Your Android Phone is Lost? Here’s What You Should Do

I lost my Android phone to a thief last year. I lost not only the device but a lot of the important data I had stored in it, which caused me a lot of problems. But through it all, I also got to learn many important things about what to do once I have lost my phone and how to prevent or minimize the possibility of losing any device I may own in the future.

This post will cover two parts. The first is what you should do immediately after discovering that your device is missing or stolen. The steps will include ways to find your device, and to safeguard any vulnerable data that is contained in that device. Then, we will move on to preventive measures you can adopt (in the future, and now) to safeguard your device.

Let’s check it out.

Help, I’ve Lost My Phone!

There are four things you can do immediately after finding out that your Android device is nowhere to be found:

1. Track your Android
2. Secure your Accounts
3. Block SIM Card
4. Unlink your accounts on Android

1. Track Your Android

There is a free and easy way to locate your Android device, and that is by using the Android Device Manager. You don’t need to have this installed in your phone first for it to work. Just go to the page and sign in with the Google account that you used to sign in to your Android device.

The last location of your device will be shown to you down to an accuracy of about 20 meters. You will also get how far the device is from you, and its last online time.

On this page you can also lock the device, make it ring (to make it easier for you to locate it if it is nearby) or as a last resort, erase the data you have on the device to prevent identity theft or loss of any important info.

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2. Secure Your Accounts

You probably have your emails, social networks, messaging groups all on your (lost) device. It is imperative that you secure all our accounts by logging in via another device and changing their passwords. This includes your main Google account.

By changing your main Google password, any unauthorized person handling your phone will not receive access to your personal accounts, contacts, apps and other info.

Know that changing your Google password will not affect your efforts to locate your device via Android Device Manager (in Step 1). You can still track your Android, lock or remotely erase your phone data after a password change.

3. Block Your SIM Card

It is recommended that you block your SIM card not only to prevent the misuse of your call privileges, but also because messaging apps like Whatsapp and Lineuse your phone number to verify your account.

If you signed up for two-step verification for access to accounts like your email, you will need to regain ownership of your phone number. Your telco provider will assist you in getting your number back, on a new SIM card, after blocking the card that is in your lost phone.

4. Unlink Your Accounts on Android

This is less urgent but a step you must do all the same. Unlink your accounts from your lost device in order to stop the sync process on your Android.

For example, if you use Dropbox on your Android, unlink this device from your account via the website by going to the account’s security page, then finding your device on the list and clicking the ‘x‘ button. You will have to do this for all the services that you have linked to your device, one by one.

How To keep Your Device Safe

If your device is now a lost cause, and you are looking for a replacement device, it’s time to arm yourself with cautionary measures that can help reduce the risk of losing your new phone.

1. Always Enable Tracking Location

For tracking apps like Android Device Manager to work, your device has to have its location info turned on. Android Device Manager will report the most recent position of your mobile phone, when it was last online. And by the way…

2. Always Enable Your Mobile Internet Data

Not only do you need your location info turned on, your phone has to be connected to the Internet for you to be able to locate it with a tracking app. If you have the habit of latching on to WiFi connection at home or the office, do keep your mobile data on whenever you leave to meet a client or a friend.

This may affect your battery life a bit but it’s worth keeping your mobile data on just in case you need to locate your phone, because without the mobile data on, your phone is as good as gone.

3. Use A Lock Screen

To prevent unauthorized use of your phone, you should activate your lock screen. There are several types of Android lock screen with different security levels. The Pattern lock screen is the lowest level, then comes the camera lock, PIN lock, and finally the password lock.

IMAGE: xda developer forum

You can then adjust how long you want your device to wait before asking for you to unlock the screen. If you are on Android 5.0 (Lolipop), there is a feature called on-body detection, which allows you to keep your phone unlocked while you’re carrying it, then automatically locks it when you set the phone down.

4. Disable the Physical Power Button

One of the first thing someone who steals any device will do is to turn off the phone to prevent the owner from locating the phone by calls or tracking apps. You can stop them from doing this to your phone by disabling the physical Power button altogether.

To do this, you need to use Xposed Framework (download here). Once installed, go to the download tab to install a module called GrafityBox (search for it to find it faster). There are several versions available, get the one that is right for your Android version. Go to the versions tab and tap download button on the version you want. To enable this module, restart your phone.

In the GrafityBox app, go to Power Tweaks, then enable the option Disable power menu on lock screen. Anyone who wants to turn off your phone will have to get past your lock screen first.

5. Use Android Phones with Non-Removable Batteries

This one is a tie-in to Tip 4 (above) since once the thief cannot switch off your phone, the next best thing is to remove the battery on your Android. A couple of phones that has non-removable batteries include the Xiaomi Mi4i and Moto G.

At this point, the only way your phone can be shut down is if the battery dies. But tip 4 and 5 still gives you plenty of time to remotely locate your phone to take further action.

6. Backup your Data

For many people who have lost their phones, the biggest loss they faced was the loss of data such as work schedules, important meetings, project deadlines, fitness progress, photos, etc. Rather than copy out these data time and time again to your PC or some other storage device, it is probably easier to backup the data via cloud storage.

