Simply log in with your Google account associated with your Android device to see the location of your cell phone. A message will also appear saying “Last seen X time ago”, which means the device last connected to the Internet.
If you just lost your phone and think it might be near, you can make it sound at maximum volume for 5 minutes if it is on silent in addition to being able to see its location on a map.
Your contact info can also be displayed on the screen, so you can lock the device remotely. Finally, you can remotely wipe the data from your phone, including Gmail. However, when you take this last step, you’ll lose the ability to track it or do anything else related to it.
The Google search engine can be accessed by typing “find my Android”, “find my cell phone“, or “find my smartphone” (without quotes) as the search term.
In the blue “login” button at the top of the search engine website, if your Google account is linked to the lost phone, the map with the location will automatically appear (if you don’t do that, it will say “Device unavailable”).).
By touching on the map you’ll be taken to the Find my official device page where you can delete or block your Android data. Then there is a shortcut to make it sound loud (which I cannot see in my case) and another to “Recover”, which leads to your Google account control panel, where you can see them.
I have given several tips to see if they work. The next section discusses that in more detail.
If you see “Last sync: date” then it means the device has been connected to the Internet for the last time.
My understanding of the Find My Device tool was incorrect several days ago, and I am not sure why the information has changed.
You will find the option “Find a lost device” under the “Your devices” section of your Google Account manager (myaccount.google.com). Select the device you wish to track on the next screen, confirm your Google account password, and click the “Find” button.
Also available is the “Play” option, which functions exactly as described above.
There is also the option “Last synchronisation”, which indicates when the device was connected to the Internet last. This information has occasionally not matched the information provided by “Find my device”, as mentioned above.
Further, Google offers you other options for recovering a lost or stolen cell phone, including blocking the device remotely, removing the Google account from the device, deleting your data, and also suggesting ways to contact your operator to protect your number.
This option is noteworthy since it gives you the ability to lock the screen and make the device ring without tracking it. It is particularly useful for avoiding the generation of notifications displayed on the mobile when tracking a device.
Find My Device will automatically locate your device and generate the indicated notification if you enter the website. Note that you can block the device first or make it ring before alerting the thief in this way.
Tracking via mobile application
There is also the “Find My Device” mobile application.. With this, you can track the location of your stolen telephone by installing the application on the phone of any friend or relative.
If you enter the Google account associated with your lost phone, you will be able to locate the device on a map in a manner similar to that which is available on the web.
The application will also let you take advantage of the rest of the features offered by the previous devices, such as ringing the equipment, blocking it remotely, deleting its data, and even monitoring the status of your network and how much battery is left in your phone.
I suggest you log in as a guest to avoid registering your Google account on someone else’s phone.
Conclusion
There is a requirement that you have an internet connection and that your device location is enabled in order to use find my device.
Secondly, for location accuracy to be as high as possible, the “High Accuracy” setting in the location settings must be enabled (GPS + WiFi + Mobile networks).
