Lost Your Phone? Google Has 3 Means to Help You Find It!

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 02 Jun 2016

You’ve looked everywhere, thoroughly looked, and you still can’t find your phone. Where could it be? Perhaps you forgot it at work, at your girlfriend’s, or that new place where you had lunch. Perhaps it’s hidden somewhere in your home. Did you check behind the couch cushions? Or worse of all, perhaps someone stole it. After all, millions of phones are stolen every year, and that’s just in the US.

The bad news is that your phone is lost. The good news is that with a bit of help from Google, you can easily find it. Google offers 3 handy means of locating a misplaced or perhaps stolen phone, and none of them require the installation of special software (like a tracking or security app). You just have to...

1. Use the Android Device Manager website

Android Device Manager, which was first introduced way back in 2013, is available as a web service that works with any browser. After you log into your Google Account, you can use the Android Device Manager website to locate your phone, have it ring at full volume, remotely lock it, and remotely erase all the data that is stored on it.



Android Device Manager – Main Features
  • Locate – your phone’s location will be displayed on a map, with an accuracy of about 20 meters.
  • Ring – your Android will start ringing at full volume for 5 minutes or until the ringing is manually stopped.
  • Lock – remotely lock your Android smartphone; replace the current lock screen with a password lock.
  • Erase – remotely erase all the data stored on your Android smartphone by performing a factory reset.
For Android Manager to work, a few requisites must be met: your Android must be turned on and associated with your Google account; location access must be turned on; the options to remotely locate, lock and reset the device must be turned on; your Android phone must have access to the internet.

If you have any problems using Android Manager, check out this handy help article.


2. Use Google's search engine

A long as your phone is linked to your Google account, you can use the Google search engine to find your lost phone. You can do that by searching for 'find my phone' or 'I lost my phone.' A map will show up atop all the search results, letting you know where your phone is.



This works with wearables as well. If you have an Android Wear smartwatch, go to the Start menu and select 'find my phone' or use the voice command 'OK, Google, Start. Find my phone.' Once you do that, a ring command will be sent to your Android smartphone and it will start ringing at full volume.




3. Use My Account’s new 'Find your phone' feature

My Account, the dedicated online dashboard that lets you access a wealth of settings and options related to your Google account, celebrated its 1-year anniversary on June 1st. To mark this joyous occasion, Google introduced some improvements that make My Account even more useful than it already was. One of them is a new 'Find your phone' feature that works with Android and iOS devices.



Find your phone can be used to locate a lost phone, remotely lock it, and more.





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