Phone theft is something no-one looks forward to. Our whole lives so revolve around our smartphones now that having your phone stolen could mean your private, personal, maybe even sensitive, data gets into the wrong hands. One thing phone thieves do right after nicking your phone is to switch it off. Thankfully, there is a way to prevent your Samsung phone from turning off if it is stolen.
In addition, this hack also prevents the robber from turning off the mobile data of your Samsung phone. Preventing your Samsung phone from turning off and preventing mobile data from turning off will buy you some time to trace the phone and perhaps get it retrieved. There are no guarantees, but why not?
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How to prevent your Samsung phone from turning off if it is stolen
- Go to your Android phone’s settings
- Then look for the “Lock screen” section.
- Then click on “Secure Lock Setting”.
- You will be prompted to enter a security PIN, password, or pattern to continue.
- The first thing to do is change the settings of the “Auto lock when screen turns off” menu. Change it to “Immediately”. That way, your phone is locked immediately the screen goes off.
- Next, activate the “Lock instantly with Side key” option. As a habit, every time I want to put my phone away, I tap the Side/power key to lock it. It is a security habit you should implement too.
That is it. If someone makes away with your phone, they cannot power it off without unlocking it. Of course, the phone will eventually turn off if left alone, due to battery drain. But that is precious time that you can put to good use in tracking and retrieving it.
There is one other thing, though. The software that helps you track your phone requires an Internet connection. As such, if the thief is able to turn off mobile data, your phone becomes untraceable. Again, you can do something about that: prevent your mobile data on your Samsung phone from being turned off. Let me show you how.
How to prevent mobile data on your Samsung phone from turning off if it is stolen
- Go to your Samsung phone’s settings.
- Then look for the “Lock screen” menu.
- Then click on “Secure Lock Setting”.
- You will be prompted to enter a security PIN, password, or pattern to continue.
- Toggle the “Lock network and security” option to enable it.
What you have done now makes sure that no-one can turn off your Samsung phone’s mobile data without first entering the phone’s security PIN or password.
Now that you have taken steps to prevent your Samsung phone from turning off if stolen, as well as prevent mobile data from being turned off, do not forget to enable Find My Device, a feature that makes it possible to pinpoint the exact location of your Android smartphone as long as it is connected to the Internet.
Open your Settings and search for “Find My Device” tap on it to open the menu and toggle the button to enable it. You will then be able to locate your Samsung phone if you lose it. You will also be able to reset it so your precious information on the phone is kept away from bad actors. To track it, get a laptop or another phone where you can sign into your Google account and browse to google.com/android/find/.
Way back from the days of EPOC, Symbian, Palm, PocketPC/Windows Mobile, BlackBerry/BB10, webOS, Windows Phone, Firefox, Ubuntu Touch, to Android, iOS, and KaiOS operating systems, founder of MobilityArena, Mister Mobility, has owned a few hundred smartphones and tablets, and counting.