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How To Find Your Lost Android or iPhone FAST Even When It Is On Silent or Dead

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April 24 by Cassie 6 Comments

I want to share a cool little trick that could potentially save you tons of time and a bit of money. It is how to find your lost Android or iPhone FAST even when it is on silent or dead.

We have used this trick a number of times, and used it again today to find a phone in a super obscure spot. 

You see, yesterday, I packed up last season’s clothing to go to the basement. I left the bin out for Alex to carry down to the storage area in the basement. He waited until morning, when he is always in a hurry to rush out the door. 

He picked up the bin and ran it to the storage in the basement, then proceeded to finish getting ready for work. 

A few minutes later, he was looking for his phone. Everyone of us dropped what we were doing and hunted for the phone for a couple of minutes. He had it on vibrate and so when he called it, it really didn’t make a ton of difference as we were listening for the “vibrating” sound. 

Well, after about 3 minutes, I remembered what I have done in the past when my phone was no where to be found, I discovered a really cool trick. We used it to locate Alex’s phone and lo and behold, it had fallen into that bin in the basement. If we didn’t have this trick, I am not really sure what we would have done. We may have thought it was lost forever and spent money replacing it. 

How To Find Your Lost Android or iPhone FAST

Even When It Is On Silent or Dead

How to locate an Android/Google phone

If you don’t have an iPhone, this trick will work with any other type of smartphone out there. 

  • Go to google search and ask, “find my phone.”
  • Log-in to your google account.
  • It will then locate your phone’s location. 

  • You then have the option to ring or recover your phone. If you are trying to find it, use the ring and your phone will ring regardless of it’s current state. 
  • If you phone is dead, you will generally be able to locate it, but not call it. This gives you a general idea of where it is found. Often, the google tracking will get within a few feet. 

Once it is ringing, you can find it from anywhere! The map gives you an idea if you left it at home or elsewhere. This is how we found my husbands phone in that seasonal clothing bin in about 2 minutes. We listened for the ring on each level as the ring is obnoxious and different than the ring tone you set. 

How to locate a lost iPhone

Locating your iPhone is the same process, but through a different platform.

  • Head to iCloud.com
  • One of the applications you will find is “find iPhone”

  • Click on that application and log-in
  • Then locate the Apple device you want. 
  • You can then ask for iCloud to “ring” your phone, similar to how google will on Android devices.

  • If you iPhone is dead, similar to google, you will be able to locate it, just not call it. 

No matter what type of smart phone or cell phone you have, you can find it in seconds when it is dead or on silent. I have used these tools for both types of phones on many occasions. I have even used it on a dead google phone. I am assuming that most phones must have a feature that even when dead will respond with this trick. 

It also may just save you from one of those freaky times that you happen to drop your phone into a storage bin and it goes into storage. We wouldn’t have found Alex’s phone until next year…which probably would have meant we spent money on a replacement. 

Have you ever used this tool before? 

 

 

Filed Under: Frugal Living

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jennifer Hyatt

    I use this feature all the time. One time I drove off with my daughters iPhone on my bumper. I used the find iPhone to locate her phone and send a sonar sounding ping to her phone to locate it once I was in the general vicinity. Unfortunately it was in middle of the street and was already ran over 🙁 but I found it and the sound still sounded 🙂

    Reply
  2. Charise McNutt

    What wonderful tips!!! Thank you so much for sharing!

    Reply
  3. Stacy

    I love this tip! I had no idea. I will try it out. I also use an app called Life 360. All my family members with phones are hooked up and it has a similar GPS feature. I want to know if the google option could zone in closer than your address if it was lost somewhere within your home.

    Reply
  4. Joyful_2010

    Does anyone know if this works even with locator service turned off? I usually keep locator and blue tooth off to help the life of the battery.

    Reply
  5. Linda

    Didn’t work for me. Told me it was unable to locate my device. Now what?

    Reply
    • Alex

      What type of device do you have?

      Reply

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