How To Use Android Device Manager

Losing your phone is a very unpleasant and frustrating experience, especially if you consider the type of data we store on our devices nowadays. From personal photos and banking info to social media log-ins and messages, there are a bunch of things on our phones that are for our eyes and only.

In this dire situation, you have two options; either track down the phone and retrieve it or, and we hope it doesn’t have to go there, remotely erase all the data stored on it. If you own an Android device, both of the aforementioned can be executed via Google’s Android Device Manager, which has recently been re-branded to ‘Find My Device’.

Using Android Device Manager is genuinely a piece of cake. Just follow the steps we list below and you will be good to go.

Using Android Device Manager on another Android phone

If you have a backup Android device – a friend’s Android will do as well -, then this will get the job done. Search ‘Find My Device’ on the Play Store and download the free app. Once the download is finished, open the app and sign in to one of the Google accounts that you were using on the lost device.

If you have multiple devices signed into the particular account, select the one that you’ve misplaced. The app doesn’t have to be installed on the lost device.

With that said, the platform offers you three options; Play Sound, Lock and Erase; all three of which require that the lost phone is connected to the internet either via WiFi or data.

In the event that you are still near the spot where you’ve misplaced the phone, hit the Play Sound option. The lost phone will then start playing your ringtone, helping you track it down if you are able to figure out where the sound emanates from.

The Lock option allows you to remotely leave a message along with a phone number on the lost phone’s lock screen. So, if someone who is willing to return it back to you finds the device, he or she will have the means to get in touch with you. In addition to helpful info, Lock also allows you to add a lock screen password to the device, in case you didn’t have one already.

If tracking down the phone is impossible, then we’d recommend the Erase option, which will permanently delete all of the device’s data. If the phone is offline, erasing will begin when it next comes online. We sincerely hope that one of the other two options work for you, though.

Using Android Device Manager on desktop

The quickest way of doing the above in case you don’t have any other Android device laying around is by visiting Find My Device’s website and following the instructions described above. The user interface of the website is identical to the app’s.

If you encounter any problems while trying out any of the above or have a recommendation to make, feel free to shoot a comment down below.

Orestes Papanastassiou
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android