Hey guys, never really thought about it before because I'm a careful guy but I just gave my N4,to my little brother and now I'm curious, is there an app that can locate/lock/wipe/brick a phone remotely EVEN IF it lands in the capable hands of someone who could wipe/format it?
Obviously I'd prefer to be able to pinpoint it using forced GPS or forced internet regardless if the phone is set on location reporting off or data off. And would also like to only resort to the remote bricking as a last resort.
I've checked around and haven't been able to find any apps that fits my demanding request so I'm asking for a 'best fit' app that any of you all may know and free is always a plus
Tldr; is there an app that locates phones and devices if if its formatted or wiped?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Once wiped, whatever app you paid for or got for free, is... wiped, hence answering your question.
Sent from my Nexus 5
So no steal proof methods?
dynamo147 said:
So no steal proof methods?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than you pretty much opening your phone, hardwiring a microscopic device to the battery and hoping no one finds it? Nope. Not that I know of. I could be wrong.
That would be quite an interesting concept to have though. Maybe a partition that isn't user accessible and not wiped as part of a factory reset. I doubt most thieves will go into recovery and flash roms and modify partitions. LOL
I wonder how that kill switch Samsung or one of the manufacturers want/ed to or have already introduced works, i.e whether a device wipe disabled that feature.
A untouchable partition would be great, locked up by a user password, and ensuring constant validation and communication of each individual phone would be great since an imei # can only do so much
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Related
I just lost my Nexus S, it fell somewhere when i put it in my short's pocket
I want to say goodbye to NS developers and community with awesome supports, NS is an old device but still the best single core phone IMO.
And i need to know that is there anyway to access to my phone if i had locked my phone with pattern password?
Well, if they know anything about a rooted phone they could go into recovery, wipe, and flash again. Then they would have access to your SD card and a new phone. You didn't have any kind of app to remote wipe it?
I'm sure there's A way to access your phone, but I doubt it's of much concern.
If you used 2 step verification, you can go into your security settings from your Google account and revoke the application password for your phone. How useful that is depends on how reliant you were on Google though.
There are also "Plan B" apps that can help with locking down your phone I think, although they generally just help locate it.
climhz said:
I just lost my Nexus S, it fell somewhere when i put it in my short's pocket
I want to say goodbye to NS developers and community with awesome supports, NS is an old device but still the best single core phone IMO.
And i need to know that is there anyway to access to my phone if i had locked my phone with pattern password?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure about hacks to access your data, but they could wipe it and start fresh if they know how to get into the boot loader. They could possibly recover your SD contents after the wipe as well.
Would you not get another Nexus S 4G? They are very cheap and easy to find on Craigslist, at least in my city.
if they have to full wipe before access to my phone then it's ok, thank u all for replying
You should have had Cerberus, would look it up if I were you
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
Try androidlost I believe you can install it from your computer and than do anything you want. I hope it works as I am not sure you have to set it as administrator
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app
Login to play.Google.com and search for Plan B made by Lookout. Install it then you just text your phone find from any other phone and it will email you the location. I've used the app a couple times and it worked great.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app
Hi,
Recently my phone got stolen. It was HTC Desire. And I never thought it would happen, so was not prepared for it to happen.
And now in wake of that I was wondering what is the best mechanism available to recover lost phone.
To be precise, I am looking for something which will work even if thief removes the SIM, SDCard, does a factory reset, or install an entirely fresh ROM.
And if it could.. send an SMS/Email to a fixed destination (with phone number and GPS location) upon request/fixed-event in the background, it would be great.
So that virtually, the Phone would be unstealable as long as someone uses it with a new SIM(send SMS) or connects to internet (Email) even after wiping everything clean and installing a fresh ROM.
Complete protection is not possible, unless there is some option from the phone manufacturer build-in.
And I think even that can be circumvented.
However if your phone is rooted, you can install some apps which hide themselves and even survive a factory reset.
Lookout Security & Antivirus
Cerberus anti theft
And I think most thieves are not that smart to flash a new rom.
cool.aquarian said:
Hi,
Recently my phone got stolen. It was HTC Desire. And I never thought it would happen, so was not prepared for it to happen.
And now in wake of that I was wondering what is the best mechanism available to recover lost phone.
To be precise, I am looking for something which will work even if thief removes the SIM, SDCard, does a factory reset, or install an entirely fresh ROM.
