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If you’ve ever left your phone on public transport, have had the kids “move it somewhere safe” or simply just cannot remember where you last had your phone, don’t worry, there is hope!

We all know the feeling. You reach your hand into your pocket, expecting it to brush against the cool, solid surface of your phone. But all you find in there is air. You panic. Your heart drops. Your phone – your very livelihood – is missing! Now, most of the time, we feel and fumble around for it until we realise we’d placed it elsewhere, or (in more cases than I’d like to personally admit) that it was in our other hand the whole time. But sometimes, the reality of a truly lost phone comes crashing down on us.

If you’ve looked everywhere, retraced every possible step, and given up all hope of finding your phone…you still need not worry.

If you’d already made the following precautions prior to losing your phone, you can leave the arduous search up to modern technology!

FOR IPHONE USERS

Once you’ve set up an iCloud account, it comes with a neat app: Find My iPhone.This handy app will show you the current location of your phone on a map, allowing you to chase it down. Not only that, but it will also show you where your phone has been for the past 24 hours, so that you can track its movements.

Furthermore, it gives you the ability to protect your phone, and the sensitive contents within. You can do this by putting your phone into “Lost Mode”, which locks your phone and prevents anyone else from using it.You can then also send a message to your phone, so that whoever is in possession of it may see it. For instance, you might leave a message with your contact details, so that your phone may be returned to you.You also have the option to initiate a remote erase on your phone – this will erase all the contents of your phone, so that you can protect any important private data.

So how do you do all this when you don’t have your phone with you? Well, make sure that you’ve set up an iCloud account. You will then be able to login to iCloud.com and use these features on another device with internet access (such as a desktop computer). Alternatively, download the “Find my iPhone” app on another device, such as an iPad or iPod, and open up this app on this device to use these features.

FOR ANDROID USERS

The Android equivalent to Find My iPhone is called Android Device Manager. It provides much of the same features as Apple’s Find My iPhone.

You can also pinpoint the current location of your phone on a map, but one difference is that this feature will not work if your phone’s location access is turned off. It also won’t work if you’re not signed into Google on your phone, your phone is off, or there is no mobile data or WiFi connection on your phone. Make sure this criteria is fulfilled if you plan on using Android Device Manager!

If your phone is on, connected to WiFi/has mobile data, and signed into Google, Android Device Manager will also allow you to lock, erase, and call your phone.Like with an iPhone, you can access Android Device Manager by using another device. You can visit the Android Device Manager website, or use another Android device to download and open the Android Device Manager app.

Everyone can agree that losing your phone is a huge waste. Now, with these precautions in place, you’ll never have to resign to losing those several hundred dollars again!

Have you lost your phone and found it again? SHARE with us in the comments below.

Main image source: Shutterstock

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  • Thankfully this has never happened to me. Fingers crossed it wont.

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  • This is wonderful to know. Thank you, very beneficial indeed!

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  • It’s very useful.Thanks for sharing.

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  • Thumbs up at modern technology!

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  • Great info. I’ve never lost my phone (touch wood!) but we all know it can happen. My first instinct would always be to ring it and hope someone answers it… or that it rings somewhere in the house. I’d not heard of the Lost Mode function and do not use the iCloud. But I’m thinking of moving everything there…!

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  • Thanks for your tips – I have never lost my phone, and hope I will be savvy enough to incorporate your tips if ever I do – but I’ll probably have Alzheimer’s by then and it won’t matter any more. I’m not being a smartie, or joking, I know I’m going to get it, just not sure when it will fully kick in, and as I hate phones I guess I just won’t care.

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  • Very handy article saving this one to my bookmarks : )

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  • I don’t have a mobile phone, but if I ever get one I’ll be sure to take these precautions.

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  • Great to know these options. Yes I’ve lost my phone but never far and was able to track it by phoning my mobile on the house phone or my husbands mobile.

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  • It’s great to know these precautions but you need another phone to find your original phone. Before I panic I use the house phone and call my mobile and, what do you know, it’s lost no more

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  • oh wow I didn’t know there was something similar for android users. I love that you admit you loose your phone and it’s in your other hand, I do that all the time! – thanks for sharing this today .

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  • Thanks for the article – thankfully never lost a phone.

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  • That’s great. I knew about the the iPhone one, but didn’t know about the Android.Thank you

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  • Great, thanks! Lucky for this article. In the good old days, a lost phone was just that. Everything lost.

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  • Hmmm free too many ‘must have’s’ required for android users :/

    Reply

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