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I recently had a Windows Phone stolen. I didn't see an obvious "to do" checklist here so I thought I would create one.
Before you lose it...
1. Activate the "find my phone" feature from your windows live settings.
After you lost it... (My Lost \ Stolen Phone Checklist) ...
ON PHONE WITH CARRIER
2. Call your carrier from another phone. Don't deactivate your phone. Tell the rep that you want to limit the purchases from your phone as well as outbound calls and texts from your phone. If you use AT&T explain your situation and see if they will activate "Smart Limits" and credit you for the month. Don't forget to remove this feature later.
3. If you have insurance or a carrier purchased location service you might want to ask about it while you are on. I don't.
4. If you are the administrator of a multi-phone account, you might want to move administrative rights to another phone on the account.
5. You might want to ask about the last calls, texts and purchases on your phone.
ONLINE
6. Login to your carrier smart limits or similar. Allow phone calls to maybe one specific number - a friend maybe. Block all other outbound calls. Block outbound texts. Setup a PIN for charging anything to the phone.
7. If you use any exchange accounts, login to each account web exchange settings and request a remote wipe of the device from each.
8. Login to your windows account. (https://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/my/find) See if the phone's current location helps you locate the phone.
9. Lock your phone and send a message to whoever has it. If you left one number unblocked above, give them that number.
10. When you are sure you can't get your phone back, select wipe the phone.
11. Re-login to the carrier to check the call, purchase and text history for anything unauthorized.
I would attempt most of the above as quickly as you can. I am inclined to wait on the last step since I always have a few kids photos on the phone that won't have synced and I hold out hope that eventually the phone will get to someone who will try to return it. I think once you wipe it the lock message goes away.
ON PHONE WITH CARRIER (LATER)
12. Ask your carrier to block the IMEI from your old phone as stolen and remove the phone from your account.
13. Have the carrier remove "Smart Limits" or similar.
14. If you have a new phone, have it added.
15. Be more careful
Comments? Suggestions?
Hi++
Thanks for tips ! :good:
And sorry about your phone ,hope you find it soon :angel:
Hmmm first set a password for lock screen so no one can access your personal data if they find it?
Password it a defo must, course you will likely only have a few min before its hardreset and the sim removed in which case get that IMEI blacklisted...course its a easy to change that as well, so I guess you have to hope your thief is a complete idiot and doesn't do anything
Sent from my Samsung Focus S using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
OK,I bought my device in mid November for Xmas gift. Since the beginning of the year, I decided to use one of the perks. Low and behold I am charged. I try to contact the company involved and they say that they only provide a limited trial. But Samsung states the trial period is much longer. I contacted Samsung abouot my issue, and wonder what I was not sent during my registration. I own many Samsung devices and have had my account since late 2008. So I know my account registered the device and should have had some details in regards to perks. The only thing I got was a one time webpage with a Google play code for my credits, everything else was just unlinked information for all new subscribers to the perks.
Has anyone dealt with perks and have any ideas to resolve such issues? I don't want to be charged for something I am trying out.
Possible fix
Well, I finally an answer back from the second point of contact... they stated that they normally don't support tablet but offer support through phone service. Any way now I must call Samsung support to run through the issue one more time, so they can figure out what to do.
Some head way
OK, got done with my call to Samsung.
I learned not to register the device through your Samsung account devices page. I have many Samsung items through the years, as I had learned it is easy to go and register that way.
The proper link is http://www.samsung.com/us/register-for-your-galaxy-perks/#note-8 for the Note 8.0
Also for some odd reason they want a google email account, which I never had until after registering. Take note that if you have an existing Samsung account, the email address needed for registration completion is your gmail email address.
I wish web developers had a brain, this is not the first time I have seen such a broken way cross linking account information, just annoys the krappa out of me.
Now to fix the issue with Samung Link unable to fetch account authentication information with my Samsung account. Yes, I deleted and recreated the Samsung account many many times. Just another annoying issue. (
While waiting...
OK, while I had some time, I fixed my Samsung link issue... had to make it a system app. Samsung loaded PS Touch, and Samsung Link need to be kept as system apps. Though most of all the system apps can be removed and side loaded for Google Play to manage install/removal processes. I prefer it that way for reloads and memory management outside of using Titanium Backup. The less utilities to perform tasks the better. Somebody should do a right up on using built in function to perform most all needs, instead of finding more apps to do what you can do on your own and without rooting.
I doubt I'll ever fix the Video Hub issue... seems that it is getting info from Samsung servers about the device. If the device does not match the white list at the authentication server, your a no go at getting content. At one time the Note 8.0 was in the white list, now it looks like it is region select and will check firmware along with device.
