Steps to take if lost your Android phone
Losing a mobile phone can be a terrible experience as it contains most of our personal information, such as photos, e-mails, bank details etc. A 2019 report shows 200 mobile phones are lost daily in Bengaluru, India. However, the numbers are similar in other cities, which shows that mobile theft or loss is a real problem.
Follow these four steps to prevent data misuse if you lose your mobile phone.
1
Find, lock, or erase your phone:
Add a Google account to your phone to remotely find, lock, or erase it in case you lose it.
If you lost your phone, you could follow these steps to track or erase your phone remotely.
- Go to android.com/find and sign in to your Google Account.
- On the map, you’ll get info about where the phone is.
- The location is approximate and might not be accurate.
- If your phone can’t be found, you’ll see its last known location, if available.
- Choose one of the following:
- Play sound: Rings your phone at total volume for 5 minutes, even if it’s set to silent or vibrate.
- Secure device: Locks your phone with your PIN, pattern, or password. If you don’t have a lock, you can set one. To help someone return your phone to you, you can add a message or phone number to the lock screen.
- Erase device: Permanently deletes all data on your phone (but might not delete SD cards). After you erase it, Find My Device won’t work on the phone.
So that you know, the following conditions must be met for your phone to be found. Your phone must
- Be turned on
- Be signed in to a Google Account
- Be connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi
- Be visible on Google Play
- Have the Location turned on
- Have Find My Device turned on
- Backup your data regularly
2
Notify your service provider and deactivate accounts
If your phone is lost or stolen, immediately contact your service provider to report the loss and deactivate your SIM card and change passwords to disable accounts to prevent unauthorized access.