Losing Your Smartphone Outdoors

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Nancy Hart, Apr 10, 2019.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    In order for the “Find my Phone” app to work, you still have to have another device to locate it with. If Nancy can still get the free phone, she would not have to activate it, and can just use it with WiFi like you would use a tablet.
    It would still work fine for locating her lost phone, she just would not be able to make phone calls with it unless it was activated as a phone.

    If you look in “settings”, @Nancy Hart , it should show you if your phone has an equivalent to the Apple Find my iPhone capability, and then if you have a second phone, you should be able to use that to locate the lost one, even if it is not activated with cell service.

    Your Samsung probably has a hot spot (instant cell connection) that you could use to have WiFi on the second phone when you were out in the woods, so it would always be able to connect with the other phone.
    If you can get the free phone, this (along with a phone holster of your choice) should solve the problem with the least amount of expense , as well as being the most simple solution.
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Yes, I mentioned that another device would be needed as the tracker. Also the Find my Phone can't pinpoint the location, only gives a general area which might not be very effective in the woods. There also may be connectivity issues.

    I like using Find my iPhone because I can see where my husband's phone is, haha. I can watch it driving down the interstate on the little map.
     
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It actually shows pretty close to where everything is, and I think that it would help enough to locate a phone, even in the woods.
    Here is a screenshot that I took, and you can see that everything shows right around our house, except for Bobby’s iPad, which for some reason is showing up as across the street at this moment, even though it is right here, too.

    68AE5C53-6619-474B-95CF-4B1FDB8EB75E.jpeg
     
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  4. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Yep; but if that was in the woods, a phone is mighty small to locate. :D My husband's phone fell out of his pocket at a gas station about 7 miles from here one time. I knew it was at the gas station but that's about it. Thankfully someone had picked it up and taken it inside to the cashier.
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I agree with you, @Beth Gallagher , and that is why I think that having some kind of a phone case or holster to attach it to her and not lose it, is the most important and best solution, and if you can’t make it ring, then it would be hard to find a phone lost in thick woods, even if you were almost on top of it.
    But since she has a lot of land that it could be lost in, it would make sense to have the other phone (if free) to help her locate the phone if it did get lost. She could at least get close to the lost phone in her search.
     
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  6. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    In my case, there was never a reason to carry around a phone, and this is why I'll never lose one!

    Hal
     
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  7. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Bobby Cole
    Now if I shared THAT phone, I'd be grabbing at it hungrily to get my hands on it!
    Frank
     
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  8. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    In my case, loss of a cell phone would represent only monetary loss; nothing of any particular value would depart with it.

    Life never did remain simple, but I try to divert that trend which in recent years has driven it more and more complicated.
    Frank
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    On Monday, we made our monthly trip to Sam’s Club, and I somehow lost my phone out of my purse.
    I still have no idea exactly how, where, or why I lost it; but the last place I remembered using it was out in the truck, so when i discovered it was gone out of my purse, that was where we looked.
    Both Bobby and I looked everywhere, and no sign of my phone, and since I keep it on vibrate, calling my number didn’t help either.
    Next , we looked at the Find Friends app on Bobby’s phone, and it showed my phone as being inside of Sam’s Club somewhere. I went dashing in, and up to the customer service desk, and asked them if they had a cell phone in a pink case.
    When they pulled it out of the drawer, I was so tickled, I was almost in tears ! !
    I guess that it somehow must have fallen out of my purse somehow, and thankfully, whoever found it, took it into the store and turned it in.
     
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  10. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith
    Quite a few years ago, my wife's folks visiting us in Phoenix, they stopped for lunch at a Burger King, which happened to be located in the worst possible part of the Phoenix Ghetto, South Phoenix. They didn't know. I was back home from work when they returned to our house, my wife not yet home. Suddenly her Mom became highly agitated; she had left her purse at the Burger King! She went into hysterics, wife's Dad Kenny trying to calm her down. I pulled out the big Phoenix directory, by then 4 inches thick, called that restaurant. A very courteous young man said the purse had been turned in, but they were awaiting a call or caller, reluctant they were to open the purse! The folks went and retrieved it; nothing had been touched!

    When we bought our place, we were chided and warned by co-workers advising us to not move to any area south of the Salt River. We did anyway. Never regretted it.
    Frank
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I haven't lost my phone yet but I dropped a camera in a beaver pond a few years ago. Since I don't usually carry it with me, I misplace my iPhone all the time, but not in the woods. I just have my wife call it and track it down by the ring. Once I left it out in the garden, where I had taken it out of my pocket while I was weeding or something. It was out there all night but, fortunately, it didn't rain and it was fine.
     
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  12. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    I finally got to Walmart tonight, and the only thing they had was a plastic case for $20, and it didn't say how it opened, if at all, and of course you are "strongly discouraged" to open packages at our Walmart. Didn't have any kind of belt clip either.

    Instead I bought some two-sided grip tape. I'll work with that. I've already dropped the thing a dozen times, and it has a small chip on the screen.

    Alternatively out in the woods, I could tie a short rope around my waist and leave the phone in the golf cart. If I cut off my foot I could use the rope as a tourniquet, hop to the cart, and make a phone call. That might be easier than getting it out of my pocket with duct tape. (just kidding ;))
     
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    Last edited: Apr 23, 2019
  13. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Glad you found your phone @Yvonne Smith. I had that happen with a credit card once. Someone turned it in to a store. They searched through a whole box full of cards people had lost to find it.
     
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  14. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Nancy Hart
    Your good luck is lucky!
    Frank
     
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  15. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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