Can anyone give recommendations for anti-theft software, specifically one that will take photos of the thief, give location, and also survive a phone factory reset? I also want some advice on perhaps activating features of the anti-theft software using Tasker, on a timer of sorts if the phone spends >12hrs away from my home wifi network.
Anyone want to tell me about their set-up, positive or negative points about the software that they have used/do use?
setspeed said:
Can anyone give recommendations for anti-theft software, specifically one that will take photos of the thief, give location, and also survive a phone factory reset? I also want some advice on perhaps activating features of the anti-theft software using Tasker, on a timer of sorts if the phone spends >12hrs away from my home wifi network.
Anyone want to tell me about their set-up, positive or negative points about the software that they have used/do use?
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You could try Cerburus from Play, but if the thief flashes a stock image and erases userdata then no software is installed anymore and the anti-theft software is no longer active. Google has android device manager now where you can track, disable and wipe your phone/tablet. Its in the settings of the Play Store on your PC.
Cerberus is the best bet.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
+1 for Cerberus! Well established!!
i think if you loose your phone or gets stolen, you should know fairly quickly
at that point you should get yourself to a web browser ASAP and get to Android Device manager and lock your device.
a "smart" thief will likely get ur phone wiped ASAP and at that point it wont matter what software you have...your SOL
a "dumb" thief will go home and mess with it to see what you got (which will then give you the time you need to lock it and locate it)
A friend of mine used Android Device Manager to track his Note 3 down to 11m accuracy, and he did eventually get his phone back by knocking on doors. However when I've tested ADM I've found that it won't work at all unless Location Mode is set to 'High accuracy' - which on my N5 absolutely destroys my battery within 12hrs. If I'm going to have that turned on, then I want pics of the thief as well as a limited time window before the phone dies. Ideally, I'd like some control over when the phone switches into Location 'High accuracy' - such as being away from home too long (or when I finally receive my NFC Ring, a condition of 'no communication with the ring for 2hrs' perhaps).
I'm kind of resigned to the fact that if the thief has the knowledge to flash a stock image then I'm never getting the phone back. I think that's pretty unlikely in the case of most thieves, so is there any software that can survive the basic 'Factory data reset'? Device Manager wouldn't work if the phone is reset I don't think, because my Google account would no longer be associated with the phone. I'd prefer some solution which is tied to the hardware (IMEI?) somehow.
use Cerberus then. it has all the functions you want.
Yup, about anything you try to use will take a chunk of battery life.
Personally, I don't use anything. If I leave it around and it walks away , so be it. Live and learn. Lol. I know the swat team isn't going to surround a location that these apps say my phone is at...and knocking on doors asking people if they took my phone would more than likely result in a lot of no's.....or much worse.
I wouldn't sacrifice my awesome battery life for a very slight chance of recovering my phone....especially since its quite easy for a thief to just turn it off...and wipe it at his leisure. If he knows anything about phones.
But, to each their own. It is built in as others have said....and there's many other apps too. I'd Google "best blah blah blah" to see reviews of the good ones.
Sent from my N5, N7, Moto X, G Tab 3 or S2.....
Cerberus
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
kj2112 said:
Yup, about anything you try to use will take a chunk of battery life.
Personally, I don't use anything. If I leave it around and it walks away , so be it. Live and learn. Lol. I know the swat team isn't going to surround a location that these apps say my phone is at...and knocking on doors asking people if they took my phone would more than likely result in a lot of no's.....or much worse.
I wouldn't sacrifice my awesome battery life for a very slight chance of recovering my phone....especially since its quite easy for a thief to just turn it off...and wipe it at his leisure.
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Luckily I know someone who works for the local police and he certainly would take a couple of colleagues to an address if I asked him to
Also, I hope to mitigate the battery impact by only enabling location features in conjunction with Tasker and NFC Ring, so day to day my battery life isn't going to take a hit.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
setspeed said:
A friend of mine used Android Device Manager to track his Note 3 down to 11m accuracy, and he did eventually get his phone back by knocking on doors. However when I've tested ADM I've found that it won't work at all unless Location Mode is set to 'High accuracy' - which on my N5 absolutely destroys my battery within 12hrs. If I'm going to have that turned on, then I want pics of the thief as well as a limited time window before the phone dies. Ideally, I'd like some control over when the phone switches into Location 'High accuracy' - such as being away from home too long (or when I finally receive my NFC Ring, a condition of 'no communication with the ring for 2hrs' perhaps).
I'm kind of resigned to the fact that if the thief has the knowledge to flash a stock image then I'm never getting the phone back. I think that's pretty unlikely in the case of most thieves, so is there any software that can survive the basic 'Factory data reset'? Device Manager wouldn't work if the phone is reset I don't think, because my Google account would no longer be associated with the phone. I'd prefer some solution which is tied to the hardware (IMEI?) somehow.
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install tasker... set a task upon receiving a key word text to change the settings... u can send a text to the phone when u loose it, enable high accuracy and use device manager to find it
i have it on high accuracy all the time and i got to say, that it doesnt impact my battery when on idle... only ingress is the only batt hog
Your Tasker plan won't work. Airplane mode or simply turning the phone off is all that's needed. Even Cerberus has very little chance at recovering your phone and it sounds like the best option available.
