How to locate your Android phone with Google Find My Device

Phones are such a part of our daily lives that it can be immediately traumatic if you can’t find your phone, left it in a taxi, accidentally dropped it from your pocket, or lost under your bed. If you have an Android phone, you can use Find My Device to (hopefully) locate your phone.

Find My Device depends on two things being enabled: the feature itself (of course) and Google’s location services. Additionally, the phone must also be turned on and logged into a Google account.

The Find My Device feature is part of the standard operating system on Pixels and several other Android phones and is usually enabled by default. Be aware that some Android models may offer a different app; for example, Samsung phones have their own Find My Mobile app.

If you want to use Find My Device from Google, you can check if it is part of your phone’s version of Android.

• Go to Settings > Security and seek Find my device.
• If the app is listed but disabled, tap it and use the toggle to enable it.

If you don’t have the Google app, but want to use it instead of the app installed by your manufacturer, or if you want to use an Android tablet instead of a computer to find your phone or watch , you can access the Play Store and also install the Find My Device app from Google.

Then you can check if location is enabled:

• Go to your phone settings and find Location. It will say just below the header if it is enabled or disabled.
• If it is off, press Location and activate it.
• You can also check which apps have access to your location and which have used it recently. If you want to take this opportunity to fine-tune this setting, press App location permission to change location permission settings.

find your phone

Now you are ready. If you can’t find your phone, just go to Google’s search page and type “Find my device”. You will get a list of devices you have registered with Google; choose the one you want to find. Choose one.

You’ll be taken to the Find My Device page, which will name your phone, the last time it was pinged (and the name of the Wi-Fi network it was using), and the current battery strength. A Google map will show where your phone was last seen.

Once you locate your device, three options are listed on the left side of the screen. What you choose depends on whether you think the device is in a safe place or not. You can:

• Have the device play a sound (usually a ringtone) for five minutes so you can locate it.
• Lock the device and sign out of your Google account, so your data is safe while you go to retrieve it (recommended if, for example, you left it in a taxi or restaurant).
• Erase the device. This is for times when you are reasonably sure it has been stolen and is not recoverable; you won’t be able to locate your device after that, but your content will no longer be there.

During this time, the phone will show a notification that it has been located.

Updated March 15, 2022, 3:35 p.m. ET: This article was originally published on August 13, 2021 and has been updated to reflect changes to Android.