How to Track Your Lost or Stolen Phone Using Your PC
To track your lost phone, use Google's Find My Device service from the web on your PC or laptop.
1 Open the Find My Device website in a browser on your PC. Log in with the Google account linked to your stolen or lost phone.
2 Select the device you want to track from the top of the left sidebar. By default, the service displays the location of your most recently used device.
3 Find My Device will show the current status of your stolen or lost device: its battery life and when it was last seen online. The map will also automatically refresh to show the last known location of the device.
4 You can click Play Sound to make your device ring so that you can find its whereabouts. This is perfect if you just misplaced your phone.
5 If you can't physically reach your lost Android phone, click the Secure Device option. This will lock your phone and log out of your Google account, preventing the thief from accessing the data stored on it. You can continue to track your phone's location after locking it and even display a message on the lock screen.
6 If the chances of getting your lost Android phone are slim or there's sensitive data that should not get into unknown hands, click Erase device instead. You will have to enter your Google account password to confirm this step. But your device will only be wiped when it connects to the internet.
Apart from phones, you can use Find My Device to track Wear OS watches and Android tablets. Google's Pixel Buds and some select third-party earphones also support the Find My Device network.
How to Find Your Lost Android Phone Using Another Android Device
All Android phones and tablets come with Google's Find My Device integration. This feature allows you to track your phone's location or play a sound, making it easy to locate when it's misplaced or stolen.
You don't need to do anything to set up Find My Device on Android. It's automatically set up when you first log in with your Google account on your phone.
1 Open the Google Find My Device app on another Android phone. If it's your device, sign in with your Google account. Otherwise, tap Sign in as guest and select the phone you want to track.
2 Find My Device will try to track your lost Android phone. If the device is unreachable, it will display its last known location. You can view your phone's IMEI number or access the factory reset option by tapping the cog icon next to its name.
3 If you misplaced your phone, tap Play sound to make it ring and help you locate it. Your device will ring for five minutes even when in silent mode.
4 Tap Secure device if you want to lock the device, sign out of your Google account, and display a message on the lock screen.
If you haven't enabled location access on your lost phone, Find My Device won't be able to provide an accurate location.
While you can find a lost iPhone even when it's offline, Google's Find My Device service can only show your device's location as long as it's connected to the internet. However, there are other ways to locate a lost Android phone that's turned off.
