Content

• Steps
• Advice

Having your phone stolen is a frustrating and not easy experience. Whether at home or traveling abroad, you should get your stolen phone back as soon as possible. Today's cell phones and smartphones can be found through detection applications or pre-installed programs on the device. These applications and programs have varying degrees of practicality, some requiring an internet connection. You can manually find the lost phone, like calling or texting it and tracking it down.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Declare lost phone number

1. 

   Call the phone number. If you lose a traditional phone (not a smartphone) that doesn't have an internet connection, you won't be able to track it over the network, so another method must be used. Let's start with calling that number. If you're lucky, the person who stole the phone will pick up. In addition, if you left your phone somewhere (eg on a taxi or train), the person who picked up the phone will answer the phone and make an appointment to return it.
   • If you call and someone answers, say “Hi, I am, you have my phone on hold. This phone is so important to me that I need it back, where can we meet to get the phone? ”

2. 

   
   
   Text to phone number. If no one picks up the phone, you can text it. Maybe the thief changes his mind and decides to return the phone to you. Send a short text, provide contact information, and ask to be returned to the phone.You can offer a reward if they return the phone.
   • To do this, you need a different mobile phone. Borrow a phone from a friend. If you aren't around, you can borrow someone nice to text on your phone.

3. 

   
   
   Be wary of meeting in person to pick up the phone. If someone - whether it's the thief of the phone or not - agrees to meet in person to return the phone, take precautions. Make an appointment in public, like a city square or train station during the day. If possible, bring your friends for safety. Ask you to bring your phone so you can call the police if something goes wrong.
   • Even if the person who gives you a friendly call on the phone (or via text), you should take precautions.
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Method 2 of 3: Notify authorities and service provider

1. 

   
   
   Contact the authorities. If you alert the police that you have lost your phone, they can assist you in finding it. Your local law enforcement agency may ask you for the serial number of the machine. Android ID function numbers such as serial number, you can find Android ID by removing the battery to check. Android ID is a series of numbers "IMEI" (International Mobile Equipment Identity - an international mobile phone identification device).
   • When you report to the police, say, “Hi, my phone was stolen. I didn't see my phone 10 minutes ago, when I found out that I lost my phone, I was outside the public library on A street. "

2. 

   Report to service provider. If you dialed the phone number but no one answered, you should call your service provider and report the phone is stolen. They can use GPS to locate your phone.
   • If the GPS search cannot be found or this does not work, ask them to stop providing service to your phone. This will prevent the thief from making phone calls and you will be the one paying the bill.

3. 

   Find the phone yourself. Think about where you lost your phone and track it down. Maybe the thief changed his mind after stealing the phone, if lucky they will leave your phone where they just stolen.
   • Walk around the area before losing your phone, continue calling and searching.
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Method 3 of 3: Detect the stolen phone

1. 

   Activate the smartphone detection application. This app on an iPhone is “Find My Phone”, and on an Android device is “Android Device Manager”. This program will detect the location of the phone and relay the information to the cloud. It is important that you have this feature set up on your phone in advance, there is no way to activate Find My Phone if your phone is stolen.
   • Find My Phone is Apple's cloud-based service that backs up and stores phone data. If you don't have an iCloud account set up, you can't use the Find My Phone app. Set up your iCloud account through your phone's “Settings” menu, find “iCloud” and select “Account” to sign in.
   • To use Device Manager to locate your lost phone, you need to enable GPS tracking "Location".

2. 

   Activate Lost Mode. You can turn on Lost Mode remotely: you need to sign in with your iCloud account or Device Manager on Android and turn on Lost Mode. Once Lost Mode is turned on, the thief of your phone won't be able to log in and access your phone's data or apps.
   • After recovering your lost phone, you can turn off Lost Mode by entering the password on the phone screen.
   • Even though your iPhone or Android is offline (not connected to the internet), you can still lock it remotely. You can do this by logging into your online account. Any settings changed on the device take effect when it connects to the internet.

3. 

   Search for phones online. If your iPhone is stolen, you can find your location online at www.icloud.com/find. You will see a map showing your phone's current location. The map shows the progress of the trip, if you forget your phone on the bus or subway, you can follow the map to find it.
   • If your Android device is stolen, or you want to set up an account on a computer instead of your phone — you can access the Device Manager online at: www.google.com/android/devicemanager. Log in to the website to see the location of the lost phone.
   • After locating the lost phone, you can set it to emit a sound to attract attention. This does not work if someone takes your phone, you should only do it if you accidentally left it somewhere.

4. 

   Phone lock. From iCloud and Device Manager on Android, you can click the Lock your phone button. This will disable the login mechanism, making it impossible for the phone thief to access your personal data or contact information on the phone.
   • Device Manager will ask you to enter a new password for the device. After getting your phone back, you can disable Lock mode by entering the password.

5. 

   "Ringing" the phone. From the menu of the online phone search page, you can select “Ring” the phone. This is the action of turning the phone ringer on at maximum volume for 5 minutes, unless you choose to turn off the ringing before 5 minutes have elapsed. The ringing function is only effective when you think someone mistook your phone or the ringing could help you or someone find a nearby phone.

6. 

   Download a tracking app from Google Play or Apple store. If you don't want to use Android's Device Manager to find your lost phone, you can download other apps from the Google Play Store. These apps allow you to connect to a remote phone location detection website when it is stolen.
   • The Lookout app — one of the apps available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store— lets you turn on your alarm, lock your phone, and remotely erase all of your phone data.
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Advice

• It is possible to track the location of a tablet such as an iPad or Amazon Fire using the methods mentioned above. Download the tracking application to your tablet, if you lose it, you can find the location as if you lost your phone.
• Always put a security code (or pattern lock) on your phone so that a thief cannot access your data immediately.