Here's how to secure your lost Android phone from strangers

With the Find my Device feature, owners can track or lock their lost Android phone or even erase the contents remotely from a personal computer.

Smartphones have become so an important part of our lives that we can't imagine going out of the house without it. We trust handsets so much that we store almost everything from personal photos of family and friends to bank credentials.

Owners must take precautionary measures in situations such as phone theft or misplacing it. Or else, risk losing private details to strangers. This will surely cost you a lot not just in terms of money but also hurt public image, if bad actors release private photos or videos to the social media platforms and dark web.

So, Google enables the Find My Device feature by default whenever the owner signs in to a new Android phone with the personal Gmail ID

But, god forbid, if you lose the phone, follow the steps below to protect your personal data:

Google's Find My Device can help recover the lost phone or erase the content. 

Prerequisite: Even if the Find My Device is enabled by default, ensure every week or at least once a month, check if it is activated or not:

Step 1: Open Settings >> Tap Security And then Find My Device.

If you can’t find "Security," tap Security & location or Google And then Security.

Step 2: Check if “Find My Device” is turned on or not. Also, ensure 'Store recent location' is also turned on.

Then, in the case of the phone lost or stolen, do the following:

Step 1: Open the website 'android.com/find' on a friend's phone or personal computer

Step 2: Sign in with your Gmail ID that is linked to the missing phone and type in the password.

Step 3: Once opened, you can view the last location where the phone was connected to the internet.

If it is nearby, just turn on the 'Play sound'. It will ring for five minutes even if the device is kept in silent/vibration mode.

Step 4: If the phone is not traceable, the next best thing to do is lock the phone with a password and you will also get an option to leave contact details on the lock screen so that the finder can call you and hand over the device.

Step 5: If you think, it is beyond recoverable. You can just tap on the 'Erase' button. It will erase all details on the phone when it gets connected to the internet. However, if the device happens to have an SD card, the latter can not be deleted.

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