What to do if your Pixel is lost or stolen
Most of us have lost our phones or had them stolen from us at one point or another. Phones are an expensive luxury item and the higher end phones could be worth a lot of money but what could be worth more than the device itself is the information on the device. Our entire world is stored on our phones including cherished photos and videos, passwords, bank account information, personally identifiable information, in a nut shell pretty much everything. None of us intend to lose our phones or have them stolen but if you are well prepared before an event like this occurs and you know what actions to take after, the biggest hit you’re going to take is the price of your phone. And believe me when I say it could be so much worse if you’re not prepared.
Steps To Take Before Your Pixel Is Lost Or Stolen
Set Up A Lock Screen Passcode And Face ID Or Fingerprint
First you want to Set Up A Pattern, Pin, or Password on your Google Device and set up Biometric security such as Face ID and/or Fingerprint. I know that constantly putting in your code every time you want to get into your phone can be annoying but I promise you the risk of not having one is greater than the inconvenience of typing in your passcode and if you do set up face id and/or a fingerprint on your phone it negates the hassle of typing in your passcode.
I understand that some people don’t trust Face ID and Fingerprint biometrics on phones but Pixel’s fingerprint technology is pretty good. Similarly to Samsung, I personally prefer to use Fingerprints on Pixel over their Face ID. The finger print technology used in Pixels is an under-the-screen optical finger print scanner which can sense blood flow. You can still use Face ID if you’d like and it is secure but fingerprint scanner on Pixel phones is the way to go.
Never Forget Your Email And Samsung Account Passwords
This one is super important. Well, all these tips are important but this one will make your entire life easier in so many other circumstances. I highly recommend you write down both your email password and your Google Account password somewhere safe and DO NOT keep it in your phone. If it’s in your phone and you don’t have your phone it defeats the entire purpose. How are you gonna recover anything from your stolen phone if the password you need to do it is on your stolen phone? You can’t.
You can use other emails besides Gmail to create a Google Account but your Google Account will generate a Gmail.
You will need your Google Account an email passwords for a variety of things if you lose your phone or it’s stolen.
A great option for password management is Nord Pass. If anything we’re to happen to your phone you could still access your passwords on Nord pass from another device and it’s a great way to keep your personal information safe and secure in the event that something does happen.
Keep Your Information Backed Up to A Cloud Service
It is highly recommended that you use a cloud storage service on your Pixel phone. Since you have a Pixel you might as well use Google One but it is entirely up to you. If your phone is lost, stolen, or damaged and you don’t use cloud storage and everything is stored on your phones internal storage then you will not be able to recover any of your information. This means that all of your pictures, videos, notes, passwords you shouldn’t be storing in your phone, contacts etc. will be lost an irrecoverable.
There’s a lot more cloud services out there but you can use Google One without having to download anything extra on your Pixel Device.
Now, when you do purchase storage through wherever you choose, you want to make sure it’s backed up. If you are using Google One you can go to Google in your Pixels settings then go to Back Up and back up your information at anytime. You will get 15GB of storage for free through Google One but I recommend you buy as much storage as you have data. For example, If you have 80GB of photos and videos get the 100GB plan if you need more then purchase more. It’s 100% worth it.
Use An ESIM Instead Of A Physical SIM Card
Most of the newer phones will be compatible with an electronic sim (ESIM) after the Pixel 3a.
The reason an ESIM is safer than a physical SIM is because you can take a physical SIM card out of a phone that is locked and put it in another phone. If someone has access to your phone number then they could attempt to change passwords to your social media accounts, banking accounts, email etc. With an ESIM you can’t take the SIM card out of the phone.
While an ESIM is preferred for many reasons (we’ll get to other reason later in this article) you could still secure your physical SIM card by putting a SIM Card Lock on your SIM Card. The things you have to remember about a SIM Pin is:
- Any time your phone turns off, whether you power is off or it dies, you will be asked to put your SIM Pin in before you can access your phone.
- You will have three attempts to enter your SIM PIN correctly before your SIM is locked.
- The SIM Pin is different than your iPhones lock screen passcode.
Keep Find My Device Turned On
In the event that your phone is lost or stolen you can access Find My Device to track, erase, and disconnect your phone from your Google Account and more (We’ll go over the usefulness of these in the next section). Make sure Find My Device on in your settings and make sure you have your location turned on for the app in App Permissions.
Get Insurance On Your Phone
You can either get insurance through Google directly or you can get it through your Wireless Carrier. Whoever you get it through the deductible you would have to pay for a lost or stolen phone will be approximately a 1/5 to 1/4 of the price that your phone actually costs.
What to do if your Google Device is lost or stolen
If you’ve already taken the following steps above the worst thing that can happen at this point is you have to get a new phone. So first step is don’t freak out because you’ve prepared for this because I told you how.
Log Into Find My Device On Another Device
First step is to log into Find My Device on a computer or another phone. This is why you need to remember your Google Account email and Password so hopefully you do or you have it written down somewhere safe and not in your phone.
If you don’t remember it then you will have to reset your password and it could take up to 24 hours. You will get an email that will be sent to the email you use for your Google Account so hopefully you are logged into that email on another phone or computer or you can log into your email with your password on another device that your Google Account is connected to.
You may be able to reset your password if you have another device such as a Google Watch or a Chromebook as long as you are signed in to those devices with your Google Account.
Track Your Device
If you think you just lost it and you can locate it then you should be able to track your phone in realtime. If you think or know someone stole it, you can still track your device but I highly recommend you contact law enforcement so you aren’t tracking your phone into a dangerous situation.
Secure And Erase Your Device
First secure your device. This will lock your device and sign out of your Google Account on the phone. You will still be able to track your device and you can add a message to the lock screen so you can leave a note for anyone who finds it if it was just lost.
If you know someone stole your device then they are probably not going to give it back. You’ll want to erase your phone before the device loses connection. If you have an ESIM on your phone, your device will erase as soon as it turns back on if they turned it off. If you had a physical SIM on your device it could be taken out of the phone so it doesn’t have service so you may not be able to do this but if you put a SIM PIN on your physical SIM card then they won’t be able to use your number for anything.
Also if you had your information backed up to Google One then when you get a new phone you’ll still have all of your personal data and the hard drive of your previous phone will be wiped so your data will be safe no matter what.
Now Call Your Wireless Carrier and Google
The next thing you want to do is call your wireless carrier and Google and have your phone number suspended and the IMEI on the phone blocked and blacklisted. That way whoever stole it can’t do anything with the phone and they won’t be able to use your phone number for anything. If you have an ESIM on your phone or your put a SIM pin on your physical SIM card then your phone number being used isn’t the greatest concern. Keep your number on the ESIM active until your phone erases.
Get A New Phone
Now we have to get a new phone because some asshole stole it. Luckily you remember your Google Account and password because you wrote it down or used a password manager like Nord Pass, you backed up all of your information to Google One, or another cloud service so you can get all of your personal data back and you have insurance on your phone so you don’t take a huge hit financially.
