We are living in an era where our lives are extremely dependent on mobile phones. It’s nearly impossible to live without it. Phones carry everything from our personal as well as professional confidential data. That’s why losing our phone is none less than a nightmare and can give us major panic attacks.
In this article, we are providing some ways by which you can find your lost phone using Google.
Before starting this process, make sure that there should be an active data connection with GPS turned on and also your Google account should be signed in. You can either recover your phone using the desktop or an alternate mobile phone.
Recovery Using PC:
- Open your system and sign in to Gmail and go to the homepage.
- Go to the profile icon at the upper right-hand corner.
- Select Google Account and then select Security from left panel
- Choose to Find a lost or stolen phone that comes under an option ‘Your devices’
- Select the device you wish to find.
- Verify your account by entering your Gmail password.
Recovery Using Smartphone:
- Launch the Gmail app.
- Log in with your email id and then click Manage your Google Account.
- Select Security from the top corner.
- Click on Your devices and select Find a lost or stolen phone
- Select the device you want to find.
- Verify your account by entering in your Gmail password
After that Google will show you either one of the two icons. It will show a green icon for the phone’s current location and a gray icon for the phone’s last known location.
Select the green icon and you will be taken to the Google Maps that will show you the coordinates to find your lost phone.
On the Google maps, If you find yourself closer to the location of the lost phone, then click on Play Sound and Google will ring your lost phone for five minutes, even if it is in silent mode.
Protect Your Lost Phone’s Data From Being Misused
Since our phones contain most of our private and confidential data, there is always a threat to unauthorized access to it in the lost state.
For this concern, the best idea is to use Google’s Secure Device. It will lock your phone if it is not protected by a pin or password and will sign out of your Google Account to prevent any misuse of the data. Moreover, this feature also allows you leave a recovery message along with a phone number so that if a kind person finds your phone, he can return it by contacting you on the number provided by you.
However, if nothing works for you and you are worried about the misuse of your highly confidential data then, the best way is to choose the ‘Erase the Device’ option, which will erase all the data on the phone. You can still access the erased data if it is backed up on Google.
Moreover, keep in mind that you will not be able to locate your phone after selecting this option. Also, erasing of the data will depend on the fact that it is connected to the Internet or not. If not connected to the Internet, the data will not be erased.
