Silently, we all pray that our smartphone or tablet never gets stolen. Considering their importance in our life, the damage can be catastrophic. Imagine a thief with access to all your private photos, messages and videos. Thankfully, there are quite a lot of steps that you can take if your Android device gets stolen, to reduce the damage to a certain extent.
Use Android Device Manager
The first thing that you should do after you realize that your device is stolen is to use Android Device Manager to remotely lock it. While the service is pre-activated in most devices, you might need to manually activate it on yours. Here’s how to.
If your device is only lost, you can then proceed to track it as well. However, if it is stolen, chances are the thief has already switched it off, which complicates matters further. You can press the Locate option in Android Device Manager and pray that the thief connects your device to a Wi-Fi or mobile data network before factory resetting it.
Change passwords
Until you are able to locate the device, it is recommended that you change the passwords of your Google account as well as of other social media networks, which apps were installed on it. This way, the thief will not be able to access your emails or post something via any of your social profiles.
Inform your carrier and police station
Even though you might never get your stolen phone back, it is always a good idea to inform the local police station and your network provider that the device was stolen. Depending on your luck, the police might just be able to track down the thief in a few days. If not, the operator can at least bar the IMEI number rendering the phone useless.
Apart from the above steps, you really don’t have any other option available. If you were smart enough to install a third-party anti-theft app on your device, you can wait for it send you an alert email or message with its location.
What did you do when you realized your Android device was stolen? Do you have any other tips to recommend to our readers? Drop in a comment and do let us know!
