. The Find My iPhone service brings up a Google Map and plans the locations of each of your registered iOS devices.
Also the free iOS app Find My iPhone, and iOS device can be stalked using a web browser on your computer. This means that a lost iOS device can be located from anywhere with just iCloud login identifications.
Set up your iPhone or other iOS device
1. Route to Settings -> iCloud
2. Sign in using your Apple ID to proceed.
3. Once logged in, roll down to Find My iPhone
ON (green slider)
To see many iOS devices at the same time under the same iCloud account, just configure all your devices using the same Apple ID.
Make sure you have signed up and enabled iCloud on the device. You can sign up for an iCloud account from Settings, or if you already have an account connected, scroll down and ensure Find My iPhone is enabled because by default it isn’t enabled. You will see a list of devices registered to your account, and location discovery start after this operation. Click on the correct device once it’s been located properly.
All these facilities doesn’t free you from the responsibilities of your phone, but it provides an additional security purpose and permit to relax and have a free feeling. The current location information and battery strength will automatically appear in a pop-up window. From here, you can make your device make some sort of noise and make some signals or take other steps to secure your data. Lost Mode will trail the device and put contact messages on the front display. There is also an Erase option which remove all the personal data, preventing it from falling into the wrong hands.
You should note that last known location of the lost iPhone can be displayed if your phone turns off due to some reason or the battery is dead. Unfortunately, if Location Services are switched off on the lost device, entering the Lost Mode will re-enable Location Services for a short time period to track the device.
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:
Go to the Android Device Manager by following this link.
Use your Google Account to sign in; the one you were using on the lost phone.
After logging in you will see your Android device on the top left side of the site.
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.