Most would be thieves have heard of stolen devices taking their picture by now.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
setspeed said:
Can anyone give recommendations for anti-theft software, specifically one that will take photos of the thief, give location, and also survive a phone factory reset? I also want some advice on perhaps activating features of the anti-theft software using Tasker, on a timer of sorts if the phone spends >12hrs away from my home wifi network.
Anyone want to tell me about their set-up, positive or negative points about the software that they have used/do use?
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Click to collapse
I am using the paid version of Cerberus , Its fine, it doesn't take up much of battery. You can try the AndroidLost App as well. Yes but hopefully all this would work if the thief don't have the technical means or knowledge of flashing a device.:good:
There are apps which prevent your phone from powering off when on the lock screen. They are xposed modules, xgels is one of them. Use that with a pin code, combined with Cerberus and that should give you the time to track your phone if stolen before the thief can flash it. And as for battery my phone is always on high accuracy, and my battery life is amazing. I run stock Rom and kernel, rooted with xposed and lux.
bblzd said:
Your Tasker plan won't work. Airplane mode or simply turning the phone off is all that's needed.
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in which case no plan will work.
cnstarz said:
in which case no plan will work.
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Cerberus can send commands to your phone in those cases. Still might not help much
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
bblzd said:
Cerberus can send commands to your phone in those cases. Still might not help much
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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cerberus can't send commands to your phone if your phone is in airplane mode or turned off...
Lokke9191 said:
There are apps which prevent your phone from powering off when on the lock screen. They are xposed modules, xgels is one of them. Use that with a pin code, combined with Cerberus and that should give you the time to track your phone if stolen before the thief can flash it. And as for battery my phone is always on high accuracy, and my battery life is amazing. I run stock Rom and kernel, rooted with xposed and lux.
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This sounds quite nice. I'm willing to stop using Nova and go back to Google Now launcher if I can get this working - but I've downloaded XGELS and cannot find the option to prevent phone being powered off? Could you (or anyone) point me to the exact setting?
setspeed said:
This sounds quite nice. I'm willing to stop using Nova and go back to Google Now launcher if I can get this working - but I've downloaded XGELS and cannot find the option to prevent phone being powered off? Could you (or anyone) point me to the exact setting?
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Good morning. Sorry about that it's not in xgels, my mistake. That feature is in the xposed module called advanced power menu.
I was a huge nova/apex user on my old devices, but I love the okay Google feature. I use xgels to hide the Google search bar on the home screen. So you can get that screen real estate back and still use okay Google. I hide the dock as well, it's great. Basically with the combination of xgels and gravity box, tinted status bar, and a couple other xposed modules you can have all the features of nova/apex and still use the okay Google feature. Which I find awesome.
Avast! anti-theft has an option to remain enabled after a hard reset or after flashing a CM rom.
since i have installed APM'advanced power menu' on my Xgo 4.1.2, i realized what would happen if my device get lost or stolen with pattern unlock on or moreever with anti-theft function enabled by the app?then this made me create this toppic thinking would become a good idea.
I asked this from the dev but also your ideas would be welcome...
(which one would you preffer ?
having :
-pattern/pin code set on ,then accept this risk that may your device get suddenly re-flashed or thrown away or atleast shutdown(out of power) for long time by the theft?
Or
-nothing on (or just swipe to unlock) and let the theft to easily use your phone then may getting chance to track him/her by any third party pre-installed device-tracker app?)
i myself have choosed to set swipe ,plus of its fascilities its more reasonable for me.
So how about you?
Excuse my bad English
ahmad990 said:
since i have installed APM'advanced power menu' on my Xgo 4.1.2, i realized what would happen if my device get lost or stolen with pattern unlock on or moreever with anti-theft function enabled by the app?then this made me create this toppic thinking would become a good idea.
I asked this from the dev but also your ideas would be welcome...
(which one would you preffer ?
having :
-pattern/pin code set on ,then accept this risk that may your device get suddenly re-flashed or thrown away or atleast shutdown(out of power) for long time by the theft?
Or
-nothing on (or just swipe to unlock) and let the theft to easily use your phone then may getting chance to track him/her by any third party pre-installed device-tracker app?)
i myself have choosed to set swipe ,plus of its fascilities its more reasonable for me.
So how about you?
Excuse my bad English
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Click to collapse
I think it depends on what kind of data you store on your phone. If there is data from my company or private photos and such I want my device encrypted and locked up, because I don't want that persons other than me are able to get this data. But that is a personal decision. Also I think as a thief I would check the phone and if there is no interesting data I would factory reset it, if there is a screen lock or not.
Is they're a shortcut or something I can place on my home screen to disable smart lock? Normally I want it unlocked with my smart watch, but when I'm at work I leave my phone on the desk when I go help patients. But I don't want my nosy co workers to go through it. Do I want the pattern lock to always be on at work. Any thought? Did I miss anything in tasker?
No answers in 24 hours probably means that people (like me...) don't understand the question. I don't use Smart Lock myself, since I prefer to have total control of my device, but surely the entire point of it that if you walk away from it out of Bluetooth range then it locks itself? So your co-workers can't go through it (and what sort of people do you work with anyway...?)
