Notes from the Field: Losing Your Cellphone, Without Losing Your Mind

OK, I finally did it—I lost my cellphone yesterday. (Spoiler alert: It was found it several hours later).

Big deal? You could say that because, aside from replacement costs and the hassle of emailing 300 people asking for their numbers again, I’d accumulated four years of phone numbers, addresses, business notes, voice memos to remind me to look into cellphone tracking apps, photographs of my parrot, notes for the Great American Novel, and plans for world peace.

And no, before you ask, my cell files were not backed up on the Cloud. Clouds don’t sound very secure. I’m sorry they didn’t name it Atomic Lock Box or something a little less vaporous. Even for someone as interested in techno gear as I am—I’ve used computers for graphic design and publications since 1985—I haven’t really paid attention to backing up my phone files and even less to looking into cell phone tracking apps. My feeling is that, if you’re of my generation, you won’t naturally associate phones with “loss” since the phones from our youth were about as big as VW and plugged into the wall. But I will be backing up phone files this time. Even on the Cloud. Verizon, along with Apple’s iCloud, both offer 5 Gigs of free storage.

Of course, by now, you realize that all or most cell phones are also GPS systems tied into a vast planetary satellite system. When you hear about lost mountain climbers getting found it’s usually through their phone GPS. Certainly the NSA can locate your cell phone—they can even turn it back on if you have turned it off, but more importantly, the GPS will let you pinpoint your lost cellphone from your computer if you have the right app installed in your phone, or if your carrier provides a location service. Verizon, for instance, offers the Verizon Mobile Security Premium for Androids for about $24 a year. The service will also lock your phone or delete date remotely while searching for the phone.

For Android users, one of the best options is the Device Manager feature already in the system software. It will show a text-message to whomever finds the device (“This phone has been lost. Please call me at xxx or email me at yyy”). This will require some configuring and is not an option for someone who has already lost their phone, but worth setting up before that inevitable day. Market Watch says that $30 billion in cellphone are lost yearly.…most in coffee shops. And churches? In Dublin, it’s pubs.

One free app offered at Google is “Plan B” which will work without having to install it in the phone itself and has received very positive reviews  (Plan B only works with 2.0 – 2.3 versions of Android). Another similar app is AndroidLost. Both of them are worth considering.

Apple’s Find My Phone is a simple remedy to find a iPhone and is found on iCloud. Yes, iCloud has hit a few major bumps in the silicon road— the hacking of celebrity files—but unless you’re backing up trade secrets it’s fine to use for its free 5gig storage and the Find My Phone feature. In Apple’s case, however, and with most cellphones, they can’t be located if they are not turned on.

Of course, if your cellphone is stolen—and 3.1 million were stolen last year—it’s a different story. Here’s a good list of steps to take.

Do yourself a favor. Don’t be like me. Get a tracking app and back up your contact list, and check your insurance plan while you’re at it.

And finally, if you are ever traveling in remote areas, backpacking or skiing alone, and since cellphone tracking is only as good as its battery life, you might consider an auxiliary, like this.

In the meantime, keep writing your plans for world peace. Just make sure it’s backed up.