Things You Should Do Immediately When You Lose Your Smartphone

Keeping your smartphone is important, but if it's already lost, stay calm and don't panic. Immediately do the things below to minimize your losses and increase your chances of finding it again.

Smartphone, an item that most people carry with them to accompany their daily activities. Besides for communication, social media, and internet purposes, smartphones are also often used as navigation tools. So, it is quite common for many people to carry their smartphones while traveling. Its compact or small form allows smartphones to be easily carried. However, as we know the price of smartphones is not cheap. But, because of its easy-to-carry form and its high value, smartphones are often become the target of theft or robbery. It is important to always take care of our smartphones, because it contains various personal data, some people even store money on it such as e-wallets or bank accounts. 

Apart from robbery, there are other times when smartphones can be stolen, such as when someone is careless because they are too tired, thieves who are smart and agile, hypnotized, and so on. If a smartphone is already lost due to being stolen or becoming a victim of a robbery, stay calm and take the following steps:

1.    Try calling your cell phone (If you are not a victim of robbery)

Try to call your smartphone first, because it could be that your smartphone is not lost, but just dropped or tucked away. Calling directly will be better than through applications such as WhatsApp and others. If your number can't be reached or the smartphone is dead, then there is a high chance that the smartphone has been stolen.

2.    Contact the operator:

Contact your mobile operator, if possible, ask them to help track your smartphone, and block your mobile number (SIM card). This is to prevent scams on your own name. Don't forget to provide the serial number of your smartphone to the operator. Each provider's policy may differ, but follow the directions or procedures given. Also prepare several things that may be needed, such as an ID card to show the authenticity of the identity of the owner of the mobile number.

3.    Change passwords:

Change your passwords as soon as possible, especially passwords for important things like e-mail, banking accounts, e-wallets, and social media accounts that linked to your mobile number. This is to prevent any unauthorized access.

4.    Use the "Find My Device" feature (Android):

As the name implies, this feature will allow you to track the last location of your lost smartphone, even if your smartphone is offline by encrypting and storing your device's last location on Google's servers. You can access this feature through an application that can be downloaded on the Google Play Store or through the following website “here”.

To use this Google Find My Device feature, here are the following steps:

• Open the app or website that was mentioned earlier
• Login using the google account connected to the lost smartphone
• After successful login, it will show several smartphone models connected to the account, then select the smartphone model that matches the lost smartphone.
• You can see the current smartphone location accurately if your lost smartphone is still connected to the internet and the GPS is active. When your lost smartphone is turned off, its last location will be encrypted and stored on Google's servers.
• To track the smartphone's last location according to date, month, and year, you can click the "Map Timeline" menu.

Besides the location, with Google Find My Device, you can monitor the remaining battery power and the name of the cellular network or Wi-Fi connected to your lost smartphone, and manage the activities of your lost smartphone such as:

• Play Sound: This feature will activate a loud ringing sound on your lost smartphone. This ringtone will sound for five minutes or until you turn it off, even if the smartphone is in "Silent" mode.
• Secure Device: You can use this feature to immediately lock your lost smartphone, so that it cannot be used and log out of your Google account. Even if your lost smartphone is locked, you can still track its location. You can also add notes and other phone numbers that can be contacted on the lock screen of the lost smartphone. So that other people who find your smartphone can contact you immediately.
• Erase Device: This feature is used to delete all files stored on the smartphone. But please note, once this option is selected, you will not be able to track the location of your lost smartphone anymore.

(For iOS user, you can use “Find My”)

5.    Report to the police

After successfully locking your lost smartphone and blocking all transaction services connected to it, you can report the loss to the police. However, keep in mind that the chances of finding your lost smartphone this way are relatively small, but it doesn't hurt to try first, right? You can prepare various information related to your lost smartphone, such as the model and characteristics of the smartphone, the chronology and location of the loss, the connected mobile phone number, and the IMEI number. The IMEI number can be seen on the smartphone purchase box or through the information listed on the "Find My Device" feature.

Losing a smartphone can be a very unpleasant experience, but by taking the right actions, you can minimize your losses and increase your chances of finding it again. Hopefully, the post "Things You Should Do Immediately When You Lose Your Smartphone" can help you.