I have an app to fake the ID and location, but Video Hub is not a concern just an odd app that has some interesting features that go beyond google play hardware requirements.
Woopie! )
Samsung got me my perks rewards resent to my email address. The Google account that I had to make since I did not use goodle before owning the Note 8.0.
Now I am going to redo my account on which I paid a months subscription, so I can apply my perks.
So as the title says, I have a family member who recently passed away over the weekend. The family is trying to access his phone for any pictures and videos of him with everyone. As of right now, we don't have any info about his Google account info. We're afraid to keep trying passwords in case it ends up wiping the data after a certain number of tries. I tried using Dr. Fone but the unlock software doesn't support this phone. Not sure what to do from here but I thought you guys might be able to help. Thanks, guys.
perhaps contact the local police to inquire if they have the capability to unlock the phone? They will probably require that you prove your relationship to the deceased which I don't think anyone on this forum could do. It's not that I don't believe you, but any creeper/theif/etc could say the same thing.
GL and sorry for your loss.
Sorry for your loss. If he had 2 step verification where you can send a text message to his cell phone #, you could do a Sim swap, pop the Sim in a phone that you have access to. Trigger the 2 step verification for forgot password and it might work.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
I'm so sorry for your loss, and Hope you'd recover the content without much of a hassle.
Good Luck!
You can force a factory reset...that will delete apps and texts and any unsaved pics from texts will be deleted....BUT....it will not delete any pics taken by the cam and saved to the phone.
Good luck and sorry for your lost.
Was he logged into Gmail on a computer? Could possibly go to Google Photos and check for backed up photos and videos.
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
sorry for your loss, I hope you can recover the photos.
1st: was already mentioned. sim swap
2nd: Try to sign into their google account. If you know their gmail (you should be able to figure this out pretty easily) and know them pretty well you can probably guess their password especially if you can remember an "old" password they've used because people are creatures of habit and reuse the same or variations of the same passwords for years. Or you can do the "forgot password" option
3rd have the legal rep ask google.
Google lets third parties request the content from a deceased user's account, but this must be requested by the deceased person's legal representative. The legal representative must upload a copy of their government-issued ID and a copy of the death certificate. Even then, there's no guarantee the legal representative will gain access.
If this works, the legal representative would be able to access data from the deceased user's Drive, Gmail, Blogger, Google+, Google Photos, YouTube and other services. But again, if the deceased user didn't back up any photos in the first place, getting into the cloud backup won't do any good.
https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?hl=en#ts=6357650
4th: okay, this one is a little macabre and you said password but I have 2 methods to get into mine so I figure I'd say it......sigh.............somehow before the funeral 1) find a way to be alone with your relative and see if either of their index fingerprints will work to unlock the phone OR 2) I GUESS you COULD ask the funeral director to unlock their phone using their fingerprints but I'm not sure how agreeable they'd be on that one.. Look, I know it's creepy but if the photos/vids are important then......sigh.....damn it sounds even more eff'd up reading it than it did in my head. Okay, sorry, I'll stop now....
good luck
First of all, I'm sorry for your loss...
I have some inquiries, and then a suggestion...
First, do you know if the former owner had "unlocked" or "rooted" the phone/device? When you turn the device on, is there a warning in the powering up process that "warns" about having an "unlocked bootloader"?
If it is unlocked and/or rooted, there are more/further options that can be done, but only if it is in this "state"...
And as for my suggestion...
You might be aware of how Apple and iPhones/iPads have a sort of "find my iphone" or "find my device" type of connection and protocol on their devices... I've personally used the "Android"/Google version (called Android Device Manager [or ADM for short]) of this to find the last location of my phone and to also ring it. But I have also noticed that they (Google) are constantly evolving it and later added a "lock" option. So, taking it a step further, I checked if there was possibly an "unlock" option; and there is! Again, I personally have never used it and do not know much about it. After some cursory reading, there are certain criteria that has to have been met while the original owner was using the phone; but if, by some amazing circumstance or miracle, things have been set up properly (and you know the deceased google account information/login), there's a good chance you might be able to get the phone unlocked. You can find the information all about this here: https://one.comodo.com/blog/itsm/unlock-your-android-device-using-android-device-manager.php
One additional thought I just thought of while writing this, along the lines of talking to Google and explaining the situation, even if you don't have the google account information/login, you might be able to obtain that information from them if the situation is explained and they have protocols for this type of situation.
Again, I'm sorry for your loss, and I hope this helps. Good luck to you...
A good friend of mine passed away last October and his Wife is trying to unlock his phone to see if there is any last messages or pictures she does not have. His phone is disconnected and has been off and not received an OST update since at least October 10 2019.
