So you’re downtown and need a ride to get back home. You use an app on your smartphone to book an Uber ride. The driver arrives, you get in, he brings you home, you pay, and then you get out. But when you unlock your front door and hang up your coat, you can’t find your smartphone. You check your coat pockets - nothing. You check your pants pockets - nothing.Your heart starts to race because you realize that another passenger in the Uber driver’s car may already have found your lost smartphone, and this could put your personal data at risk.Few things can ruin your day and induce a migraine headache more than scenarios like losing your smartphone, keys, or wallet. Chances are you've either experienced one or more of these situations or know someone who has. While losing any of those three aforementioned things can be an eye-watering ordeal, it can be argued that losing a smartphone is the worst. After all, if someone gets a hold of your smartphone and is able to access your banking information and other passwords, that kind of scenario could lead to more serious problems down the road.
According to one source, some tens of millions of dollars worth of phones are lost annually in the U.S., so it's clear that you're not the only one if you ever do lose your smartphone or cellphone. And you might be surprised at some of the top places where people lose their smartphones. Consider the following list, for example:
An ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention, goes the old saying. But those words will be of little comfort if you’ve lost your smartphone and are at your wits’ end trying to locate it.So that you can either get back your lost or stolen smartphone, or at least remotely disable it so that no one else can meddle with its contents, here are some tips on how to handle the situation.
If you have an Android smartphone, the good news is that the operating system includes a proprietary service from Google to help users not only find their lost or stolen devices, but also manage their smartphones remotely. As well, there are third-party apps available that you can use to help locate your smartphone. You can go to the Google Play store to look up such apps.Read on for a look some of the ways Android can help you to reconnect with your lost or stolen device.
While you don't want to even consider the possibility of losing your smartphone, accidents do happen. So one of the first things you need to do when you get your smartphone is to add a Google account. The reason this is critical is that you will need a Google account on your device before you can remotely find, lock, or erase your device if you lose it. Once there's a Google account on your smartphone, Find My Device is automatically activated. However, to use Find My Device, your smartphone must meet certain conditions:
Once you’ve fulfilled these conditions, you need to follow certain steps to be able to remotely locate, lock, or erase your lost device.
Did you know that you can use pictures to find your lost smartphone? It is possible, but there are things you must do before you can enable this unique way of tracking down your device.
Here's the lowdown: In the event that your smartphone is lost or stolen -- and subsequently used by someone else -- you might be able to track it down. You would do this by using Google Photos' Backup & Sync function. Assuming you had turned this feature on in the app, all pictures you took from then on will have been uploaded to your account on Google Photos. So if someone other than you uses your smartphone to snap pics, those pics -- as well as the location where the pics were taken -- will be uploaded to your Google Photos account. If the person who has your smartphone signs out of your Google account, however, this solution won’t work.
While a recent study shows that brand loyalty is actually stronger these days among Android users than iOS users, that doesn't mean that people don’t love their iPhones. And fortunately there are various ways to remedy any problems related to lost or stolen devices.So that you’re ready just in case, here’s a look at some of the ways you can reconnect with your iPhone if it goes missing.
Your first order of defence is to use the Find My iPhone app on your Apple smartphone. This app accesses Apple's iCloud to find the location of your smartphone. It's important to know, however, that this solution will only work if you set it up beforehand. So it makes sense to enable Find My iPhone sooner rather than later. After so doing, you'll not only be able to find out where you missing iPhone is at, but also be able to remotely access your device to, among other things, shut it down or delete information. You also need another iOS device, an Internet-connected computer, or a Macintosh computer to use Find My iPhone.Here are the 4 simple steps to set up Find My iPhone so that locating your missing phone is a piece of cake.
This is a decidedly low-tech way to possibly be reunited with your phone. Using a graphics program, you can create a wallpaper containing your contact information. There's at least one drawback to this strategy, however. It will only work if your lost iPhone was found by an honest individual. If a thief has it, however, then you won’t likely be reunited with your device this way. You can easily find apps in the Apple Store that will help you to create customized wallpaper.
While the Find My iPhone app works just fine, that doesn't mean that there aren't other options available. Device Locator is a third-party app you can use to monitor where your iPhone is. There is a relatively small up-front purchase cost for the app, but there is no monthly subscription. This app is just one of a number of options that you can try in addition to Apple’s Find My Phone app.One last word of caution is in order. While using these strategies for Android or iOS will make it easier to track down your missing smartphone, you need to exercise caution when seeking to retrieve it. When you do find out its location, contact the local authorities and give them the information that you have on your missing smartphone’s whereabouts. What you don’t want to do is seek to get it on your own. Let cooler heads prevail -- and let the authorities do their job.