And if it could.. send an SMS/Email to a fixed destination (with phone number and GPS location) upon request/fixed-event in the background, it would be great.
So that virtually, the Phone would be unstealable as long as someone uses it with a new SIM(send SMS) or connects to internet (Email) even after wiping everything clean and installing a fresh ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lizard said:
Complete protection is not possible, unless there is some option from the phone manufacturer build-in.
And I think even that can be circumvented.
However if your phone is rooted, you can install some apps which hide themselves and even survive a factory reset.
Lookout Security & Antivirus
Cerberus anti theft
And I think most thieves are not that smart to flash a new rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lizard is right. It's not possible to do what listed. Only way to make it unstealable is to chain it to yourself
It's pretty hard, unless the guy who's steals your phone is a noob
// sent from a galactic Ars Sss
Lizard said:
Complete protection is not possible, unless there is some option from the phone manufacturer build-in.
And I think even that can be circumvented.
However if your phone is rooted, you can install some apps which hide themselves and even survive a factory reset.
And I think most thieves are not that smart to flash a new rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Thief himself may not be that smart, but where I belong to, stealing phones is a well-known racket.
So they have people who specifically know how to handle stolen phones.
Plus the police/manufacturer/carrier here is not of much help afterwards to track the thief down or block the IMEI.
Thanks for the links. Though they may not be exactly what I am looking for, any level of protection is better than none.
I am hoping someday there could be a better means to have more control/personalization of phone at hardware level.
like permanently associating phone's hardware identity with the online profile of original owner.
Complete protection is not possible..
There are many apps that can give phones position by sending an sms but thief r smart..
First they do is a reset..
Sent from my GT-I9100G using xda app-developers app
I'd say you're looking at this the wrong way. Software to locate a stolen phone is a measure that can only possibly help if your phone has already been stolen.
Better to think about how your phone was stolen and what you can do to prevent that from happening. Stop it being stolen before it is actually out of your hands.
Buy a GPS locator and embed it into the phone physically, if anything small enough is even available to the average consumer...
It would have to be fed power from the battery as well, which is far from impossible of course, but still quite the ordeal.
And since your police is obviously useless, learn to fight or buy a gun
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
Pennycake said:
Better to think about how your phone was stolen and what you can do to prevent that from happening. Stop it being stolen before it is actually out of your hands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me.. in my case, the theft was done in a very planned way by two guys (with one guy distracting me, and other guy snipping-off the phone from within my car at a busy traffic signal...
More than losing the phone, I am pissed about how it all happened..
I was considering teach those fu**ers a good lesson.
Locking your phone in Ft. Knox would still have the potential of disappearing.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using xda app-developers app
So ups lost my phone during shipping, Google said they'd remotely deactivate it and sent me another, if the other were to show up, would it really be deactivated?
If it would, out if curiosity, how does that functionality work? Is that something in the bootloader? Or is it is os level stuff? Also, if someone did steal my phone, can they bypass it or are they dead on the water?
I find it really interesting that Google can do this
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Only thing I can think of is IMEI blacklisting. I don't think they have the ability to do any other kind of remote wiping and would venture to say the rep you talked with didn't know what they were talking about.
It's not just one rep it's the entire process
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
There is an option in "Google Settings", which could be used to remotely lock the device and clean all data. Maybe related to this?
Lock bootloader, clean EFS partition, etc all are "useful" for deactivation, but these seem too dangerous.
Can some one tell me what's this ? Sometimes happens when I unlock my phone
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
this is creepy.
Virus / Malware? Have you noticed any odd charges on your phone bill?
Kill it with factory images. Be careful what you download next time...
RoyJ said:
Virus / Malware? Have you noticed any odd charges on your phone bill?
Kill it with factory images. Be careful what you download next time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a new phone
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Well you're the one who came here asking for help.
I'm 99.999% positive that's not a feature enabled on the phone to brighten your day, but I could be wrong about that.
What does a new phone have to do with it? Nothing, that's what. If you take it out of the box and download an app that installs malware on your phone, then guess what? You have malware now. Viruses/malware/spyware/WHATEVER doesn't really care how old your phone is.
