GPS on in case phone is lost

[eibbed0001]

[I did a search but GPS is too short of a word to do much of a search!]

I'm going on vacation and would like to have the GPS enabled on my phone in case the phone is lost or stolen so I can track it. I know that it helps battery life to keep the GPS turned off, but if it's off I don't think I can track it. So do people generally leave the GPS off and then not be able to track a lost phone or is there something else I should know?

Thanks!

 

[esrakes24]

[I did a search but GPS is too short of a word to do much of a search!]

I'm going on vacation and would like to have the GPS enabled on my phone in case the phone is lost or stolen so I can track it. I know that it helps battery life to keep the GPS turned off, but if it's off I don't think I can track it. So do people generally leave the GPS off and then not be able to track a lost phone or is there something else I should know?

Thanks!

You'll have to search around in the market i'm not sure what it's called. But i know there is an app that you can access via pc that will track ur phone if lost or stolen.

My advice. Don't lose ur phone or have it stolen

EDIT: it's called seek droid, located in the market allows you to remotely enable GPS, display location map, audible alarm, lock device with custom code,wipe entire phone,wipe SD card, disable apps from being erased. $0.99 in the market

 

[jcjdoss]

This is a good one and is free (Unless you want to buy the donation version)https://market.android.com/details?id=com.alienmanfc6.wheresmyandroid

 

[eibbed0001]

I tried Where's My Droid but when using the text phone from email account to have the phone send me the GPS location it didn't work. I tried the recommended GMAIL account and a different one.

AVG anti virus has that service also and it worked better in my test. Supposedly apps are not supposed to be able to turn GPS on remotely due to some kind of security issue but maybe some do or maybe what I read about that was wrong. I'll have to double check that.

I also will turn on the screen lock feature to be protected that way.

 

[worwig]

There is also one called "Plan B".
You can force it to remotely install on the Android after it is lost. It then enables the GPS and starts sending you location information.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb&feature=search_result

 

[anon(94115)]

I do not have any links right off hand, but more than one of them can do just about everything, including turning on the GPS when you lose it. That way you can leave it off to save battery.

Now that I am thinking about it, that might be a froyo option, so you would have to be rooted and rom'd

 

[Sta11i0n]

I leave my gps on 24/7 and get great battery life. We had some very detailed discussions here about turning extras off like gps and wifi when not in use a while back. Turns out, as long as the icon isn't in the notification bar, its not running. So basically, leaving gps on will allow it to run on demand. Unless another app is trying to track your location constantly, you won't be losing anything.

Now as far as the tracking service you're looking for, I recommend Lookout. The free version will allow you to enable a siren and track the phone via gps to find it. Even if the gps is turned off, it will remotely activate it. There is a paid version as well that will let you lock the phone with a pin and wipe your data remotely.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

 

[eibbed0001]

It sounds like what I read about not being able to turn on GPS remotely wasn't true.

I just checked the AVG Droid Security app and it will allow you to turn on the GPS from their website. It has many other options as well.

 

[Clak]

Lookout can also do this, along with remotely turning on an alarm. Of course if any thief has half a brain they'd just take the battery out of the phone.

 

[dvlpr52]

Turning the GPS on requires user interaction as a security measure. If any application were able to turn the GPS on without the user knowing, that would be a very big privacy concern.

It looks like the application do it they are most likely now exploiting a security flaw to accomplish this. It is not guaranteed to continue to work, but according to an open Android bug report from April 2010, code similar to the following will successfully programmatically enable/disable GPS. This security flaw was fixed by Google April 2011.

If they do use this method, they should make it clear to potential users of their application, since this is a HUGE potential privacy concern.

A similar and much safer application I use is "WIMP" and here is their link that you can check:
blinkinblu