If you found yourself in a situation where your smartphone was lost and stolen, some of the first things you probably tried is calling it, retracing your moves, as well as looking everywhere in your house for it. But, if you didn’t locate it, it might be the right time to try some other strategies for successfully locating it.
This is why you may now be wondering – what can I do in order to find my missing phone? Luckily for all individuals that found themselves in this unfortunate situation, the article below could help. Let’s take a closer look at some of the best and easiest ways for finding your gadget:
Option 01: Opt For Using The “Find My Device” Feature Offered By Google
Fortunately for all of us, whenever you sign in to your smartphone by utilizing your Google account, the “Find My Device” feature is automatically switched on, which implies that you could use these services if you need to trace the gadget, and, of course, if you wish to remotely erase and lock it.
Since this feature is automatically enabled, the only thing that you’ll need to do is to type in “android.com/find” into your search tab and you’ll be good to go. You should know, if you cannot locate it, you could always make a decision to wipe the whole device, meaning that you’ll basically be restoring it to factory settings which will delete all your data.
Option 02: Find it Through Your Wireless Carrier
In most situations, most wireless carriers will give you direction to the option above, however, if your smartphone has been lost or stolen, you could also choose to report this on the wireless carrier’s application or site. By doing so, you could choose to remotely secure or erase the data on the device.
Option 03: Use a Third-Party Website
Not all of us opened a Google account and if you fall into this category, you could use a third-party website for finding your gadget, which is especially useful if you have children or teenagers who are prone to losing their things. Keep in mind, these websites aren’t free, but by using them, you’ll be capable of quickly discover where your gadget is.
In most situations, you’ll need to provide your cellphone number and when you type it in, you’ll be presented with the geolocation of the gadget in no time. If you’re in need of such a site or if you simply want to see how it looks like, you could click here for additional information.
Option 04: Call Your Service Provider
One of the things you could also try is to call your cellphone service provider mostly because they might offer GPS location tracking services to their clients. Now, if you discover that they don’t offer these services, they could at least turn off the service to the SIM card you have. You can find the service provider’s number online if needed.
What Should I Do if It’s Stolen?
Before we conclude this article, it’s important for us to mention what you need to do if you suspect that your smartphone was taken. Hence, the steps you need to take include the following:
- Stay Safe – if you suspect that your device was taken, you should never, I repeat, never try getting it back by yourself. Instead of doing so by yourself, you should report the problem to the police and let them take care of the issue. After all, getting it back could cause some serious trouble for you, hence, make sure that you stay safe.
- Change All The Passwords – whether or not you’ll have to do this will depend on how much time you spend on the device. If you used your credit card to make purchases online and if you use it for work or other important things, you must immediately switch on your PC and replace all your passwords.
- Inform Your Cellphone Company – yes, your service provider might assist you with locating the missing gadget, however, if they don’t offer these services, you should inform them about it being stolen, mostly because they could cancel their services, which will in return, hinder anyone from using your SIM card.
Can I Prevent Future Losses?
No matter if you succeeded in finding the gadget or not, there are some things that you need to do to prevent losing it in the future or to make it simpler for you to locate it if you ever misplace it again. Hence, one of the first things that you need to do is to write down the device’s serial number.
Why do you need to do this? Well, if you ever misplace your smartphone again, you could provide the serial number to the service provider or to the police, which will make it more manageable for them to locate it. You may want to store the number in your wallet, simply because you’ll always know where it is.
You should also opt for registering the gadget online, mostly because it could help you quite a lot. Keep in mind, you’ll also need the device’s serial number for this. There are various websites that offer these services, so, before you choose the first one that comes up in your search results, take some time to compare everything.
Lastly, if you’re inclined to lose your things, you should have a spot for everything. For instance, if you mostly lose the device while at your house, you should always leave it on the same such as the table in your living room or countertop in your kitchen. This will help you find your phone easily and it’ll definitely cause you less stress.
Conclusion
Losing a phone is never a pleasant experience, but luckily, there is a wide range of methods that you could try in order to find your lost or stolen device. And, if you opt for following one of the options we mentioned in our list above, you’ll be capable of quickly and easily finding your phone.
So, now that you’re aware of what you could choose to do, you really shouldn’t waste any more of your free time. Instead, go back to the beginning of our list, go through it once more, determine which option you’ll want to try for locating your phone, and then discover what happened to it.
