Gadgetory

imagine this you're running off to work while talking to someone on the phone did you bring your house keys gosh the house keys so you stopped at the bench sit down check your bag and place your phone on the bench ah keys are here and you go on your merry way but wait aren't you forgetting something else I don't want to be in that situation do you but it can happen even to the best of us and if it happens to you will you be able to recover your Android phone what can you do in such cases how can you retrieve your phone or at least prevent the finder from accessing your data hey there welcome to Android authority I'm mark today I'll share some tips on how to recover your Android phone in case you lose it an answer prevention is worth a pound of cure right after you acquire your Android phone the first thing to do should be to set up basic security your phone's built-in security features can save your hide if you ever lose your Android phone there are four basic security measures that you can use SIM card lock if supported by your phone screen lock phone owner information and phone encryption first activate SIM card lock to set your SIM card lock go to settings security setup sim card lock the SIM PIN is like a passcode for your sin your phone will ask for it every time you power on your phone provide the wrong code and you won't be able to use your sim input the wrong code many times and your sim will lock you out until you provide an unblocking code so always memorize your SIM PIN the default SIM PIN code is usually provided by your network carrier but to be safe change the default pin to something else next activate the screen lock method to set this up go to settings screen lock you can choose slide which is not secure at all but very easy to use at the very least choose pattern lock which provides medium security for the greatest lock screen security choose password lock which requires a combination of letters and numbers when you choose a secure screen lock method you'll need to input the pattern pin or password to unlock the phone I also recommend providing your contact information and setting it to be shown on the lock screen you can do this in settings screen lock owner info at the very least provide your name email and alternate contact numbers the info you provide here just might prove to be precious if a Good Samaritan finds the phone you've lost in the part now let's talk a bit about the fourth security measure called encryption in simple terms encryption garbles your phone data in such a way that nobody nobody but to can understand or decipher so this is another layer of data safety in case you lose your phone to use your encrypted phone you need to enter the pin at boot up time however I notice that phone encryption is not uniformly present in all Android phones to check whether your phone supports it try going to settings security or try going to settings storage now that your phone is safe from an authorized use your next big step is that of backing up your phone data never underestimate the usefulness of backing up your data trust me there are numerous ways to backup your data you can use custom recovery to make nandroid snapshots or use backup apps such as titanium backup or use cloud-based backup services or use manufacturer providing software such as samsung kies or HTC Sync or even copy files to your PC the old manual way I won't discuss any of those methods here but whatever backup method you choose always keep backups of your data and backup your data regularly and most recently released phones running Google Android you should be able to backup most of your data to your Google account just look for the backup and reset menu on the settings page and enable the option for data backup to Google servers you'll need to specify a Google account for use as backup account if you want you can also enable the automatic restore feature so that app data and app settings will be restored on your phone when you reinstall a previously removed app again I emphasize always backup your data and make it a component of your phone security plan with that done let's now talk about how to prepare your phone in a way to make it easier to recover when it gets lost we're not talking here about merely miss placing your phone inside your house or at the office we are talking here about the possibility of losing your phone at the place where someone else could pick it up and choose to keep it or choose to return it the best preparation for such events is to install phone finder apps or phone tracking apps to help you locate your phone some of such apps lets you lock your phone remotely so that the finder can't use it you can even wipe all data on your phone through remote commands I'll share with you some of such phone recovery apps if you own a Samsung Android phone you're in luck Samsung has graciously included a mobile finder feature aptly called find my mobile go the settings security and check if your phone has this feature to use find my mobile you need to sign up for a Samsung account and login to it on your phone you also need to turn on mobile data on your phone so that you can remotely manage your missing phone through the web interface or if you prefer you can use mobile security and track apps in this category of apps some reliable and noteworthy names include mobile security Suites from lookout AVG and avast of special mention is the mobile finder app called where's my droid you can read more about these apps in this video's companion article on Android Authority for now I'll talk briefly about two apps that I personally recommend first let's take a quick look at avast mobile security this is primarily a mobile security app it has an add-on module called anti-theft that enables features useful when you ever need to locate your phone this module needs to be downloaded and installed after you install the main app one of the awesome things about the vasts anti-theft feature is that it offers security features for both rooted and unrooted phones aside from that the anti-theft component of Avast is hidden from the app drawer that way an unsuspecting phone thief won't become alarmed by its presence when setting up the anti-theft component you'll be asked to set in a vast pin to bring up the anti-theft app just call the Avast pin using your phone's dialer in case you lose your phone you can use a vast anti-theft to remotely communicate with your phone via web-based interface through which you can track your phone's whereabouts market has lost erase phone data sound off a loud alarm on the phone and many more or if the web interface is not a viable means you can send remote commands to your lost phone through SMS for instance there are commands for locking your phone marking the phone is lost setting off an alarm and more for a full list of commands go to help SMS commands within the anti-theft app a vast anti-theft app has a lot of features ranging from simple to advanced you'll actually need some time to get to know the apps features but believe me it's worth the trouble the other mobile finder app that I recommend is where's my droid unlike Avast Mobile Security and other similar apps this one's a pure phone finder app the app developer recommends keeping your phone's GPS always on so that the app can report the phone's location properly locating a lost phone with where's my droid is done purely via SMS you can send SMS commands through where's my droids web-based interface however not all countries and mobile outbreaks are supported by the web-based interface if the web interface isn't viable you can send the SMS commands in the usual way via SMS but from another phone using commands or attention words you can instruct your lost phone to ring even if it's on silent mode reports its GPS location take a photo using the back or front camera lock the phone screen with a four-digit pin unlock the phone or wipe all phone data you can even use custom commands for instance this is the default SMS command to instruct the phone to ring you can change this to anything you want and when you need to use the new custom command or attention word to execute the needed function on your phone Avast Mobile Security and where's my droid are just a few of the many mobile security and phone tracking apps on the Google Play Store there are others too such as AVG Antivirus security and lookout security and antivirus as always I encourage you to check them out and select the one that suits your needs most just remember to install one immediately long before your phone falls into the wrong hands the best way to minimize loss is to prepare for disaster there's no 100% guarantee that you will be able to recover your Android phone if you ever lose it in this video I shared to you how to set up your phone properly and securely and install phone finder apps these are ways to race your chances of protecting your phone data and finding your phone when it gets lost I hope you found the info helpful for more Android guides news and reviews visit android authority comm and subscribe to our youtube channel i'm mark glad to be of service and remember the power of Android is yours you