How would I find my phone if I didn't have a phone to find my phone with?

Kintarian@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 52 points –

Suppose I lost my phone and I could use find my phone to find it. The problem is I don't have my phone in order to find my phone with. I don't have a computer I don't have a laptop All I have is a phone. How on earth would I use find my phone to find my phone?

55

get to a web browser and go to www.icloud.com and then findmyphone app.

No computer though

Other people have computers - friends, family, etc.. Libraries, hotel and apartment lobbies, community centers, etc., frequently have them available for free use.

But remember to always use an incognito window and close it afterwards when using someone else's computer!

Go to a library or a friend or wherever you can access a computer. Even buy a prepaid phone with the least data you can get so it’s cheap, and use that to locate your phone.

Just for the sake of saying it, in this age it’s rather rare to find someone who has only one Internet connected device whatsoever. If that’s the case really, and it’s your phone, then you really need to have extra precaution. Get a cheap backup phone like an Android you can get for like $10 even a really good one. I buy and sell these they’re very cheap these days if you don’t need the best. Don’t have to have a cellular plan on it just keep it at home and you can get it from wherever you keep it and go to anywhere there’s wifi.

That's a good idea, just get a cheapo phone.

Yeah go on eBay and buy like a Samsung Galaxy one of the ones from a few years ago. Or an LG or a UMX or a ZTE or a Nokia. Any of those running a few Android versions back. You could get one that functions perfectly and other than being no competition to newer ones, they’re fully functional. Let me know if you decide you actually want to do this, I’ll hook you up with something cheap and reliable.

Don't lose it and you won't have this issue. So tape it to your thigh and you never forget your phone! :)

You would just have to find it...

Like, if you didn't have anything to use the app. You would just have to physically find it...

Same way you find anything else that doesn't have an app

I figured as much. I was hoping there was a workaround like I could call Apple or something.

Call them with what?

My account information

lol no I meant how you gonna call them without a phone?

Oh, I see what you mean. I suppose I could borrow someone's phone.

But if you could do that, you could use FindMyPhone.

They can only find android users

Edit: can you use find my iPhone on Android now?

Edit2: turns out yes, yes you can

I was under the impression it has a web interface.

I checked and it appears it does now. I suppose it's been a while since I've tried. Thanks.

You can't call Apple if you don't have a phone finding phone.

^I'll^ ^have^ ^whatever^ ^the^ ^OP^ ^is^ ^smoking...thanks^

There are more advanced ways to find a radio based on its emissions, but I believe that kind of test equipment and tech is well outside the scope of this question.

Borrow someone's computer? Use one at your local library?

I just thought of the library idea just before I clicked on this. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

Clearly they want you to buy a second phone that you can use to find your first phone. And a third of you lose the second.

That's capitalism - phones all the way down.

So, anyone with an android can let you use theirs and the "find device" app in guest mode. Your info won't be saved but that option is there for exactly your use case

It all starts with a dating app - find the person of your dreams, build a life together, have children, help them grow up, then ….. you have a house full of people with phones who can find your phone!

But more seriously: assuming Apple, I can find my phone from my iPad and from my Watch. I do also have the family set up as an iCloud family so that is easy as well. I expect any Siri device as well

If you use iCloud with a family plan you can use another family member’s phone to find your iPhone via Find My.

Uhm. Like this from any other computer that you may have, someone else may have, a public library may have, etc.

https://www.google.com/android/find

In general it's very strange to not have at least a company-issued work laptop or desktop at the office if you're an office worker, but I'm sure you could find a friend with a computer you could borrow, or go the library and use theirs.

Maybe this is culture shock because I feel like on Lemmy the average computers owned by a user is easily ~13 not counting old phones/tablets that may be 'broken' but could still be made to work temporarily or in a limited enough capacity to work in this use case and ofc aforementioned corpo machines.

I'm retired and while I do have a laptop, the laptop's only connection to the internet is through my phone. I'm generally way out in the woods somewhere. And the only connection I have is a cellular connection. I was mostly just curious what people would say.

If the phone isn't dead a Tile or similar device would help ring it.

I will have to look that up. I don't know much about tiles.

There may be better options now. I just appreciate being able to push a button on my keys or my wallet to find my phone. It's not the most reliable but it's worked enough to be worthwhile to me.

im pretty sure if I press my tile it will ring my phone

I looked that up. You can change the double press on the tile from SOS to ring my phone. That's pretty cool.

im not even sure sos was available back when I got them. I was leary because they seem costly for what they are but have to say saved me from losing my keys and I think my phone once for like a total of half a dozen times. Finding them quickly and with less stress. worth it. once was at a grocery store and the keys that had fell out were to far to hear but an employee started bringing them to the customer service desk when the xmass music started to play from it.

I used my PC to wake up my android phone; there a Google thing that will make it don't for five minutes even if it's on silent. The two times that wasn't easily accessible, I asked someone nearby to call my phone. Once I found it immediately; the other time, I found it later from the "missed call" beep.

You don't, if you have absolutely no way of accessing the internet or a phone network other than the phone you want to find, you're out of luck and have to find it manually.

Just login to google or apple on your smart fridge and look at the last GPS position there or ring it