LAXlocal

My friend lost / misplaced his Samsung smart phone , it is on Verizon

is there anyway to track where it is ? He has insurance and his whole life is NOT on the phone so its just a piss off but not drastic !

But is there an app when he does it next time that will lock the phone remotely and hopefully locate it......

He has too kids , 9 and 14 , so its lost in the house , the car , the baseball field, or someplace like that

and yes he did try calling it but no ringing and no one answered it ?

Thanks for your ideas , a chain like the bikers use for their wallets might work

Need

If it is a newer phone, within last 2/3 years, and his phone is sync to his google account and his location is enabled, then just open Chrome browser, go to google.com, login to google account, and type in "find my phone" in search.
I think it works on firefox too. Not sure about IE browser.

msb0b

Android Device Manager

LAXlocal

thanks for the ideas but he is still using AOL

and never signed up for Google , firefox or any of those things

So maybe finding the first phone by tracking may be impossible ?

But then what is the best plan if he "misplaces" the replacement phone ?

is there an app that tracks location for a day or 2 and then dumps the data ?

or an App / Website that you can put in your code and it "pings" your phone for location ?

Again thanks for your ideas

ajGoes

He pretty much has to have a Google account to use an Android phone. The issue will be to determine his Google login and password. If you can find those, log in as described above and see what you find.

Letitride3c

Chances are your friend had to setup a Google account or log-in to use all of the features, especially if s/he used any of the Apps in Play Store - we used mainly Nexus devices and the backup Motorola Moto E has it along with "Alert" app that share location with friends. It will attempt to ring, locate on Google Map and can also erase (the contents) of the device - if you accidentally dropped it, forget where you set it down, etc.

AOL shouldn't matter - depending on his choice of browser. Download & install Chrome browser & give it a try - for his replacement device, most definitely create a free Google account & enable location reporting (3 modes: battery saving is fine)

ADM as noted above by Google is the best & free App for lost phone/tracking - similar to Find My iPhone/iPad app for those familar with & use iOS.

It is not foolproof and it can be disabled, etc. - still, running MM 6.0.1 - with fingerprint lock or 6+ digits PIN lock @ bootup/reboot - can render unauthorized devices taken useless as a brick.

Using my Google ID to check - showing the LG N5, last online: Oct 16, 2015 (based on history tracking, etc.) & attempted to find it now - "unavailable" as it was sold on Swappa, new owner activated & registered it, thus no further information or location data to retrieve, etc.

KRSW

Samsung also has a similar service. He might have signed up for a Samsung account at some point when configuring his phone:
https://findmymobile.samsung.com/login.do

OnTheCentreline

Hopefully, there won't be a "next time", but for now it can be quite stressful when you lose your smartphone. This resource may be of help, but a lot depends on the state of the device when it was lost:

http://trendblog.net/how-to-track-yo...-tracking-app/

A more 'belts and braces' approach is to have an installed app which you can activate as soon as your device decides to stray away from home. After much research I have installed ESET Mobile Security for Android. This app will do all of the things you outlined in your OP (and more). It costs a few bucks a year, but the peace of mind is more than worth the cost. Importantly, for me, the ESET app is fairly benign on the Android system as well.

I hope your friend is soon reunited with his phone!

LAXlocal

Just an update , his 9 year old son "found" the phone 2 doors down at the boys friends home....

So its back , but I will set up something next time he is over so it can be found next time,

Thanks for your advise above

Need

All Android phones (newer ones) came with Android Device Manager tracking. It is the same with iPhone came with tracking. Unless you purposely disable it, usually it is enabled when you go thru the initial setup process prompted by the phone.

And for Android phones, you could download apps after you lost the phone and push the app to the phone and enable the tracking. Unless the phone is off or battery dies, you should be able to locate it even after the fact.

LAXlocal

Is there an App that is better ? there are so many on Playstore !

thanks

Letitride3c

That's great news - no need to go shop for a replacement or newer device, yet.

It would be best to use Google's native ADM to keep track (and, enable Location history) - one less "App" to install & run in the background. Samsung also has the Find My Mobile App - works the same, more or less - either case, just enable & activate it.

Now is the time to check to see if there is a Samsung account and/or Google account associated with the device, and if not, register one for free - before losing it again.

One of the mobile anti-virus/security suite has a tracking/locating functionality - I no longer use that & can't comment ... some of the "older" apps don't work with Lollipop and/or with MM (6.x) once the developer moved on - stick with the above.

Edit - Lookout Mobility Security - was using that, it has a new app/function to deal with Android "Stagefright" vulunerability - ran them on our HTC devices then.

TWA884

I like Lookout.

slowmail

I like Cerberus.

nmenaker

I use lookout security for many reasons, being able to track the device without the location always on is one of them.