Find a Lost Company Phone Without Tracking Employees

You can find a lost company phone without tracking your employees by using a tool that only collects location after you report the phone lost. In NounDesk, that is lost mode. Turn it on and the phone locks with your message, starts reporting where it is, and builds a trail you can open in Google Maps. Turn it off and location stops. Outside lost mode, NounDesk does not collect location at all.

That split matters to the people carrying the phones, and it is enough to get most lost phones back.

The phone left in a taxi

It is Thursday evening. A sales rep takes a taxi from the airport, gets out at home, and realises at the front door that her work phone is on the back seat. She calls you from her personal phone.

You have two worries. The first is the phone: it has the CRM, her email and the customer list. The second is the person: she is embarrassed, and she will remember how this goes.

A lot of small business owners think the answer is to have tracking on all the time, so the location is always there when they need it. It sounds sensible until you ask staff how they feel about their boss being able to see where they are every evening. Most of them would rather you could not. So would most owners, once they think about it.

You do not need it. A phone only needs to report its location after it is lost.

How lost mode works

Lost mode does three things at once.

It locks the phone with your message. The screen shows the text you write, such as your company name and a number to call. The finder sees who it belongs to instead of a blank lock screen. Only an administrator can end lost mode.

It starts reporting location. While lost mode is on, the phone reports where it is. On the device’s Security tab, the Location card shows where it last reported, how accurate that was and its battery level, with an Open in Google Maps link.

It builds a trail. Open trail in Google Maps shows a route through the phone’s last 20 lost-mode reports. If the taxi has done three more fares since, you can see where it went, not just the last dot.

When the phone is found, you select End lost mode. The phone unlocks for normal use and location reporting stops.

When a lost phone goes quiet

A dead battery is the most common reason a lost phone vanishes. So is someone switching it off.

If a phone in lost mode has not reported for more than an hour, NounDesk warns you that it may be switched off, out of signal or out of battery. That tells you something useful: the last point on the trail is probably where it is now, and that is the place to go or the address to give the taxi company.

The setting that keeps location available

Lost mode can only report a location if the phone’s location setting is on. If an employee has switched location off on a work phone, a lost phone cannot say where it is.

Each security policy has a Location services setting with three options:

• Employee decides: the employee chooses in the phone’s settings.
• Always on (recommended for lost devices): location stays switched on, so a lost phone can report.
• Always off: location is off, and a lost phone cannot report where it is.

Always on keeps the phone’s location switch on. It does not mean NounDesk collects location all the time. NounDesk still only receives a location while the phone is in lost mode. That is worth saying to staff in exactly those words, because “location always on” sounds like tracking if nobody explains it.

How to set it up in NounDesk

Do the first part now, before anything goes missing.

1. Set location services. Go to Security policies, open the policy, and set Location services to Always on. Publish the policy.

Then, when a phone is lost (Owners, Admins and Operators can do this):

2. Turn on lost mode. Open the device and select Lost mode. Write the Message on the lock screen, for example “This phone belongs to Riverside Plumbing”.
3. Add contact details. Add a Phone number to call and an Email to contact if you want them, then select Turn on lost mode.
4. Check the location. On the Security tab, use Open in Google Maps for the latest report, or Open trail in Google Maps to see the route.
5. End it when found. Select End lost mode.

The full steps are in the lost devices docs.

Honest limits

No live tracking. Lost mode shows the phone’s reports as they come in. It is not a moving dot you follow in real time, and NounDesk does not draw zones or alert you when a phone enters or leaves an area.

No location history from before. Because NounDesk collects nothing outside lost mode, there is no record of where the phone was before you reported it lost. The trail starts when lost mode starts.

A phone that is off cannot report. Lost mode starts the next time the phone connects. Until then, you will see that NounDesk is waiting for the device.

Location services set to Always off means no location. If you choose that option for a team, lost mode can still lock the phone, but it cannot tell you where it is.

If it does not come back

Give it a day if the phone is locked and somewhere plausible. If it is not coming back, erase it. You type the device name to confirm, and factory reset protection stays on, so the phone will not set up again without one of your company’s Google accounts. The order to do things in is set out in our post on what to do in the first hour after a work phone is lost.

What to do this week

1. Set Location services to Always on in each policy where phones leave the building.
2. Write your lock screen message now. Company name, a number someone will answer, and a thank you. Keep it in a note so you can paste it in.
3. Tell staff how location works. One line: “Location is only collected if the phone is reported lost and put in lost mode, and the lock screen will show our message.” Our post on what MDM can and cannot see is a good one to share.
4. Practise once. Put a spare phone in lost mode, open the trail, then end lost mode. It takes five minutes and you will be calmer when it is real.

FAQ

Can I find a lost company phone without tracking my employees?

Yes. NounDesk collects location only while a phone is in lost mode. You turn lost mode on when the phone goes missing, follow its trail in Google Maps, and turn it off when it is found.

Can I see where an employee’s phone is right now?

Not unless it is in lost mode. NounDesk does not collect location in normal use, and there is no live tracking.

What if the lost phone’s battery dies?

NounDesk warns you if a phone in lost mode has not reported for more than an hour. The last point on the trail is then the best place to look.

Why would I set location services to Always on?

So a lost phone can report where it is. The setting keeps the phone’s location switch on, but NounDesk still only receives a location while the phone is in lost mode.

For how lost-device recovery fits with the rest of a small fleet, see our guide to Android MDM for small business and the lost-device recovery feature page.

If you want a way to get lost phones back that your staff will not mind, try NounDesk and set your lock screen message today.