How To Track Your Lost Android Phone

Are you looking for your Android phone? Do you think you misplaced it or it was stolen? Do you wish that there is a magic button that you will press and you will get to know the location of your missing Android phone?

You don't need to lose hope when you lost android smartphone; the tutorial we are going to give you in this article is nothing short of magic button you are looking for. It will help you to track and recover your missing android phone anytime any day. You can easily stop searching for terms like find my phone, find my android and where is my phone on Google.

There are lots of anti-theft and phone recovery apps you can download from Google Play Store. Now, if you are reading this article and your phone is still with you, you are lucky, you can take the steps suggested in this article to ensure you recover your phone anytime you lost it. But the sad truth is that most people that search for "how do I track my lost android phone" & "How do I find my android phone" only do that when they have already lost their phone and in most cases, it is already too late to do something to recover it.

Nevertheless, we will teach you how you can recover your android phone anytime it goes missing.

How To Track Your Missing Android Phone or Tablet

There is still hope to recover your missing phone. Before you burst out in tears, ensure you thoroughly read the following guide. Guide will help you "find my android" phone in no time. If you are the cautious type reading this article for knowledge sake, ensure you put into practice one of the methods mentioned below:

1. Track your Missing Android Phone With Google’s Android Device Manager

Google's Android Device Manager is an easy-to-use tool provided by Google to track your Android phone. Since Google is the owner of Android Operating System, it's no wonder that this tool is one of the most popular missing android phones tracking tool. Before you can use this tool, you need to ensure that:

1. Your device is actively connected with your Google's account
2. There is an internet connection
3. Android Device Manager is turned on your device
4. Android Device Manager is allowed to lock your device or erase the content.

If your phone met the following conditions, then you are good to go. What you need to do now is to login to Android Device Manager with your Google account. You can easily track android phone once the site finish loading. It will resolve find my android problem.

Note that if you have more than one android phone that you registered with Google, you need to select the right one in order to track it. 

A quicker way to track android phone using Google is through their search engine thanks to the recent Google update. As far as your device is registered with Google and you are logged in with your account, you can open the search engine and type "Where is my phone". Google will show you a map with which it tries to locate your phone. You can also try keyword find my phone and Google will show you the location of your connected android phone.

Once you see your phone location on the map, you can click on the "Ring" at the bottom left to let the phone ring. As more convenient as this option is, you will have more features at your disposal when you make use of the full version of Android Device Manager.

With Android Device Manager, you can track android phone, let it ring or wipe the data on your phone (you will need to enable it manually before you lose your phone). Note that you can access ADM from another smartphone or from the app. You can download the ADM app here and use it to track your missing android phone. Simply sign in with guest mode and your Google account details to check if you can see your missing device.

Android Device Manager still needs some improvement. For instance, it does not allow you to take pictures of the person that stole your phone like some other apps we have in this tutorial do. However, it is still a good tool to use when you want to track android phone.

2. Locate Your Phone on Google Maps Location History

Another popular way to track missing android phone is by using Google maps. This is an easy way to locate android phone quickly. You can track android phone and know its location through Google's maps location history. However, in most cases, the location may not be exact but it at least gives you an idea of where to start looking for your phone. Find my android searches can end with this.

Now, before you can use this tool, you will need to meet certain guidelines before your phone is lost:

1. Your android device must be connected to internet.
2. Your device must be connected to your Google account.
3. Location reporting and history features on your device must be enabled.

Once you are sure that you meet the above requirements, then follow the guideline below to locate your android device:

• Login to Google Maps Location History 
• Once you logged in, click on the "today's date". The next step is to click on the "Show timestamps". This is located just below the calendar.
• Once you click on this feature, you will be able to see various locations where your device was registered. Click on the "latest timestamps" to see the last available location of your device.
• With timestamps, you can obtain the location where your phone appeared more than twice. You can report to the local law enforcement to track the phone for you or do it yourself.

Google Maps location history is one of the best way to put an end to questions such as find my phone, find my android and where is my phone.

3. Track Your Missing Android Phone With AirDroid

Apart from the tools provided by Google, there are other third party apps you can use to track your android phone. One of such apps is "AirDroid"; this app has some of the features that you won’t find on the Android Device Manger. It also has some advance features that are not in ADM. Some of these features include lock, erase, wipe, and take the picture of the person using your phone.

AirDroid has useful features. For instance, there is a story about how someone was caught by authorities because of the owner of the phone he stole was able to take his pictures using AirDroid and subsequently reported him to police.

Some of features on this app include:

1. You can discreetly upload important files on your device to a secured website before erasing your phone. The person that stole your phone won't know what is going on.
2. Take real time pictures of the thief. This feature allows you to use both the rear and front camera to remotely take the pictures of the person using your phone.
3. It also comes with screenshot functionality which allows you to catch the thief by writing something that you can use to identify him.

AirDroid is free. However, the free version doesn't allow you to access all the features. You will need to upgrade with $20/year to enjoy all the features. It will put an end to where's my phone or find my andorid question.

4. Track Android Phone with Samsung's Find My Mobile

Samsung Find My Mobile is one of the most popular apps you can use to track your missing Samsung phone (Samsung uses android OS). To find your phone using this feature, there are some conditions you must meet:

• Your Samsung device must have an internet access
• You must have a Samsung account before your phone is lost
• Your device must have "Find my Mobile" features enabled for remote control

If you met the above requirements, you can track your device simply by visiting the Find my mobile website. Once you sign in, look at the left sidebar and ensure your device is connected to your account.

