Searching for a Lost or Stolen Mobile Phone

Locating a Lost iPhone

Some users consider Face ID or Touch ID unnecessary and annoying features that make it difficult to use a mobile phone. But they will help protect personal information if your gadget gets stolen or lost.

To protect your device, go to Settings and then to the Face ID or Touch ID section. Follow the program prompts to customize the offered features. Even if additional manipulations related to unlocking your phone will be inconvenient for the first few days, it will take you about a week to do all of this on the go.

To simplify the search for a lost or stolen iPhone, we recommend that you immediately set up Find My iPhone after purchasing the gadget.

• Sign in into iCloud.
• Scroll down the page and find the Find My iPhone feature.
• Open it and move the sliders near both options to the right.

In the latest versions of iOS, Find My iPhone has been replaced by the Locator app. Using this app, you can locate the missing device as well as find out the geolocation of friends and relatives and share your GPS coordinates.

1. To activate the application, go to Settings. Only now, instead of Find My iPhone feature, go to the Locator section.

2. Turn on all the three offered options: Find iPhone, Enable Offline Search, and Last Location.

The Locator application also has the following features:

• It determines the current location of devices such as iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac computers;
• It activates the loss mode to lock and track the device;
• It gives the sound signals when searching for a lost phone even with the sound being turned off;
• It remotely deletes all personal information from iPhone storage;
• It launches Activation Lock so that an access to the gadget can only be restored after entering your Apple ID and password.

What Should You Do If You Lost Your iPhone

First of all, you need to locate the device on a map, because it is possible that your smartphone didn't get stolen but you just forgot it at work or couldn't find it at your home.

• Log in to the iCloud official website. To do this, enter your Apple ID and password in the appropriate fields.
• Select the Find iPhone section in the main menu and re-enter your iCloud password.
• After that, you will see a map with the location of your device marked with a green dot.
• At the top of the screen, select the name of your smartphone and click on it. You will see a window with three options:
  1. Play Sound feature. When you click on this button, your phone will emit a loud sound signal;
  2. Erase iPhone feature allows you to remotely erase all the information stored in the device’s memory;
  3. Lost Mode feature blocks the phone, preventing outsiders from using it.
• Select Lost Mode feature and enter a four-digit password. You won't be able to unlock the device without using this code.
• In the next window, specify the phone number that the person, who found the iPhone, can use to call you.
• In the last window, you can write a message that will be displayed on the screen of the lost device.

Now, if someone finds your phone, s/he will see a blocking message, and you will receive an email notification that the device is found.

Locating Android OS Phone

Google services can help the users of Android devices with this matter.

• Log in to your Google Account and go to the Security section.
• Go to the Your Devices and select the gadget of your interest.
• Next, click the "Find device" button. After re-entering the password, the phone search page opens, and you can select one of the following options:

• View recent account security events

• Block the gadget; Call on a smartphone;

• Sign out of your device’s account

• Contact your mobile operator

• Delete all the data from the device.

To get started, try calling the phone. If the gadget is not nearby, we recommend that you block the device and delete all data from it. This will not allow the hackers to use your smartphone and gain access to your personal information.

Search Using Find My Device Application

Use this application, you must first install it on your smartphone. You can do this both from the phone itself and from a PC or laptop by going to the Google Play website. After that, you will need to grant additional rights to make changes to the device operation.

Find My Device features allows you to do the following things:

• Track the location of selected gadget on a map. If it's not possible to find out the current geodata, the application will show the last known location of gadget;
• Use the building schemes to simplify and speed up the search for a device in a shopping mall, airport or other very large premises;
• Get directions from your location point to the device coordinates determined by the application;
• Call the phone. In this case, the gadget will emit a loud beep even when the sound volume is turned off;
• Delete all the personal information from a smartphone or a tablet and block the device;
• Receive information about the battery status and installed software.

To work properly, the application needs to access the geodata and contact list. If you want to find your Android, open the Find My Device service web page from any browser. This is where you can call your smartphone, block or delete all information from it.

If the service doesn't locate your gadget, it is either turned off or not connected to the Internet.

Alternative Ways to Locate Android Device

Most companies, which produce the smartphones, including Samsung and Xiaomi, have their own services for finding lost phones. But in order to use them, a user has to remember the login details of the device. Usually, the device asks for these data when you first turn on the phone.

The functionality of such services is similar to those described above, and a user can use them via a web interface open in any of the available browsers.

Unfortunately, all the above methods allow you to locate a mobile phone only until it is switched on and connected to Internet. Once the battery runs out, it will be possible to locate a device only by the history of locations. All the services offered and described above display the last coordinates of a gadget, that is, the place where it was before it got disconnected from the network.

MobiTracker is online application that lets a user to locate a phone by phone number.

MobiTracker allows you to accurately locate your cell phone. The web application monitors device location in real time and determines its GPS coordinates with an accuracy of several meters. Even if you forget the login details of your account linked to the phone or you didn't configure the necessary applications or turned off important features, MobiTracker can still locate your smartphone. The gadget is searched by phone number and uses the data of the mobile operator, which he, in turn, receives from your SIM card.

MobiTracker is fully operational and you won't need to configure any additional settings on your cell phone, install the third-party software on the target device, or do any other manipulations to confirm the search. To initiate a request, just enter the phone number in international format and click the "Search" button.

Even if a hacker got hold of your phone, this person doesn't know that you are looking for a gadget. The web application operates in a hidden mode. Its work is not visible on the target device and the application doesn't send any notifications to it. Thanks to this software, you can locate a device and a person who currently has it.