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Want to track current location of your kid, family member or your own phone which is running on Android OS? It is not about installing another new app for this. Instead mere a Google account is sufficient for this. Read it out.

Before starting, please note that you can locate your device remotely only if it is powered on and has a data connectivity. If it is in airplane mode or switched off, the operation will not fail, but it will be executed next time the device comes online. Moreover that phone or tablet must be associated to the Google account you are accessing.

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Google has made it very easy to locate your owned devices from the web. You can even wipe your data if it is lost to prevent its misuse.

Part 1. Enable Access on the Device

On your mobile device, open Google Settings google-setting-icon from your device's apps panel.

Go to Android Device Manager (should be at the bottom of the list)

There will be two check boxes:

  • Remotely locate this device: Check this on to find your device location on Google Maps.
  • Allow remote lock and factory reset: Check this to have ownership of the device for locking it remotely. You will get remote access to change the lock screen password and even erase everything on it.

If it Android version 4.1 or higher, you have to also enable the access setting from Google Settings > Location > Access location

android-device-manager

Part 2. Setup Web Account

Go to google.com/android/devicemanager. The mail ID used in your device and this should be same.

After logging in, you will get a notification on the mobile devices linked with your Google Account. It will ask you to turn on Android Device Manager if not done already.

Very next after completing these, your device will become visible on Google Map there.

To see a list of all associated device, you can refer to play.google.com/settings

Part 3. Lock or Erase the Device

On the bottom of the device box shown on the device manager page, you will be having three options:

  • Ring: Clicking this will start ringing your device for 5 minutes - even if you have set the profile to silent or vibrate.
  • Lock: Lock your device with a new password.
  • Erase: Permanently delete all of your data.
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If you own more than one device, then you can also use Device Manager App for on the go management.