A lost or stolen mobile phone can be devastating in a number of ways. There are obvious repercussions that, directly or indirectly, will end up affecting our pocket, especially if we take into account that the loss of it implies the obligation to acquire a new one, especially if we use it frequently and do not have any secondary terminal at home (for example, the one that we no longer use since we changed it for the lost one).
But what worries the most is the possibility that they can access our passwords, photographs and compromised and dangerous information, as could be the case, for example, of our credit card data (or our own bank information in general, especially if we have committed the clumsiness of saving the access data in the internal storage of the device, as a reminder note or draft text message).
Luckily, whether we have lost our mobile phone or it has been stolen, there are some key things we should do as soon as we are aware of it. And it is that, on this occasion, the time that passes may end up playing against us , so far from stopping to read carefully what we should do in these cases, the most appropriate thing is to be cautious and, at least, to have informed ourselves in advance.
What should we do before we lose our mobile phone?
The importance of setting a password as secure as possible
It is vitally important to establish a secure PIN code or password from the beginning. And the more complicated it is to find out, the better. This is because anyone who finds our mobile phone will try to unlock it with a simple code.
Therefore, we must avoid the typical passwords ‘0000’ or ‘12345’ and choose one that only we know, and that is difficult to find (yes, that we can easily remember).
The same could happen with the unlock pattern that we use. The more complicated it is, the more secure it will be.
Activate Find My Device
While in iOS we can find the Find my iPhone option, Android has the Find my device option, which will help us find it more easily, disable it remotely or even delete its content.
To enable it on Android we must go to Settings , Security and choose the option Find my device . Then, we simply have to make sure that the switch or lever is on (and therefore activated).
Write down the phone’s IMEI number in advance
Whether our mobile phone has been lost or stolen, there is a possibility that someone else will try to sell it on the Internet. Before this happens, it is an excellent option to write down the IMEI of the phone , a useful option when verifying if the phone is ours if it ever appears.
To obtain it, we just have to go to Settings , slide down the screen until we reach About the phone , and then access its IMEI. It is advisable to write it down and keep it in a safe place.
How to lock our Android phone easily
The process to lock Android mobile phone , although painful, is quite simple and straightforward. First of all, we must go to the official Android website dedicated to Find my device , and access our Google Account if we have not done so in advance.
In case of having more than one mobile phone, we only have to choose the one that we have lost from the list that we will find located at the top of the screen.
Once this is done, the lost mobile phone will receive a notification , and information about the approximate location where the device can be found will appear on the map. If it cannot be found (for example, because it is turned off), the last known location will be displayed, as long as it is available.
Now we have several options. The most useful in this case is Lock device , which will lock the phone in question with our PIN, password or lock pattern. Even if we have not configured a blocking parameter in advance, we can do it now.
In case the device has been lost, Android even offers us the possibility of adding a text message or a phone number on the lock screen.
Another option could be to Erase Device , which will permanently erase all data on the phone. Of course, once this is done Finding my device will not work.
