Lost your phone? Here’s how to find your Android smartphone and erase data

Have you lost your phone and thinking what will happen to your data? Don’t panic as there are ways and means with which you can get back your lost phone and remove all the data. 

Tech giant Google has come to the rescue of users as it helps them to find, lock, and erase all data on the phone. Also, the Find My Device feature gives Android users an opportunity to track the phone, lock it remotely by changing the pin, passcode, or pattern.

Besides that, users will be able to display a message on their lock screen to ask the finder to call once they have their phone. 

Steps to find your lost smartphone 

The first and foremost thing that a user should do is to sign in with a Google account and get visible on Google Play, then turn on the location setting, and additionally have their Find My Device setting turned on as well.

Visit android.com/find and sign in to your Google account and then the user will find their phone in the top left corner. 

Google will eventually pop up an approximate location of the handset on the map which means its last known location will be shown.

If a user gets to know that the phone is somewhere in close proximity, he/she can go to the location and then select the Play Sound option to make your phone ring for five minutes.

But if the location is unknown, then the user is advised and instead contacts law enforcement agencies - who may find out the phone with the help of the serial number or IMEI code. 

Further, if a user plans to lock the screen, select the Secure Device option which will eventually lock the phone and sign out of your Google account. . 

Also, a user can opt for Erase Device which permanently deletes all data on the phone.