Help My phone was lost/stolen

[Qamar1]

Hi,

I lost my samsung s3 3 days ago and think it may of been stolen!....is there any way of tracking it. I did not download any tracking apps while it was in my possession.

I read it's easy to do a system hard reboot, which takes the phone to how it was when first bought. If this is done by whoever has my phone is there still a way to track it???

Please reply ASAP thanks!

 

[Jackimus]

You can try to locate your phone from here:
https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager

 

[funkylogik]

Or search Plan B in play store (desktop version). If it gets factory reset then you cant track it now man

 

[Qamar1]

For android device manager to work the phone will need to be still signed into my gmail account. But a hard factory reset will reset this. So will this option work? As a hard reset will send the phone back into the state it was when I first bought it

FunkyLogic....I fear the same (

 

[tiede]

If it is hard factory reset, there is not much you can do but report it stolen.
Your carrier will then black list the phone to prevent it from being activated anywhere else around the world. But you'll still be out of a phone. (Hope you had insurance on it...)

At least with it blocked, no one can reactivate it, and they'll be forced to only make menial profits on it selling it for parts... :/

Sorry.

 

[funkylogik]

It depends where you are. I think an IMEI blocked phone from europe can be used outside europe.
i know the feeling when a phone gets stolen. A phone is a very personal thing and you feel a bit lost without it :beer:

 

[Qamar1]

So I'm guessing if a hard reset has been done there is no way of locating my phone even with such apps like device manager and plan b?

 

[funkylogik]

No chance. Plan B would have been sent to the phone using your google account and factory reset deletes that.
sorry

 

[Qamar1]

I thought so. Why does samsung make it so easy for thiefs to factory reset! What's the point of these tracking apps when it can so easily be deleted and reset. So stupid!

 

[funkylogik]

Its not just samsung. Every device will have a way of resetting without booting up.
If you root theres better options. You can install an app as a system app so a factory reset wont touch it. Theres ones that will alert you when the sim card is changed and send you the persons number for example.
The number one problem with anti theft apps though is that the police (in my country anyway) dont take them seriously. if you track down a theif you really have to take the law into your own hands. Me and my friends had to when a friends phone got stolen and we tracked it down. The police just give you an "incident number" for insurance purposes