Find Lost, Misplaced and Stolen Smartphone

Find Lost, Misplaced And Stolen Smart Phones

Smart Phones have become integrated part of the lives of people as they not only help to make calls but also allow them to browse internet and make payments. It stores confidential information; therefore security of the phone is of paramount importance to the users. In case, the mobile gadget is stolen, the loss can be bigger than the loss of money wallet. In order to track the cell phone, use its inbuilt attributes and access the data for advanced management.
So, In this guide, I’ll tell you some easy ways about how to find lost and stolen phones

Misplaced Phone level 1

This method should be used if you’ve simply misplaced your phone somewhere within earshot,like if it’s under a couch or in the pocket of a jacket.

With the Where’s My Droid application, you can easily find your phone (even if it’s on vibrate or silent mode) by texting it a special code. When your phone receives the code, it will play an alert at maximum volume until you discover the missing phone.

Where’s My Droid also has the ability to reply to you with your phone’s GPS location and a link to it on Google Maps.

How To Use Where's My Droid App

Step 1: Download and install the free Where’s My Droidapplication from the Android Market. You can also download this app by scanning the barcode on the right with the Barcode Scanner app or just google it.

Step 2: You’ll want to change the default “secret message” that activates your phone’s alarm, since anybody could trigger it if they knew the default setting.

Open Where’s My Droid in the app drawer and change both the Attention word and Attention word GPS. You can also change how long the alert plays when triggered in this menu.

Be sure to note that for the GPS feature to work, you must have GPS enabled on the phone.

Step 3: When you can’t find your phone, simply send a text message to your phone from another phone with the secret message you set in Step 2. Your phone will immediately play an alert at maximum volume so you can easily find your lost Android phone.

Missing Phone Level 2 It’s Really Lost (or Stolen)

This method should be used if you’ve left your phone in a public area, or somewhere out of earshot. This is especially useful if you left your phone at a bar, restaurant, taxi, or at a friend’s place – somewhere that a person might be holding it for you to pick up.

This method can also be used if your phone has been stolen (or if someone accidentally took it), butbe sure to read the disclaimer below.

Note: If your phone has been knowingly stolen, it is in your best interest to report it to the proper legal authorities. This guide may still be able to assist them (or you) in recovering the phone – but do not attempt to recover the phone if an malicious party has stolen it. Don’t be a hero, phones can be replaced!

With the Mobile Defense application you can remotely track your phone using its GPS from any browser. You can also perform advanced features like remotely lock, back up, or completely wipe your phone to protect your privacy.

How To Use Mobile Defence App

Step 1: Download and install the free Mobile Defense application from the Android Market. You can also download this app by scanning the barcode to the right with the Barcode Scanner app.

You will need to complete a brief registration process after installing Mobile Defense to activate it. Once Mobile Defense has been installed, it will run silently in the background so nobody will ever know it is installed.

Step 2: In the event that you lose your phone, head to the Mobile Defense online dashboard log in with your account. Click the Map tab to open the remote controls.

On the right side of the screen, you will see any phones you have registered with Mobile Defense. Click Connect to Phone to activate the Mobile Defense software.

When a connection has been established, you will see your phone’s location embedded in a Google Map. With this menu, you can view details about your phone and issue commands. Since this is based off of Google Maps, you can view traditional maps, satellite imagery, or a hybrid of the two.

The Details menu contains everything you need to know about your phone’s location, including latitude, longitude, and speed. You can also monitor the phone’s connection status and battery level.

Going back to the main Mobile Defense map, you can click the Alert button to send a message to the phone. If you enable the Sound option, your phone will play an incredibly loud car alarm which will definitely get the attention of whoever has it. The Sound feature could also be useful if you’re physically near the phone but in a large crowd.

The Require Pinfeature keeps your message on the screen until a special code is entered.

Track Your Lost Smartphone With an IP Address

The first and foremost thing you'll have to do is finding the IP address of your lost phone. If you have your phone setup to automatically retrieve emails from Gmail, upload photos to Dropbox, or edit notes on Evernote; you'll be able to find the IP address of the lost phone by logging into a respective website.

Gmail

Gmail (or Google Apps) is generally setup to automatically retrieve email from your Google Account in a preset time interval: 5-min, 15-min, 30-min or 1-hour. You'll first login to your Gmail account, and find a link at the bottom right-hand corner of the web interface as shown on the screenshot below.
Clicking on the "Details" link will open an Activity Information windows as shown on the screenshot below. The Activity window will display last few activities with location and IP address of the device. For privacy and security reasons, the IP address has been blackedout on the screenshot. You may use Access Type (mobile) and Access Time to determine IP address of thief.

