Google’s Find My Device: How to locate your lost Android phone

How to locate your Android Phone using Google’s Find My Device.

Mobile Phones have become part of our daily lives and if suddenly we cannot find them that can quickly become so traumatic. You may have left your cell phone in a taxi, accidentally drop it from your pocket, or lose it under your bed. If you have an Android phone, you can use the Find My Device to find the phone.

Find My Device depends on two things- the feature itself and Google’s location services are enabled. And the device needs to be turned on and have a google account signed in.

On Pixel phones Find My Device comes as part of the standard OS. While other Android phones are usually turned on by default. Please note that some Android models may offer different applications. For example, a Samsung phone has its own Find My Mobile app.

If you use Google’s Find My Device, you can check whether it is part of your phone’s version of Android.

• Go to Settings > Security and look for Find My Device.
• If the app is in the list but it’s turned off, tap it and use the toggle to turn it on.

If you don’t have the Google apps, but want to use them instead of the ones installed by the manufacturer. Or if you want to find your phone and watch using your Android tablet rather than your computer, go to the Play Store and install Google’s Find My Device.

Enable your Location

Next, you need to check if the location of your phone is enabled:

• Go to your phone’s settings and find its location. A check mark is displayed just below the header.
• If it’s off, tap on Location and toggle it on.
• You can also check which apps have access to your phone location. If you would like to take this opportunity to adjust this setting, tap ‘App Permissions’ to adjust your location permission settings.

FIND MY DEVICE

The current settings are complete. If you can’t find your phone, go to the Google search page and enter “My device Device”. If you haven’t used it before, you’ll need to give Google permission to use your location data to find your device. You can quickly ring and find your phone from Google’s search page.

Otherwise, clicking the link will take you to the internal device search page. Here you can see the name of the phone, the time of the last ping (and the name of the WiFi network used), and the current battery power. Google Maps will show you where your phone was last.

After confirming the location of your device, you will see three options on the left side of the screen. It depends on which one you choose or whether you feel your device is in a safe place or not.

• Play a 5 minute sound (ringtone) on the device so that you can find the device.
• You can keep your data safe when retrieving it by logging out of your Google account by locking your device (recommended).
• Erase the device. You use it when you can reasonably be sure that the device is stolen and cannot be retrived. After that the device cannot be found and its contents will no longer be on it.