With your data all safely tucked away in the cloud (if you need highly secure storage for company secrets, follow this link), you won’t have to worry about the loss of your important documents and keepsakes everytime you lose your device.

Some vendors Android also provide free Cloud storage facilities, such as Asus with its WebStorage feature and Xiaomi with Mi Cloud.

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Remaining 5 special tips

1. Test out different launchers.

If you have an Android phone, you can use these things called “launchers,” which are essentially apps that allow you to make drastic edits to your device’s homescreen. The most popular one is probably Nova Launcher, which will allow you to change just about everything you can think of. There are several other launchers out there too, and you can play around with them until you find one you like. Often, they can make your phone perform faster than they would with the clunky interfaces that companies like Samsung and HTC give them.

2. Say “Ok, Google” to start a search from any screen.

It’s the 21st century and we’re all busy 24/7. Cut down on the time it takes to manually search for things by doing it with your voice. To activate vocal control over Google searches, go to your apps page and find the Google app. Tap it (it should take you to Google Now), and scroll down until you see the settings icon on the bottom right. Hit that and select “Voice.” Then, tap on “Ok Google Detection” and activate the “From any screen” setting. Now you’ll be able to start a Google search from any screen on your phone simply by speaking the phrase, “Ok, Google.”

3. Access the hidden developer options.

To really get a sense of how customizable Android is, activate the “secret” developer mode. Go to settings, about phone, and click on “build number” seven times. Your device should tell you something like “you’re now a developer!” It’s all very Easter Egg-esque. Once that’s done, return to system settings, and with luck you’ll now see something entitled “developer options.” One of the cool things you can do here is reduce the time it takes for animations to execute, thereby making your phone feel snappier. Do this by going to the “animation scale” options and turning them off (you can make them take longer too, but I don’t see why you would want that). There are plenty of other sweet customizations you can do on this page, but don’t go too crazy unless you know what you’re doing.

4. See useful information on your lock screen.

You probably know by now that you can put widgets on your homescreen, but did you know you can do the same for your lockscreen? This means that you won’t have to unlock your phone anymore if all you want is to see some basic information. To do this, go to settings, security, and tap “enable widgets.” Then, go to the lockscreen and swipe left. You should see a big “+” sign. Hit that and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can select widgets to place on your lockscreen. Put anything from your e-mail to Google Now there in order to see stuff like weather, new messages, etc.

5. You aren’t tied to the Google Play store.

OK, well, you sort of are, but you can download other app stores like Amazon’s if you want to. Indeed, I highly suggest you do so because they are always offering insane deals to try and rip you away from Google’s warm embrace. One of these is their “App of the Day,” in which Amazon offers up a free app to entice you to spend more time in their store. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to save lots of money using these promotions, as at times they’ll put up apps for free that cost several dollars on Google Play.

Do you know any Android tips and tricks? Of course you do! Comment below with some of the cooler ones you know!

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5 special tips of android use

1. Disable App Notifications

Bugged by annoying app notifications that just keep coming? If you don’t know already, these app notifications also drain your phone’s battery. If you want to turn them off, and you are on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above, here’s how:

1. On any of your unwanted notifications in your notification bar, long presson the notification for a message box to appear.
2. Tap on App Info > Untick Show Notifications > OK.

2. Disable Mobile Data

Whenever you don’t need to stay connected, disabling the Mobile Data can help keep your smartphone battery from draining too quickly. Turning off mobile data is as easy as:

1. Going to Settings > Data Usage.
2. Disable Mobile data by toggling the setting from ON to OFF.

3. SET MOBILE DATA LIMIT

Want to keep track of how far your usage is from your monthly mobile data limit? If you have ICS and above, there is a feature which lets you keep track of how much of the quota you have left.

1. Head over to Settings > Data Usage.
2. Set your data limit by dragging the orange line to reflect your monthly quota.
3. Set your data usage cycle based on when your "month" starts and ends, and you’re done.

You will be alerted once you hit the limit you have set. Note that the tracked data usage of your phone may vary slightly than your carrier’s tracking.

4. Add Multiple Google Accounts

You need a Google account to use an Android phone but did you know you canchoose to run more than one Google account on your Android device. This is convenient if you use more than one account for several of your Google services. To add multiple Google accounts:

1. Go to Settings > Add account.
2. Select Google and setup your New or Existing Google account.
3. Once added, choose what you want to sync with the account.

Repeat all the steps above if you want to add more accounts.

5. Disable automatic App Updates

Prefer to read through app permissions and manually pick which app updates to adopt? You can, but first you need to disable your automatic app updates. Here are the steps:

1. Open Play Store and head over to Settings.
2. Tap on Auto-update apps.
3. Choose Do not auto-update apps.

If you want to enable the auto updates, follow the same path and choose Auto-update apps at any time or via Wi-Fi (available for certain Android devices only).

To update your apps manually, just open Play Store, and on the main page swipe in from the left and tap on My apps. You can tap on apps with pending updates and update them manually, or if you like to update them all at once, just tap on Update All.

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