Dropbox

Similarly, you may use Dropbox to find the IP address of your lost smartphone if you have dropbox app installed on your phone. You'll have to log into Dropbox website to view access history. On the dropbox website, login to your account and click your email and "Setting" link as shown on the screenshot below.Then, Click on the "Security" tab and go down to "Devices" section of the page to view access history. You'll have to hover over the Information icon to see the IP address of the device.

Evernote App

Assuming that you have Evernote app installed on your phone, and the App is setup to auto sync with rest of your computing devices; you'll be able to find IP address of your lost phone. First, you'll have to login to your Evernote account via the website. Click on your email, and then choose "Account Setting" link.
On the "Account Settings" page, click on the "Access History" link on the left navigation window. Similar to Gmail interface, you'll see access history with Access Time, Location and IP Address

Okay, I found the IP address. How do I track my lost or stolen phone with the IP Address?

Unlike GPS tracking system, geo location found with IP address is only accurate to the City level, and therefore it does not give you a postal address of the thief. You'll have to file a police report, and include IP address and Wireless Service Provider who owns the IP address. Getting help from Police and Wireless Service Provider may take weeks to months, but the thief may have already sold your smartphone in a black market causing additional complexity to find the thief. Besides, trying to track down the thief yourself may have safety concerns, so we strongly suggest you get help from proper authorities.

Precaution Steps

Before your smartphone goes missing, you can take a few precaution steps to increase chances of recovering your smartphone in the event it may get stolen. Here are a few things you can do to identify your device.

1. Make a photo copy of your device's brand, model and serial number. If you need to file a police report, havingthe pertinent information will ease the reporting process and also improve chances of recovering it. You may also find this information on the box where an electronic came with, or printed receipt.
2. Make it easy for someone toreturn the lost phone by placing an owner's information on the lock screen.
3. Install Phone Tracker app such as Prey or find-my-phone on your smartphone.

There is a good chance you'll never recover your smartphone, or find the thief even if you have tracking app installed on your smartphone. There are small number of individuals with success stories, but those are very rare and considered very lucky. Trying to locate a smartphone with an IP address will only get you to the city, so it's not going to help you locate the phone unless police and wireless service provider work together to go after the thief.

Other Tips to Track a lost or Misplaced Phone That is Switched off?

Here are some other ways to Protect Personal Informations or track your lost, misplaced phone

Ring the Phone:

If you have accidently misplaced the phone in the house and want to get it quickly without the loss of data, use its device management tools from the web browser on the computer and tablet. They can find the exact location of the phone within 25 min radius and can ring the phone even if it is on silent mode. It is one of the fastest ways to find the device however would not work with phone which is turned off.

Lock down:

Device manager is an important application that would not only able to track the phone kept in the house or in close vicinity. If the remote device management is switched on, you can lock the phone and change the password from your laptop. With the help of the application, you can easily restrict the data access to thief. In order to use the remote management feature, the phone should be switched on. Even if it is off, the remote commands kicks in once it is turned on by the miscreants.

Delete the Information:

Once the remote device management kicks in, you can take precautionary steps to secure information from the thief or hackers. Device manager can be configured to delete the data remotely, as soon as the phone is switched on. Even after tracking, the phone isnot found; it is probably the safest step to make sure that your personal data is not compromised.

Usage of the Drop Box Camera:

Drop box can play a very important role in tracking the phone, if the application is installed. The phone should be online and camera upload setting in the application needs to be switched on. If the thief is using camera on the stolen phone, the drop box can instantly send the images remotely to the laptop of the owner.

Tracking by the IMEI Number:

Although users do not have the right to under take IMEI tracking, they can contact the mobile network operator who would help to monitor the location of the phone even if it is switched off.
If you are an apple phone user log in to the icloud account with the help if the Apple ID. Once on the login page, click on the Find my phone button. It will provide list of options if you have more than one device configured tothe virtual manager. Mobile can be easily tracked down if it is switched on.
If you are a window phone user, visit the window website and click on find my phone option in the browser. Once invoked, it can provide detailed map of the lots mobile gadget.

Conclusion

With Where’s My Droid and Mobile Defense, you will have a powerful arsenal to recover your phone if it ever leaves your possession.
I recommend keeping your GPS enabled at all times for these applications to be truly helpful (because of Android security restrictions, applications cannot activate your phone’s GPS). I was leery about keeping my GPS activated at all times because I didn’t want it to drain my battery, but I haven’t noticed any substantial drops in battery life during the several months I’ve been using these applications.

If you have any other recommendations for applications and other methods that can help you find a lost,theft or missing Android phone? Share them with us in the comments!