Lost your Android phone or tablet and wondering how to find it or at least track it where it is? Ideally such a feature should be activated on your phone when you haven’t lost it, but if you have already lost the phone, is there a chance to know its whereabouts? Yes there are.
So here we are going to discuss two case scenarios: you have got an app installed which can help you track your Android phone, or you don’t have an app.
Let’s discuss what happens when you haven’t installed any app and you have lost your Android phone.
Finding or tracking your lost Android phone with the help of the IMEI number
Such a situation can also be divided into two parts: you were able to note down your phone’s IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity Number); you don’t have this number with you. It is a unique number and this number belongs to only your device. Recently the market was flooded by Chinese phones that didn’t carry these numbers and therefore people stopped buying them.
How do you find your IMEI number? It should be printed on the backside of your phone. If it isn’t there, launch your phone app and dial the following number *#06#. This will display you the IMEI number of your phone.
Sometimes dialing this number doesn’t show you the IMEI number. Then you can directly access it by first going to Settings, then “About device” and then to “Status”. Here somewhere listed is your IMEI number.
Once you have this number, store it safely somewhere so that you can locate it in case you have lost your phone or tablet.
When you go to the police station to file an FIR, you also provide this number to them so that it can be included in the report.
Then you need to pass on this FIR along with the IMEI number to your service provider who then will be able to track your phone and let you know where it is. No matter who is using the phone and no matter what SIM card they are using, the phone will be trackable. The phone can tracked even if the phone is switched off. Once the phone is located, you can also request your service provider to block it so that nobody can use it.
This is one way of finding your lost Android phone or tablet.
Finding or tracking your Android phone or tablet without your IMEI number
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What about if you don’t have your IMEI number? Then you can remotely install an app called Android Lost. |
You can simply log onto your Google Play account and remotely install the app on your mobile phone. Again, if you haven’t yet lost your phone, you can register your device by launching the app, otherwise you can send a registration SMS from the website to your mobile phone in order to activate the app. Once the app is activated you can
- Read your SMS messages and you can also send them to your email.
- In case you feel that although you have lost the phone but nobody has stolen it and it must be lying somewhere in your house or in the office premises, you can remotely set off an alarm so that you or someone else can hear it and find it.
- You can lock the phone so that whoever has the phone is unable to use it.
- In case you want to remove your personal data, you can wipe it off your Android phone.
Using your PC or laptop you can go to the website and log in using your Google credentials (these should be the same credentials that you use to download and install the app remotely).
Check out their website in order to learn more about what all you can do once you have installed the app on your lost phone.
Many tablets don’t have SIM cards or dedicated phone numbers where you can send an SMS message in order to activate the app. In that case you first need to remotely install AndroidLost Jumpstart. Only after installing this app you should install Android Lost. This will automatically activate the application once it is installed.
Tracking your lost Android phone using Avast antivirus software
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If you have got the Avast antivirus software on your Android device and you haven’t lost your device yet. |
Just go to the application dashboard and activate the Avast anti-theft module. If it isn’t installed, you will need to download it from Google Play first and install it.
Once Avast anti-theft module is installed, you will need to enter your name, a 6 digit pin (save it somewhere so that you can retrieve it in case your phone or tablet is lost), and your friend’s or family member’s phone number (with all international codes). Tap “Continue”.
After this you are prompted to create or set up an Avast! account on the website. This is a good time to connect your device to their website. If you are already registered, simply enter your login details, if you are not, you will need to create a new account.
Once you have connected your device, you’re all set. In case there are some issues, you notice a button in the confirmation screen that says “Issues!”. Tap on it in order to resolve those issues. In most of the cases the primary warning is that you haven’t set Avast anti-theft as the device administrator. If you don’t do that, you won’t be able to wipe the data off your device in case you have lost your device. Also if you have taken care of this issue, the person who is in possession of your device won’t be able to uninstall the anti-theft feature.
After this, from your PC you can go to the Avast website, log into your account and there you can see all the details regarding your phone:
When you need to track your phone, simply come back to this particular screen, from the drop-down menu (where the red arrow is pointing to) “Choose command” you can select the appropriate action that you want to carry out.
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