HOW TO TRACK YOUR LOST OR STOLEN MOBILE PHONE OR TABLET :- SOME TRICKS TO GET PHONE AGAIN
How to track your Android phone or tablet after it got lost or stolen
But don’t burst out in tears just yet. There’s still hope for your phone to find its way back to you! There are a few ways to remote control and track your phone even if you haven’t installed a recovery app before it vanished.
Let’s have a look at the various ways to get your Android smartphone back to its rightful owner.
1. Track your lost Android device with Google’s Android Device Manager
Requirements:
Your device is connected with your Google account.Your device has access to the internet.Allowed Android Device Manager (ADM) to locate your device (turned on by default). This can changed in the Google Settings app.Allowed ADM to lock your device and erase its data (turned off by default).
Android Device Manager is a Google’s official and easy-to-use tool to track your Android phone or tablet. The best thing about it is that you don’t need to install an app to be able to track your devices. The only requirement is that your device is connected to your Google account, turned on and connected to the internet. All you need to do is visit the Android Device Manager while being logged into your Google Account. Once the site is loaded it will automatically try to track down your phone. If you habe several Android devices registered, make sure the right one is chosen in the dropdown menu..
In a recent update, Google im.plemented some of ADM’s features into their search results page. This means that you’re able to quickly locate any registered Android device right from the search results. By using the search phrase “where is my phone”, Google displays a little map above the search results in which it will try to find your phone. Once found, you can let it ring by clicking on “Ring” at the bottom left..
Although this makes it more convenient to find your phone quickly, it won’t offer you all the options you get with the full version of Android Device Manager.
Using ADM, you are able to track your registered Android devices, let your phone ring and wipe your phone’s data (which has to be enabled manually). Besides that, ADM doesn’t offer more options to remote control your phone. I hope that Google keeps improving it and introduces more helpful features, such as taking pictures in case it got stolen and you want to take a snapshot of the person who took it.
In case there’s no laptop around when you lose your device, you can also use someone else’s Android phone to track it. Instead of using the mobile browser, you can also use the Android Device Manager app. If you the other phone doesn’t have it, simply download it here. You can sign in using the guest mode and your Google account credentials. Now you should be able to track your lost device, let it ring or wipe its data.
Are you not able to locate your phone this way? This can happen for several reasons. The one you should hope for, is that your device is simply not connected to the internet or turned off. In that case, simply keep trying to track it until it (hopefully) connects to Google’s services again.
In case it got stolen, it’s possible that the thief has disconneced your device from your Google Account. If that happens, neither Android Device Manager nor any other tracking tool will be able to locate the device, since it’s necessary to be logged into your Google Account. This doesn’t apply to previously installed tracking apps but in this scenario there are none on the phone. However, there’s one last resort but more on that later.
2. Remote control and track your smartphone with Android Lost
Requirements:
Your device is connected with your Google account.Your device has access to the internet.You’re not running Android 3.0 or higher.
This is a more complicated way to track your phone. Basically, you need to install the tracking app ‘Android Lost’ on your phone and activate it by sending it an SMS (this can be done from any phone). How do you install something when you don’t have your phone with you? That’s very easy. You can install any app on all your registered devices directly from your browser through the Google Play website. Simply navigate to the Android Lost app and click the install button.
The remote installation process of Android Lost is very straightforward and only requires that your phone is still connected with your Google account. However, in case of theft, you have to hope that the thief doesn’t disconnect from your account.
Step 1: Install Android Lost remotely
Install the Android Lost app remotely via Google Play in your browser and it will be installed on your phone remotely. As already mentioned, your phone still needs to be connected to your Google account. Otherwise, this won’t work.
Step 2: Activate Android Lost (not working on Android 3.0+)
If you are still in the possession of your smartphone or tablet then all you need to do is starting the app. But this is, obviously, probably not the case if you lost your phone. So, to register your device remotely, send an SMS with the text “androidlost register” to your phone. This SMS can be sent from any phone. This will trigger Android Lost to register itself using your Google account credentials.
If you own a tablet, SMS might not be an option. In that case, install “AndroidLost Jumpstart” before you install the actual Android Lost app. It will jump start the registration process when Android Lost is being installed.
Step 3: Log in to the Android Lost website
Visit the Android Lost website and sign in using your Google account. After doing that, you should have access to all remote control features such as the following:
Read the latest SMS on your phone
Force your phone to play a loud alarm with a flashing screen. Perfect if you misplaced your device.
