Now you can find your lost Android even if it’s offline

September 10, 2020

By Kim Komando

Services that locate lost devices usually depend on a cellular signal or Wi-Fi connectivity. That’s how an app locates your phone and broadcasts its location. What happens when you lose your device and it’s not only not connected to the internet, it’s entirely powered off? Samsung has a solution.

Speaking of your Android’s battery. Tap or click here to check on the battery health of your device.

When tragedy strikes and you reach down into your pocket only to find nothing there, you’ll want to have the best app you can find ready to go to locate your device. Samsung’s Find My Mobile app is a great choice. And, a new update to the app introduces an awesome way to find a lost device, even if it’s offline.

How Find My Mobile works

To use Find My Mobile, first, you’ll have to download the app from the Galaxy Store. Only users of Samsung-produced Android phones, like the ever-popular Galaxy line, have access to the Galaxy Store. Once you have the app downloaded, you’ll need to sign in to your Samsung account. With all that done, you can open the app and get going.

Traditionally, Find My Mobile has offered you the ability to locate lost phones and tablets, lock the screen, ring the phone, retrieve calls and messages, and even erase all data and reset the device. Until now, these features required some kind of internet or cellular connection.

A recent update has changed all this. Now Find My Mobile has an offline finding function, which leverages a larger network of Galaxy devices in your general area to locate your specific device. If you can’t find your phone by way of cellular or Wi-Fi connection, Find My Mobile gives you another way to make contact.

Plus, simply by enabling the feature, you will automatically have your device join the Galaxy device network, helping others to find their lost devices by way of mutual benefit. It’s important to remember this feature isn’t enabled by default, so you will have to turn it on as well as decide whether or not you want your offline location data encrypted.

Missing an Android gadget outside of the Samsung umbrella? Tap or click here for a resourceful app that helps find your lost Android devices.

There’s no denying it’s mighty useful to be able to locate a missing phone, even if it’s powered down. But how exactly this “Galaxy network” works and what the privacy implications of the network are remain to be seen.

However, it’s likely a much better value-proposition to give up some privacy in exchange for locating a lost or stolen device than it is for Facebook to harvest your personal information to sell to advertisers.

If you happen to have both Android and iOS devices, you may be interested in learning how to locate lost Apple products, too. Tap or click here for ways to find a missing Mac, iPhone or iPad.