Mobile phones are a tidbit very appetizing to the friends of the stranger, and also an object susceptible of being lost in a careless. Maybe you left it on the table of a café and never heard of it, maybe you were a victim of a burglary in rush hour public transport. There are many possible scenarios when losing a phone. It is important to know what steps you have to take before and after you lose or get stolen your terminaland here we are to tell you what they are.
What steps to take before you lose an Android phone
As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. A possession so precious as our mobile devices further reinforces the proverb. Beyond the value that may have the hardware yes, what really matters is what is inside. Passwords, personal data, conversations, files and other sensitive material traveling with us wherever we go. Your phone is the gateway to your personal life: you travel with all the information about you on top, so that it is better that you protect them as best you can, starting by taking several precautions prior to any loss or theft.
Don’t leave your phone to view
As a general rule we tend to ignore the physical precautions to the time to think about the security of our computing devices. This tip might be the most “foolish” of all that we are going to give you, but of course you have to take it into account.
If you have the habit of putting the phone on the table when you go to a restaurant, a bar, a library or any other public place, poorly done. It is enough that you miss out of sight for a second for a friend of the alien decides to take ownership of it. This habit can also cause you to leave forgotten your device at any site moderately busy, and maybe when you come back to him no longer find him. Avoid at all costs to leave your terminal to view.
Activate “Find my device”
Today Google has its own solution called Find my device. Can be found in the path Settings > Security and location:
Settings location & security Android
Then click on Find my device:
Activation of the location of the device
By default is active on all terminals Android modern when you associate a Google account with a device, but in case you don’t would activate it yourself. In addition, you can access the function Find my device in any web browser, and even download the specific app on any other phone or tablet that you have on hand.
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With this function you can locate, lock and even remotely wipe your mobile phone, but out of this we’ll talk about something later.
Add barriers for additional protection
It is always advisable that you have a pattern unlock, a password or a PIN code as an extra security measure to be able to access the device. If you can, and your phone allows it, you can also add a fingerprint or your face as the unlock method.
It is also important that, if you can, ciphers the content of your Android. To do so is very simple, first go to Settings > location & Security > Advanced:
Advanced security options
There, tap Encryption and credentials:
Encryption options of the phone
In our case it’s already enabled, but if you don’t have it pressed in Encryption and set a password as strong as possible. After wait for the process to finish, keep in mind that it may take even an hour, be patient.
Aim the IMEI code
The IMEI code is necessary to report the theft of the phone, among other things. To find yours, enter the following code from the phone application of your device:
*#06#
With that is enough for your IMEI appears on the screen. Write these down and keep them in a safe place where you’re always accessible.
What steps to take after losing a mobile Android
Suppose that it is already too late to put the above into practice: you have stolen your phone or you lost it. Keep reading because all of this is what you’re going to have to do.
Locate the mobile on the map
Before you get to denounce him crazy, make sure that you can locate it and locate it on a map. It is now when you have to lay hands, again, of Find my deviceeither in a browser or another mobile terminal with the application:
Phone location in Find my mobile
If you are in the area in which you find yourself, you can make it sound to see if what you listen to. Will sound for five full minutes, even if it is in silence. If you are not in the vicinity of where you are, you can always try to call your number and see if someone responds. There are still people willing to give you your terminal.
If no one answers, wait and re-check the location of the device each time to see if it moves. If it is so, later we will tell you what you can do. For now stay with this.
Call your carrier
The next step is to remove your SIM card. If you want to keep the number of the phone, it is as simple as asking for a duplicate. In some cases, you can do it yourself from the web site of your operator, but in others you’ll have to get in touch with them.
If you cancel your SIM card prevents be able to accumulate spending on your bill if the thief decides to make the call, or that you subscribe to messaging services premium on your behalf.
Change all your passwords
On a phone, as we said before, it is very easy to access any personal data. We started our session in quite a lot of services: social networks, messaging applications, e-mail servers… it does not take much imagination to realize that we are very vulnerable in this aspect.
Some of these services allow you to close the session remotely, but the easiest way is still to change the user password. Once you’ve done this, any session that you had open will close automatically, and you will have to re-enter the username and password to return to it (obviously the thief does not know the new credentials).
Overriding the SIM, if you had a system of identification in two steps with SMS verification prevents the thief will get your verification code. This way, anyone who wants to access your content sensitive lose access to a lot of information.
To report to the police
Do you have your IMEI code targeted? If the answer is yes, then go ahead. If the answer is no, since Find my device you can also check the code of your terminal:
Information of the IMEI code in to Find my mobile
With the IMEI in your power, go to the nearest police station and pursuing the complaint. In addition, with the code you can ask to block the terminal for IMEI.
Blocking the terminal, and delete your content remotely
Before you said that you were looking at the location of the terminal by moving, and that if this was the case and did not answer no one on the phone will give indications of what to do later. Well, that time has come. From Find my deviceclick in the first place Lock my device:
Remote lock in Android device
Enter a custom message to appear on screen, and then tap Block device. This will be what you will see on screen who has the phone.
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Once this is done, when you lost, you think to clear all the information that it contains. To do this, go to the section Erase data from the device and click the button Erase data from the device:
Remote erase of device data
You may have to enter your password, to identify you, but after that just follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
