How to Find Your Android Phone Without App

Since your phone contains personal information, you will always try your best to keep it safe. You would not like to lose your phone, so if ever it does get lost or get stolen, the first step is to file a complaint with local authorities. And if you set precautionary measures on your phone, you can even track your device.

Finding Your Phone with Android Device Manager

1. Tap the gear app icon. The gear app icon is the device’s Settings. It can be found either on your home screen, app drawer, or notification panel.
2. Select “Security.” You will have to scroll down the Settings menu a bit to discover this option. Tapping it will open the Security menu for your device.
3. Check to see that Android Device Manager is enabled. Tap “Device Administrators” and then check the box next to “Android Device Manager.” It should be checked, meaning that the feature is enabled.
• Android Device Manager is a great Android feature that allows you to track your device in the event it gets stolen. This feature is usually enabled by default, but in for some reason it isn’t, make sure that the checkbox next to the option is marked.
• In order for this feature to work, your device should have access to the Internet and should be connected to your Google account.
4. Tracking the device. If ever your Android phone gets stolen, head to Android Device Manager on your computer. Log in utilizing your Google account details, and once logged in, ADM will automatically track your device and display its current location.
5. Ring the phone or erase its data. From the ADM website, you have the option make the phone ring. Just tap the “Ring” button on the upper left side of the screen. This is useful if you believe that the phone is just nearby, and not stolen.
• If your phone is stolen and you want to keep your personal data secure, you can remotely delete the data on your phone by clicking “Erase.” This will restore your phone to its factory state.

Finding Your Phone with Google Maps

1. Visit Google Maps location history. Do this from your computer.
• Finding your phone’s location on Google Maps is a feature called Location History; it is enabled by default on Android phones.
2. Log in. Use the login details of the Gmail account that the stolen device is connected to.
3. Show location history. There are several ways you can show your device’s location history. You can either click on a day from the calendar on the left side of the screen or select a day from the “Show” drop-down list.
• In example, suppose you lost your phone 10 days ago, you can have Google Maps display your device’s location over the past 10 days.
• Once you select a day, the map on the right will show the locations of the device from the date you selected. Each location will be marked by a red dot, and its movement will be marked by a red line.
4. View the device’s latest location. Click on “Show Timestamp” below the calendar and select the latest time from the list. The map will zoom to the location indicated by the timestamp.

Finding Your Phone Employing Its IMEI Number

1. Get your phone’s IMEI number. The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number of your phone is the unique code of your device. No other device has the same code. There are several ways to get your phone’s IMEI number.
• If you still have your phone, dial *#06# on it. The IMEI number will be displayed on your screen. Jot this down and keep it in a safe place.
• If you no longer have your phone, look for the IMEI number on the phone’s box or the phone’s receipt.
2. File a complaint to your service provider. Call your service provider and let them know that your phone has been stolen. Provide them with the phone’s IMEI number.
3. Follow the instructions of the service provider. Depending on the situation, your service provider may be able to locate your phone right away, or they may need to call you back.
• Your phone can be tracked making use of the IMEI number, even if the person employing the phone is utilizing a different SIM card or has switched off the phone.
• If you want, you can have your service provider block the phone so that the person who has it can no longer use it.

Use Google Photos to find your stolen Android device

Requirements:

• Your device has access to the internet.
• Enabled ‘Backup & Sync’ option in Google Photos.
• Someone needs to take pictures with your lost device.

In case your device actually got stolen, you might be able to locate it making use of the backup and sync feature of Google Photos. If you activated this option in the app, then all images taken with your phone will be uploaded to your Google Photos account. Why is that good news? Well, not just the image but also the location where it was taken is uploaded. So, in case the thief didn’t log out of your Google Account and tried out the camera on your phone, there might be some new images popping up in Google Photos. Obviously, this only works if you’re phone has an active internet connection and if you gave your photos app the permission to use your location.

Assuming all those requirements are met, what do you need to do? Here it is, step by step:

1. Visit photos.google.com and log in using your Google Account in which your Android device is logged into.
2. Check if any pictures were taken after your device was stolen.
3. If yes, then click on the image.
4. Now, click on the info icon on the top right corner.
5. In the appearing sidebar you can now see the image’s information including the located where it was taken.

The How to use Dropbox to discover your stolen phone (Android & iOS)

Requirements:

• Your device has access to the internet.
• Activated “Camera Upload” in your Dropbox app.
• Someone needs to take pictures with your lost device.

Dropbox can be your last resort if all other approaches don’t bring you any closer to finding your phone. For this to work, however, Dropbox needs to be installed on your phone and the “Camera Upload” feature has to be activated. This way, every time your phone’s thief takes a picture, it automatically gets uploaded to your Dropbox “Camera Uploads” folder. So, if he or she takes a nice selfie you might be able to identify the thief. And if you’re lucky, you can make out the location by looking at the background of the uploaded pictures.

Should that be impossible, simply start a blog and show the world all the pictures your thief has taken. There’s one funny tumblr page sharing images of Hafid, the guy who stole the phone of the blog’s owner.

So far, that’s the only way Dropbox can help you. Dropbox doesn’t give you the IP address of mobile devices which are connected to your Dropbox account. This is only possible for Desktop PCs and laptops until now.

Source (trendblog; wikihow)