Download and install a virus scanner or flash factory images and start over. Next time be smart about what you download on your phone. Older phones aren't susceptible to viruses any more or less then new phones... -_-
It's not malware or virus or anything of that sort AFAIK... It's a carrier message which pops up when Data is enabled/disabled.. I've seen this kind of behavior in another thread.
However, it could also be an app which is causing this though as said in earlier posts.
Remove the sim card or put the phone in airplane mode and use it for a day. If the messages don't pop up then there's a good possibility that it's a carrier message!
Maybe your phone's alive!I guess it wants to talk with you!
Just kidding,I guess its something related to your carrier.
Wow that is super creepy. I don't know. I'm super paranoid as is Haha. I'd probably do with @RoyJ had described.. However I never encountered this.
Seeing a stupid comment on Google Play about an app you love and marking it as "spam". You've done it too.
Here you go: http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/quick-question-smiley-appearing-screen-t2779035
It's most probably a carrier message as I said earlier. There's no solution to it as it's being sent by your carrier. Changing the runtime to ART was a temporary solution which the OP of that thread found!
Download Air Push Detector and run it...
I'm in desperate need of help and this forum was recommended. Im a nurse, not a techie so bare with me. Going on almost 1 yr of every device, every acct...my whole life hacked. Its a very long story but somehow all my devices end up rooted with Busy Box installed. I never even knew what either meant. So, the 1st time Verizon thought i did it by mistake. 6 phones later...Im a genius, a special kind of stupid...or someone clearly hates me and is determined to make me lose my mind. HELP!!!!
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hackedchick said:
I'm in desperate need of help and this forum was recommended. Im a nurse, not a techie so bare with me. Going on almost 1 yr of every device, every acct...my whole life hacked. Its a very long story but somehow all my devices end up rooted with Busy Box installed. I never even knew what either meant. So, the 1st time Verizon thought i did it by mistake. 6 phones later...Im a genius, a special kind of stupid...or someone clearly hates me and is determined to make me lose my mind. HELP!!!!
Sent from my N800 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And what's the question?
The question is, how is someone doing this to my phones. I have seen plenty of posts where people are inquring how to root and install busybox. So the likelyhood of someone like me "accidentally" doing this to one phone is pretty much impossible. But 6??? I downloaded the busybox installer. Chose the option to remove it from my system. Factory reset. Downloaded the app again. It still says im rooted and still have busybox installed. I changed phones, carriers, phone numbers. Nothing works.
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Sent from my N800 using XDA Free mobile app
hackedchick said:
Sent from my N800 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is just 2 possible solutions:
1) Someone has physical access to your phones and like to play with them
2) You're buying already rooted phones
hackedchick said:
--snip-a-bit-- Going on almost 1 yr of every device, every acct...my whole life hacked. Its a very long story but somehow all my devices end up rooted with Busy Box installed. --snip--
Sent from my N800 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats tech-support here - PI next door.
You may be installing software that can root the phone without you knowing, or maybe buying rooted phones. Leave the BusyBox Installer uninstalled. It may somehow be rooting you. Install security software on your phone and it will usually tell you about root. And when getting a new phone, only download apps from the Google Play Store, and nowhere else. Any shady apps should be avoided on the Play Store.
Sent from the LG G2
somebody has access to it
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app
hackedchick said:
The question is, how is someone doing this to my phones. I have seen plenty of posts where people are inquring how to root and install busybox. So the likelyhood of someone like me "accidentally" doing this to one phone is pretty much impossible. But 6??? I downloaded the busybox installer. Chose the option to remove it from my system. Factory reset. Downloaded the app again. It still says im rooted and still have busybox installed. I changed phones, carriers, phone numbers. Nothing works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a couple of other options you need to look into. Once someone have compromised your gmail (or any other email) accounts you're using with your phone, there is really no telling what they can install remotely. However, the few most important aspects are:
Don't ever buy a used or opened-box phone from some "friendly guy who has one too many".
Don't ever let your phone out of sight, where you cannot be sure nobody can touch it.
Don't ever let some un-professional service center handle your phone, especially after you've already been there.
Also, it is clear from your picture that you seem to be a rather attractive woman. This is also a disadvantage, since unfortunately there are a lot of creepy guys out there, with nothing better to do that to try to get some sneak shots and personal info from tech-innocent nurses. I advice you to find a hacker girlfriend to help you find out who's spying on you.
Good luck!