Samsung’s phones are among the best Android devices on the market, and it only makes sense that you wouldn’t want to lose it or have it stolen. Samsung has a built-in solution, called Find My Mobile, in all of its handsets and tablets, which makes them relatively easy to find when something happens to your device. Let’s see how Find My Mobile works and how to activate it.
What is Samsung Find My Mobile?
Find My Mobile is a service that can be accessed via a Samsung account using a web browser. It lets you remotely locate, back up, and wipe your Galaxy. The Track location feature allows your device to send an updated location automatically every 15 minutes. It’s also possible to ring your device at full volume, which is handy if you’ve located its approximate position. If you still can’t find it, you can lock its screen, prevent people from powering it off, and show a contact message so people who find your phone can reach you.
Activating Find My Mobile
Complete the following steps on your phone to activate Find My Mobile:
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Biometrics and security.
- Tap the Find My Mobile option (not the toggle).
- From this menu, set the toggle to on.
- Optional: Activate Remote unlock and Send last location.
After step 3, if you’re not logged in to your Samsung account, either enter your credentials or create an account.
Setting a backup code
Two-factor authentication—or 2FA—is a great way to secure your device. However, the way Samsung implements it for Find My Mobile is not particularly well-thought-out, considering it sends a 2FA code to the missing phone when you want to erase the device.
You can get around this as long as you follow these steps beforehand. The solution is to either disable 2FA for Find My Mobile or set up backup codes—single-use 2FA codes that you can save.
To set up backup codes, open the settings app on your phone and follow these steps:
- Open the Samsung account options by tapping the button with your name and profile picture.
- On the Samsung account settings page, tap Security and privacy.
- Tap Two-step verification to adjust the 2FA settings.
- Tap Backup codes to generate and view the backup codes for your device.
- Take note of the codes on this page. Write them down or tap Save codes to export them to a .txt file that you can save to Google Drive or export to your computer, laptop, or tablet.
Backup codes are single-use, so open this settings page and generate new codes if you have to use them.
There are alternatives to using backup codes, like using an authenticator app, but those involve signing up for another service or downloading a separate app. Backup codes are the simplest way to use the Find My Mobile app to its full extent without disabling 2FA entirely.
Locating your phone using Find My Mobile
Once enabled on your Android phone, go to the Find My Mobile web page and log in with your Samsung account. From there, you’ll see a list of Samsung devices for which you have activated Find My Mobile.
If the device location is found, it’s shown with an active indicator on the map, together with its status, battery level, and network connectivity type (mobile or Wi-Fi).
Find My Mobile only works if the lost device is turned on and connected to a network. Because of this, Samsung offers a feature to remotely adjust power settings to extend the life of lost devices and give you more time to locate them.
Additionally, Find My Mobile can be used to retrieve access to a device in case of a lost password or PIN, but to do so, you have to turn on the Remote Unlock during the setup process.
Some mobile carriers might offer the Google Find My Device service instead of Samsung Find My Mobile. If that’s the case, log in to Find My Device using your Google account credentials to access the remote access features.
What can I do after I locate my device using Find My Mobile?
If you lost your phone and subsequently located it using Find My Mobile, it’s worth picking it up. First, you might want to ensure it’s not with someone else. Samsung only lets you check your phone’s location once every 15 minutes, so determining whether it’s sitting on a park bench or in someone’s pocket will take at least 16 minutes. If the location changes, you’ll know it’s not where you left it, and you might have a chance to have a conversation to get it back.
How to make your phone ring on Find My Mobile
So, you’ve used a tablet to track your device to a shopping center, park, parking lot, or what have you, but you can’t run around and tell everyone to empty their pockets. So what’s a phoneless vigilante like yourself to do? Samsung has you covered.
Find My Mobile can help you pinpoint your device with the Ring feature, regardless of the sound mode it is set to or the volume it is set to. To make your device ring, select Ring on the Find My Mobile page and then select Start in the pop-up that follows. The device rings for one minute, alerting you to its presence.
This ringing can be stopped from the device, so it might take a few tries with you awkwardly scanning the crowd for people with confused or concerned expressions.
Do not confront thieves
Whether you should do this if your phone has been stolen is another story entirely. You shouldn’t hop in your car and confront the criminal who stole your phone. Instead, ensure your data is secure and inform local law enforcement about the location of your device. Your mileage may vary regarding the success of this step, but it’s not worth risking your safety to retrieve a stolen device.
Let’s look at the steps you can take to secure your phone and information when it’s been stolen.
Back up your data to Samsung Cloud
If you often have valuable information on your phone that you can’t afford to lose, you should have a robust backup strategy for your phone. If it’s been a while since you ran a backup, Find My Mobile allows you to run a quick backup of your device remotely. All you need to do to run a backup is sign in to Find My Mobile on a desktop or mobile browser and then follow these steps:
- On the Find My Mobile page, click or tap Back up in the menu panel on the right side of the screen to open the backup options.
- Select the options you want to back up. If your phone is low on battery, or you are unsure how long it will be in mobile range or powered on, start with the essentials and circle back to the ancillary stuff later.
- Once you have selected what you want to back up, click or tap Back up to start the backup. You may see a pop-up confirming the use of mobile data. Click or tap I agree, then Back up to proceed with the backup.
That’s it. Once you click Back up, your phone backs up the requested information if it’s connected to a mobile network. This isn’t a silent procedure and triggers a notification on your phone, meaning anyone that has your phone is alerted that you’re backing it up. As each backup completes, the Find My Mobile page reflects the time the backup was completed in the pop-up window.
Erase the data on a lost or stolen phone with Find My Phone
Storing confidential or sensitive information on a phone is always risky. If your phone is stolen, you want a way to make sure that the information you stored on it isn’t used maliciously. A good way to lock down that information is by completely erasing it from the device.
To erase a missing phone with Find My Mobile, log in to the service, then follow these steps:
- On the Find My Mobile page, click or tap Erase data to start wiping your device.
- If you turned on 2FA, you’ll see a pop-up that asks for the code sent to your device. If you have another device signed in to your Samsung account, you might get the 2FA code on that device. Otherwise, you need to use a backup code to authenticate your actions. To use a backup code, select Verify with backup code and enter the code into the field that follows.
- Select Erase data again. This time, you’re greeted with a pop-up confirming you wish to do a complete factory reset, including the information and files on your SD card if one is installed.
- To proceed with the factory reset, select Erase.
Erasing your phone should be a last resort since you can’t track or control it after performing the reset. On the positive side, if your phone is stolen, the thief will be locked out because the phone will make them enter your Google account password before they can re-initialize the device.
Getting your phone back
With Find My Mobile, Samsung has you covered in case you lose your phone or if it’s stolen. The service isn’t perfect, but it’s still helpful enough to find your phone or secure it remotely to protect your data.
Regardless, you should always ensure your data is securely backed up, as your phone may not be reachable if it gets lost, and you may lose your data for good.