Am I misunderstanding? Have you tried leaving your Bluetooth watch far away to see if the phone can be opened without the Bluetooth connection or password?
No it works correctly I'd i walk far away. But I work at a hospital and a patients room is sometimes is very close, so it will still be unlocked if I leave it at the nurses station. I've never seen anyone try to go through my, phone, but I'm paranoid though lol. I just need to find an app or maybe secure settings app to disable smart lock with a shortcut on the home screen
You can tap the lock on the bottom of the lock screen to lock the screen despite smartlock being on.
But then I have to do it every time I unlock my phone. The power button doesn't lock it
Just for clarification this is what I'm looking to toggle on and off. Can't find it in tasker or anything, so for now I'm just used any cut to take me to security settings.
My last phone you couldn't turn off, reboot, or change network settings while the phone is locked. This is a very useful feature as if your phone "walks away" tracking cannot be disabled so as long as your battery is not dead you have full tracking abilities.
I did notice this feature seems to work with GPS. If you try to toggle, it will prompt for a password but that alone isn't enough to track it. I need to lock mobile data as well. I could probly just remove it from my notification tray but that is an inconvenience as I do use that toggle.
Any Ideas?
Username5.2 said:
My last phone you couldn't turn off, reboot, or change network settings while the phone is locked. This is a very useful feature as if your phone "walks away" tracking cannot be disabled so as long as your battery is not dead you have full tracking abilities.
I did notice this feature seems to work with GPS. If you try to toggle, it will prompt for a password but that alone isn't enough to track it. I need to lock mobile data as well. I could probly just remove it from my notification tray but that is an inconvenience as I do use that toggle.
Any Ideas?
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Not all devices have added those as all it takes to beat them is removing the sim card and all android devices will reboot if the power button is held for an extended time.
Well I thought about the reboot and it will boot back up so I didn't see that as a problem. Didn't think about the sim card though. Well lets just hope if someone gets a hold of my phone they won't think about it either. Anything I can do to make it harder is still worth it.
Oh well. If someone has a way to make this happen please share. I don't even know if its something I can make happen with an app or by editing anything in the android system. I will keep looking in the mean time.
Username5.2 said:
Well I thought about the reboot and it will boot back up so I didn't see that as a problem. Didn't think about the sim card though. Well lets just hope if someone gets a hold of my phone they won't think about it either. Anything I can do to make it harder is still worth it.
Oh well. If someone has a way to make this happen please share. I don't even know if its something I can make happen with an app or by editing anything in the android system. I will keep looking in the mean time.
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I can tell you that there are 3 steps when a device is stolen and the first one is remove the battery and the second is remove the sim card so no one can call it. the 3rd step is resetting it.
You will need a custom rom to get those options.
If you care about security too much, I would say never unlock your bootloader.
Its so easy to keep pressing the power button and reboot to bootloader and flash stuff to access your memory (With unlocked bootloader of course)
But with locked BL, they have to erase the storage in order to unlock it and do stuff. So, if security is a big concern to you, its good to always keep it locked.
Hello;
After looking for hours about this I'm very angry because of the stupidity of Google. Here I go:
I have configured fingerprint to unlock my phone because I sometimes can't or it's very uncomfortable for me to unlock my phone with a password / PIN / Pattern because using with one hand and I need to unlock as fast as possible all the time.
Now it comes the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life: no matter what, the phone will ask me to enter whatever I have configured for security, rendering my fingerprint totally useless. This is completely nonsense because it's not configurable by the user. The correct way of doing this is to enable an option for the user to choose: "Additionally ask every 72 hours for the password to provide extra security". Just a checkbox that can be enabled or disabled, because Google should think about the user. This security crazy paranoia is making devices less secure, because people who don't want to enter their password when they have configured fingerprint choose to disable security completely to stop being asked for the damn password.
But I'm asking here because I absolutely know there is a way to disable this, I don't care if it involves hacking / opening / soldering the device, anything to stop this will be welcome, because for me is completely necessary, or else I will have to either sell the phone or disable security completely. Entering the password on startup or when your finger fails 3 times is ok and full of sense, I have no problems with that, but every 72 hours because yes is an absolute no-no, sorry.
I hope somebody knows the exact formula to [email protected] Google / Xiaomi back, because they are simply stupid.
Thanks.
P.S: Please, if you are about to say things like "it's a feature" or "I like it, it makes more secure your device so it makes sense" or "somebody could cut your finger and use it", I prefer you don't post a comment, because I'm looking for a solution not an explanation on why it is like that to understand why the things are done like they are done, I hope you understand.
How about a factory reset?
bigogofthewest said:
How about a factory reset?
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I think this is the right decision.
Dassote said:
I think this is the right decision.
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This is bad design from Google. When I was in the crowd (e.g. inside the train), people surrounding me were looking at my finger typing the PIN as I was not able to unlock it using my fingerprint anymore after 72 hours. It makes the phone becoming very insecure. You should lock the phone with PIN only when I am not inside the crowd (e.g. during evening hour)