Help! I lost my cell phone.

January 21st, 2014 | Nick Fox

First off, I’m sorry that you lost your cell phone. That is a bummer. At this point, I’m sure you have retraced your steps and have tried calling your cell phone to see if someone kind hears it and picks it up. You can call your cell phone from your computer using Google voice if you do not have access to another phone:

https://www.google.com/voice

If it’s a real emergency (ie. a missing person), then you should contact the police and they in turn might be able to contact the phone company and find the phone’s location.

At this point, if you are still unable to find your cell phone I will cut to the chase and let you know where you stand.

If you did not have any tracking software installed and activated on your phone before you lost it, you most likely are not going to find it.

Sorry for the bad news but that’s the way it is and I really don’t want you going to another website that promises to find your phone for a fee or is simply trying to get at your personal information.

One more thing to mention, it’s important to contact your cell phone provider and let them know your phone is missing. Ask them to put a hold on your account so that you don’t incur any charges that may be made on the phone.

Also, if you have thoughts of chasing somebody who has stolen your cell phone, please be careful. In today’s world, you just don’t know if someone is going to pull out a weapon and use it against you. I’m just suggesting that you might not want to provoke someone into doing so. Your life and safety is much more valuable than a cell phone.

Now if you haven’t lost your phone yet but want to protect it then please keep reading…

If you have an iPhone or any kind of newer Apple mobile device then Apple has you covered with this, Find My iPhone:

http://www.apple.com/icloud/find-my-iphone.html

Make sure you set that up on all of your apple devices.

If you have an Android cell phone, I recommend installing this, Where’s My Droid:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alienmanfc6.wheresmyandroid

This is by far the most widely used application for finding lost Android phones. The basic version is free and it works just fine. Google has come out with something new called Android Device Manager. It’s very similar to Apple’s Find my iPhone but it’s not yet out on all android cell phones (January, 2014). To see if it’s on yours check out this support page from Google and use the Android Device Manager if your phone has it:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3265955?hl=en

If you have a Windows Phone, Microsoft has created this site to help you find your cell phone:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp7/basics/find-a-lost-phone

Finally, if you have an old java phone (think old Razr flip phones), the only application that I could find to track those old phones is put out by Mcaffee. Unlike the other three applications I mentioned above, this product costs money. I have not used it and only present it here as a solution if you have an older java phone.

https://www.wavesecure.com/products/java.aspx

That covers just about any cell phone that is out there right now.

And finally, always use a passcode to get into your phone. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Besides protecting a huge amount of your personal information, it will make it a lot harder for someone to get into your phone settings and turn off tracking. That may give you just enough time to locate your phone with one of the online trackers you have set up.

If you have any questions at all that weren’t covered in this post, please feel free to ask and good luck in finding your phone.