I don’t know about you, but I have the tendency to misplace my smartphone all the freaking time. I probably have a short memory and if you’re like me, you’re probably very familiar with that wave of cold sweat which hits you as you realize you don’t know where your phone is.
Fortunately, there’s a trick you can employ – use Android Device Manager to quickly locate your lost handset.
In order to make sure you be able to that, you’ll have to make sure you’ve enabled Android Device Manager first. These are the steps you need to take:
Enable Android Device Manager
Open up Settings on your device and search for the Google option. Alternatively, you might have a separate app dubbed Google Settings.
From either, go to Security>Android Device Manager. Tap it and enable “Remotely locate this device” and “Allow remote lock and erase” – a setting which allows you to remotely lock down or wipe your device clean.
Find your device
Once the Android Device Manager has been enabled, go to android.com/devicemanager and log in with your Google account.
The Device Manager will attempt to locate your phone from there (make sure location services are on). Next you’ll be confronted with three option. If you think you’ve misplaced your handset around the house, you can make your phone ring.
Or if you are convicted you’ve lost your handset (or worse, someone stole it from you) you can go ahead and lock your phone remotely. In this case, you will be prompted to create a password that will replace your lock screen. You can also add a recovery message with contact info, in case your phone has fallen into the hands of a good Samaritan.
If you don’t think there’s any chance of getting your device back, then you can go ahead and wipe it remotely. This option will perform a factory reset on your device (although data on your SD card might not be wiped out). However, note that the phone needs to be connected to the Internet in order for you to be able to do so.
