No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world Kintarian @lemmy.world 1 mo. ago

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

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 comments

Just login to google or apple on your smart fridge and look at the last GPS position there or ring it
- That's a cool idea
My wife would say, “Did you look?”
- Are we married to the same woman?
  
  I haven't been out of my basement in a while, you might be upstairs right now.
- Manlook!
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.
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! :)
- Good plan. I'm on board with this plan!
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?
  
  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.
- I knew it!
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
- Nice
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
I can find my phone with my watch.
If you use iCloud with a family plan you can use another family member’s phone to find your iPhone via Find My.
Ask someone else with a phone.

Use a library/work computer.

I'm pretty sure a phone store of your carrier could also help you. I'm 99% positive I've seen them advertising such support at my local TMO.
- I bet your provider probably has some way to help you find your device.
  
  They can triangulate you to within a building, maybe even a specific room, but they won't unless you're with the authorities and have a warrant. There's a small exception to that, some American carriers are known to sell live location data to bounty hunters, but you'd have to pay more than the price of a new phone to get access to that.
  
  Still won't help you find your phone if it's slid under a cupboard, though. But if you can reach your carrier, you can call your phone.
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.
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 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.
I always have a tablet or an old phone lying around.
Give me your number and I will call you
- 666
Do you have a watch?
- Nope
I use my watch

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