find last location of phone when it says "location unavailable" in "find my device" ?

[gargavf]

One of my phones, I misplaced, and I went to the "find my device" app, and it says "location unavailable".

This is disappointing because it should know where it last saw it.

Why won't it show where it last saw it?

I'm sure normally it shows the last location.

It has been maybe a week since I last used the phone that I misplaced.

Does the feature of showing where the phone was last seen, only work for a few days or something like that?!

Thanks

 

[SpookDroid]

Was the "Find offline devices" active on the lost phone? If this opt-in option wasn't active then you can only see the location of a device when they're online and the last-known location won't be stored in Google's servers.

Be ready to find a lost Android device - Android Help

You can set up Find My Device so you’re prepared if you lose your phone, tablet, Wear OS watch, headphones, or something that has a tracker tag attached. If your device is already lost, learn how to

support.google.com

 

[gargavf]

Thanks. I have different phones. .. One of my phones has the option set to "with network in high-traffic areas only". I don't think I ever selected that. I guess that's a default?

If it's set to that on one phone does that mean it's set for that in the app and applicable to all my phones listed in that app?

Is that option sufficient?

What option should I have it set to?

 

[SpookDroid]

You'd have to use that option or "With network in all areas". This has to be set up per device. If you're using the Samsung-specific Find My Mobile, then the last location will only be sent if the opt-in toggle was activated on that device.

 

[gargavf]

Suppose I lost it at home..and I live near a main road. Will ""with network in high-traffic areas only"" still not be good enough?

Also,I notice that the "with network in all areas" section says "if you set a screen lock, the network will also be used to find your devices even in low traffic areas". Suppose I haven't set a screen lock. Will this setting still be better than "with network in high-traffic areas"?

Is "with network in all areas" the only option that doesn't wipe the location?!

Also if "with network in high traffic areas" is selected, then how long does it take before it wipes the location?

 

[SpookDroid]

Location isn't 'wiped', but not displayed unless it has an offline location to show. In your case, there is no offline location saved (which means the device either didn't have the 'last location' option active if it's a Samsung phone, and/or didn't have any of the offline-locating options described above).

If you had location history on on Google Maps, you could still be able to see that history there (as long as the data was synced before the device went offline as Google moved to on-device location history last year).

 

[gargavf]

I have more than one phone, I use google maps on each but I doubt google maps notes which phone is used.

There are four options for "find your offline devices".

Off, and then three other options. All the three other options say "You can still locate your offline devices using their stored recent locations when they were online".

I'm pretty sure I hadn't selected "off".

So I see no reason why it should say "Location unavailable".

I have an email from "Google find my device" from 8th April 2025 to say I used "find my device" to locate it on that date.
I hadn't used the phone since for some weeks.

 

[SpookDroid]

Not sure what went wrong but the "Find My Device" location isn't wiped on the server side unless the account is closed, location tracking is off, or the device is online. If it's showing unavailable, the location data is not in the servers.

Google Maps DOES differentiate device usage (again, opt-in to sync history across devices as they moved to on-device history last year).