Get the location of your device
Lock and unlock your phone
Wipe your entire phone so no private data falls into the wrong hands
Erase the SD card
Use the camera to make pictures (front or rear camera) to get a nice shot of the nice person who took your device.
…here’s the complete feature list
Note that it can take a while for the registration process to complete.
Android Lost is a great tool to get your phone back
I have to say that having the possibility to install and register this tool remotely makes it very powerful in case you lose your device. Unfortunately, The only negative thing I experienced is that the notification of a new app called ‘Android Lost’ could tell a potential thief about what’s going on. Unfortunately, activating Android Lost is only possible on Android Versions older than 3.0.
Here is a success story of a dad chasing down the man who stole his daughter’s phone with the help of Android Lost.
3. Plan B is the Android Lost alternative for devices running Android 2.0 – 2.3
Requirements:
Your device is connected with your Google account.Your device has access to the internet.
If Android Lost is not working out for you and you’re phone is still running an older version of Android (2.0 up to 2.3) you could give Plan B from Lockout a try. Install the app directly from the Play Store (Link) to your device and, if successful, Plan B will send your device’s location to your Gmail address. It will send you a mail every 10 minutes with the current location. You can also use any other phone to send an SMS with “locate” to your phone to get the location via mail.
As already mentioned, Plan B only works with devices on Android 2.0-2.3, so it won’t work with most devices. Also, the app hasn’t been updated in a while, so I cannot guarantee that it will work.
4. Use Google Maps Location History – now called ‘Timeline’ – to track your lost Android phone (even if it’s turned off)
Requirements:
Your device is connected with your Google account.Your device has access to the internet.Location Reporting and Location History need to be activated on your device (can be done in the Google Settings app on your device).
Update: Google completely overhauled the interface and user experience of its Location History tool, including giving it a new name – Your Timeline. The focus of Timeline is to help you keep track of the places you visited. Before the update, you could only see dots on a map. Now, Your Timeline actually shows you the names of the places you had been to (e.g. airports, cafes, bars …). Thanks to the better naming of your past recorded locations, finding a lost phone has become much easier. Keep reading to learn how Your Timeline can help you get your phone back.
Unlike the Android Device Manager, the Timeline feature of Google Maps doesn’t focus on tracking down a lost phone. You can use your location data for many different things such as looking up past travel routes or last night’s pub crawl tour. However, it is also a good way to locate your phone.
Here’s what you need to do. Go to the Your Timeline (former Google Maps Location History) and make sure the current day is selected in the calendar. On the left sidebar, you can see a complete timeline of that day including the names all recorded locations. On the right, you can see all the locations visualised on a map.
5. Use Samsung’s Find My Mobile to find your phone
Requirements:
Your device has access to the internet.You need to have a Samsung account and your device registered with it.Find my mobile needs to be set up on your Samsung phone (enabling remote controls).
If you have a Samsung device, you might be able to find your phone using Samsung’s own tracking service ‘Find my mobile’. For this to work, you need a Samsung account and registered your device before you lost it. So try to remember if you did that.
6. How to use Dropbox to find your stolen phone (Android & iOS)
Requirements:
Your device has access to the internet.Activated “Camera Upload” in your Dropbox app.Someone needs to take pictures with your lost device.
Dropbox can be your last resort if all other approaches don’t bring you any closer to finding your phone. For this to work, however, Dropbox needs to be installed on your phone and the “Camera Upload” feature has to be activated. This way, every time your phone’s thief takes a picture, it automatically gets uploaded to your Dropbox “Camera Uploads” folder. So, if he or she takes a nice selfie you might be able to identify the thief. And if you’re lucky, you can make out the location by looking at the background of the uploaded pictures.
Should that be impossible, simply start a blog and show the world all the pictures your thief has taken. There’s one funny tumblr page sharing images of Hafid, the guy who stole the phone of the blog’s owner.
So far, that’s the only way Dropbox can help you. Dropbox doesn’t give you the IP address of mobile devices which are connected to your Dropbox account. This is only possible for Desktop PCs and laptops until now.
USeful Links for Android Phone users:-
Track your Lost or Stolen Mobile with googleAndroid Apps Big CollectionsAndroid Game CollectionsAndroid Theme Big CollectionsAndroid Stickers collectionsBeautifull Wallpapers big collection for Android usersBig collection of Ringtones