The next step is to click on "Locate my device" which you can see on the sidebar. You will see the approximate location of your device if it is online and the remote control is enabled. Apart from tracking your phone, you can also use this website to lock your device, ring it, wipe the date or send a message or an instruction to the person with your phone. It's very helpful in "Find My phone" situation.

5. Remote Control Your Lost Android Phone With Android Lost

This is another way you can track android phone but it is more complicated than other methods we mentioned above. This method can only work on Android versions running lower than Android 3.0.

For this to work, you need to ensure that:

• Your smartphone device is connected with Google account
• Your phone is connected to the internet
• You device is running operating system lower than Android 3.0

How this method works is that you will install a tracking app called "Android lost" on your phone and then you can make it active anytime by sending an SMS to the app from any phone.

Some people may wonder how it is possible to install an app on a phone that is not with you; but the process is quite a simple one. You can easily install any app on your registered devices using the Google Play Website. Just visit the Google Play Store, select "Android Lost app" and click on the "install button".

The process to remotely install this app on your missing phone is very straightforward and will not take more than 5 minutes if your phone is still connected with your Google account. 

Follow the steps below to track android phone with "Android Lost";

Step 1. Remotely install Android Lost

Visit Google Play Store and install the Android Lost on your phone through the browser. Note that this process can only work if your device is still connected to the internet.

Step 2. Activate the App

After installing the Android Lost app, you need to activate it remotely. You can do this by sending an SMS from any phone with the text "androidlost register" to your phone. Once you do this, the Android Lost will register itself with your Google account details.

Step 3. Visit the Android Lost Website

Sign into Android Lost website with your Google account. Once you do that, you will now have access to all remote control features that comes with the app such as:

• Know the location of your phone
• Lock and unlock your phone
• Read new SMS 
• Force your phone to play a loud sound with flashing screen; this is usually done if you think you just misplaced your phone.
• Wipe the SD card
• Wipe every data on your phone
• Take pictures of the person using your phone

Android Lost app is a great tool to use when you are looking for your phone. However, the downside is that the app tells the thief what is going on when you are trying to locate your phone remotely and it does not work on higher versions of Android O.S. It's good for "where is my phone" or find my android situation but works for lower version of android.

6. "Find My Phone" with Dropbox

This method does not work only for Android phones; you can also use it to track your iOS phones.

Before you can use this app to find your phone, you need to ensure that:

• You install Dropbox app on your phone.
• Your device is connected to the internet.
• The person with your phone must snap with it.

This may sound like a lot; however, it can be your last resort when other methods fail you. What this basically does is that it will remotely upload the picture of the person that stole your phone to your Dropbox account anytime the thief snap with your phone. You might be able to identify the thief from the pictures uploaded to your Dropbox "camera uploads" folder. However, for this process to work; Dropbox must be installed on your phone and your phone must be connected to the internet. It may not tell you the location or tell you "where is my phone" or "find my android" but you can identify thief and can take action.

7. SeekDroid

Seekdroid is a paid app available on Google Play store at $0.99. It provides many features which you can access remotely. However this app needs to be preinstalled on your Android phone. If you have a new android phone then you must install this app so that you can track android phone later. You will never have to ask where is my phone or find my android question again to someone. Simply login to SeekDroid and you can access the location of your lost android phone. SeekDroid is very helpful in "Find My Phone" and "Where is my Phone" or Find my android situation.

Here are some of the features present in this app that you will get:

1. Enable GPS remotely
2. Sound alarm
3. Custom message to your android
4. Retrieval of calls
5. Works without SIM as well
6. Remotely wipe
7. Uninstallation of app

8. Avast Anti-Theft

Avast is well known antivirus which prevents every type of attack. Avast Anti-theft app is also available on play store which provides a range of features from tracking your lost android phone to sending a custom message to your phone. It also provides some great features such as geofencing and call forwarding. Avast is very well known security software and you can totally trust this app. You can easily end questions like "find my phone" and "where's my phone".

9. Family Locator

Family locator is one of the simplest app to track android phone for your family members. It does not provide advanced features such as other apps but it's very effective for members within family. Family locator lets you see the phone of other family members on a map. If one of your siblings lost android phone then you can easily check on your device and tell the location of the missing android phone. If you have a huge family then you must install this app so that family members stop searching for terms like find my phone, find my android or where is my phone.

Some Common Questions People Ask When their Phone is lost

I used to get a number of people asking one question or another when they want to track their missing android phones. Well, for a starter, I hope the guide above help you to recover your phone.  There are various options you can use, so if one method does not work, another one may work.

Below I will address some of frequently asked questions 

Is it Possible to Locate my Phone when it is turned off, in an airplane mode or the battery dead?

This is to be expected. Unfortunately, you won't be able to find your phone if any of the scenario above occurs. If you take a good look at the guides above, you will discover that all the methods of tracking your phone depends on your phone having an active internet connection and your connection won't be available if your phone is off or in an airplane mode. But don't lose hope yet, the thief may turn it on sooner or later.

Can I still locate my phone after changing my Google account password?

Yes, you can. Changing your password does not change your account; even Google knows that it is a logical thing to do to ensure that someone does not have unauthorized access to your important files. So you can go ahead and change your password, this does not stop your ability to locate your phone as far as it still meets other requirements such as being connected to the internet.

Is it possible to track my phone is someone made a factory reset?

Unfortunately, you won't be able to track android phone again. Any thief that made a factory reset on your phone is a smart thief and he have successfully denied you of an ability to track android phone because you have lose connection to your Google account. Additionally, you will lose other tracking apps installed on your phone unless you have installed a tracking app with root access like Cerberus, then you may still have a slim chance.

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