Here are a few idea's / things I have tried
1] Reached out to a friend that works at google and offered to provide a death certificate but was told under no circumstances would they unlock his account.
2] Tried to recover his gmail login because I have access to his secondary email account but he never used the google account to send emails so no idea what login his account is even under.
What I am looking for is any additional ideas or suggestions. I found a tool called Dr. Fone that sounds like it might be able to remove the PIN without wiping his phone. Has anyone used this app before and had luck? Are there any other ideas or workarounds I am not thinking of?
Thanks in advance
Dan
Unless the wife can remember his pin or his google account password you're likely out of luck. You might as well try the Dr. Fone software, though I've never heard of it, especially as Google will not help anyone for security reasons.
Curious
I can sometimes brake into my password in my cell by trying over a few times and causing a glitch, just try until it has an error. Also by any chance did she ever use a regular computer at her phone login or maybe send someone an email so you can at least get the address? If you can find the address it is usually pretty easy to get a password so if she had written it or sent an email or anything that is a great start.
You would have more luck with the Google in reality...starting here: https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590?hl=en#ts=6357650
Since this is the second similar post today, here's the embarrassing situation: recently went through a manic episode. My life imploded. A friend gave me first, this phone, then others her kids had ceased using, when I locked myself out of this one. I was using this phone, but was still very messed up, and, one night while falling asleep, I was messing with the pattern, and locked myself out, immediately forgetting the pattern. The phone was not connected to a SIM; I'd lost that in an earlier phone. I had put Samsung protection on it - not sure what level, as this was back in the fall, but I don't think it matters, especially as I remember from that same period that I must have used some odd password for my previous Samsung account, and had to create a new, and, at the time, was informed that, if I forgot the password, I was screwed...and I don't remember this new password, either. Had her dig up the Amazon receipt, a couple months back, thinking that directly contacting Samsung would be the most efficient way to overcome this issue (after becoming very quickly frustrated with research and attempts, all of which failed), but didn't get her to email it to me for God knows what specific reason, now, but what it comes down to is still being very messed up and paranoid. And now, a bit better, trying to get things on track, lo and behold, she is locked out of her Amazon account (ironically, I remember her finding the receipt; she does not, but I'm not the only one going through sh!t). So, what do I do? I've tried the combination of volume up and power key, as well as some others, and the best I could accomplish was actually getting the phone to turn off, but that didn't get me very far. Have to add, since I just thought to check, that I apparently have access to SOME Samsung account on desktop...but no device associated - no connected information, whatsoever. Using a Samsung account was something that only began, during the early stages of this most recent episode, and so I'm unfamiliar with all this, and am just f***ing lost, here. Please, someone, help.
https://account.samsung.com/accounts/v1/FMM2/findIdWithUserInfo
aIecxs said:
https://account.samsung.com/accounts/v1/FMM2/findIdWithUserInfo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice to finally get a reply. Thanks, and also for that link, which I wasn't aware of. I did discover a second account attached to my info that I didn't know about - unfortunately, there are two problems that result from this. One account was the one I mentioned at the bottom of the initial post, which has not a thing attached to it, in any way. The other is account is attached to a gmail account and I have no idea when this one was created - I wasn't aware of it, at all - and, just today (ironically), I went to log into that google account, and discovered I was locked out (oddly, as I've logged into it from this browser, and on this computer, before, and relatively recently, as well) and was given a run around to attempt to recover it, which I only managed to do by leaving the loop it had me in for another route of access. I am now waiting 48 hours for a reset?/access? email to arrive, which sucks for other reasons not associated with this particular issue. I was quite sure that the aforementioned account was the one associated with this phone. I genuinely don't believe it would have been the gmail account, not the least reason for which is that I have zero recall of it, whatsoever. If I turn out to be correct about this, and the gmail is NOT the account, could (would?) you (or anyone) possibly direct me to/assist me with another way to get into my phone?
Either way, thanks for the response. It's been a long while since I used this site, but I was beginning to think I wouldn't get a response, at all.
there is no other way to unlock than Samsung account.
I was apparently wrong. It wasn't associated with any Samsung account, no - but it was to my Google account. After sifting many YouTube videos - and failing - and searching all over the place, I finally found one that worked, and, when I tried my Google acount, I was in. Thank God. Thanks for the help, alecxs!
glad to hear. by any chance did you use the SECURE DEVICE option of https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager to unlock phone? Because last time I used this feature it was broken, and my understanding is that google deprecated any remote lock screen by-pass functionality. Would be nice to know what worked for you.