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Android phone without FindMe (or whatever) turned on fell from it's securely zipped pocket somewhere along the 28.95 mile route. Mostly country lanes but with a fair few gravel tracks and single track sections. No obvious incidents or moments when it would have fallen and only realised when I got home and the zip securing the pocket was broken and was split wide open.
Best suggestions for finding the phone please.
Phone it and hope someone generous answers?
Sadly thats about my best advice beyond retracing it with friends and then phoning it at random.
Assuming you arent like me and keep it on silent.
Ring it occasionally, in case anyone has picked it up.
Commit a serious crime and wait for the police to triangulate it?
Neither are very practical, sorry
Doesn't connect when I phone it.
Annoyingly it is a dual sim job so has both my work and personal phone sim.
Long shot, but have you shared your location via Google locate with anyone? Me and Mrs Bloke do. For me it was mostly so she might know if I was dead in a ditch whilst solo mountain biking, but she so rarely checks it she'd never notice till the bins needed taking out.
Does mean we can always see where each other's phones phones are if we need to.
Not sure about Google Locate but I will check what similar apps there might be, thanks
Not a lot you can do apart from retrace your route.
No good now but probably worth turning on Find My Device.
Regularly call it and hope sometime picks it up.
You can also set a message on the home screen. I have a message saying something like, "if found please call 123456.... or email me@myemail....thanks!!!"
Doesn’t connect when I phone it.
Where were you riding? How much is likely to have crap signal and do you have a mate with the same network who can ride it with you and look for when signal drops.
Obv if the answer is in a hidden valley with no signal throughout then it wont help but if it is likely only a few areas will be bad better chance.
Commit a serious crime and wait for the police to triangulate it?
I'd be up for "Anyone want to watch me commit an armed robbery?"
But yeah try Google locate. Unfortunately whilst trying to simply Google the right term, it's confirmed twice I'm in next door's garden - so apologies if wrong link. And apologies if you're my neighbour.
https://www.google.com/android/find
Are you sure it doesn't have Find My Device enabled? It's on by default, you have to work pretty hard to disable it.
https://www.google.com/android/find
I dropped my credit card when out running, in the same little plastic bag as my telephone, must have dropped out when I got the telephone out.
Got a message on the Facebook from some lovely lady who had found it and googled my name, which helpfully is on the card and is fairly distinctive so easy to find. A couple of hours after I had cancelled the card after failing to find it but it was a nice though and good to know an honest person had it.
.
Anyway, point is nice people find stuff and try to get it back to you, ringing it is definitely worth a shot.
I didnt have find my device or anything turned on either, i thought, but when i lost my phone was still able to locate with google find my device. Log into that google account / find my device on your computer.
Mine was over the woods and when i got near where it said it was i rang it and heard it ringing in the undergrowth.
If you've got a Garmin / smar****ch linked with your phone, ride along slowly and keep an eye out for the "bluetooth connected" notification (that's actually worked for me).
Google maps timeline should record your movements and presumably stops roughly where the phone is - unless you've disabled it?
Same as Aidy's suggestion but with wireless headphones. This worked for me ... in reverse. When my headphones suddenly disconnected I realised my phone had disappeared 20 metres before.
Are you sure it doesn’t have Find My Device enabled? It’s on by default, you have to work pretty hard to disable it.
... and even if it's powered down, it should be able to tell you where it was last seen.
I thought you could deploy 'find my phone ' or whatever Google suggests remotely via your Google account but if it is not ringing sounds like it is off.
On the horse and bolted door topic.. As well as a home screen message, in future set up your ice contacts. Everyone should do this. It's most common use is actually to return lost phones.
Obviously ride and walk the route. Chances are the zip was already broken and it is quite close to home. I lost a bolt. Re did the whole route backwards and it was 100m from the start
Maybe consider the route you were on and other user groups that might happen across it - theres often posts on here that items have been found on trails or carparks with the expectation that other forum users might have lost it, so who else frequents your route?
Have you considered posting a description of the phone on dogging forums? Maybe offer cucumbers as a reward.
Anyway, point is nice people find stuff and try to get it back to you, ringing it is definitely worth a shot.
I had an "emergency call" notification at 3am from my eldest daughters' iPhone the other weekend.... Not good!
Had no way contacting her as her flatmates (in London) were away..... Very worrying!
Long story short - she'd dropped her phone (and driving license which was in the back) and a homeless guy who barely spoke English found it and wanted to get it back to her.
Finally managed to get in touch with my daughter and she arranged to meet the guy at a train station.
All went well, apparently he was really nice and gave her a hug.
She gave him £50 for being so helpful.
There are nice people around.
Given the route you did last night I'm going with smashed to bits on a road section or deep in the undergrowth of the singletrack at FM. Presumably you did the singletrack as a climb yesterday?
If you’ve got a Garmin / smar****ch linked with your phone, ride along slowly and keep an eye out for the “bluetooth connected” notification (that’s actually worked for me).
This!!! i lost my Garmin Edge Explore on a ride, i retraced my ride slowly with my phone with the Garmin connect app open and waiting for Garmin connect to find the phone via Bluetooth, it worked and i found the Edge Explore in some grass on a descent
Going by a previous thread, you've got an Ebike... just ride round again and look for it!
I just tried "find my Device" on that link and it's bleeped on my phone but the map web page says it can't locate it, so that's not much use if you've lost it in the wilderness. <- that was a firewall issue. On my other laptop it pinpointed the location 🙂
https://www.google.com/android/find
does show where it was last seen and it was on a strecth of road rather than wild woods which was hopeful but a search 1/2 a mile each way shows no phone 🙁
Thanks for the help
Years and years ago a mate got back to the carpark at Dalby after doing the Red Route (24-ish miles) with an 'oh shit' wheres the keys.
We re-traced the route and found his keys. And another pair of keys!
I absolutely ended myself on glentress one snow day. Got back absolutely fried no phone. Samsung phone tracker thing told me it had fallen out my pocket about 10m from the mast.
I almost left it there but instead set out on foot to retrieve it.
I has been found!!!
A dog walker found it at about 10:30 this morning in the middle of a field about 1/2 a mile from where the original 'Find my Device' said it was. He took it back to the house of the dog owner and they turned it on but couldn't unlock it. This triggered an update to 'Find My Device' which pinpointed the house of the dog owner who directed me to the dog walker who gave me my phone back.
Happy days.
Now just got to hope Vodafone will refund me for the £500 I just coughed for a replacement phone.
I once found a phone but couldn't unlock it to get any contact details.
It did however tell me what network it was on so I took it to their local shop.
They couldn't have been less interested if they'd tried.
The guy I spoke to didn't even want to take the phone off me so I just left it on the counter and walked out.
Conversely I once lost mine and the person that found it rang me as my home number was on the lock screen.
Would it be labouring the point making a connection between the OP and the predicament…😉
Fantastic luck getting it back, I’ve lost a couple of small items while out riding and walking, one was a silver mounted shark tooth, which had come off a chain I wear it on, and I found it in the gravel on a section of Sustrans route I used to maintain, the other was a pair of sunglasses I lost on a long-ish walk, but I had a vague idea where it might have been. I went back and re-walked that bit, including one part where the route wasn’t clear and I’d gone through a stile in a hedge onto a road. Walked along for a bit, then turned back, and happened to spot them lying in the grass by the side of the road! I’d put them on the top of my head, and a branch had knocked them off as I went back through the hedge! Six inches and they’d have been on the tarmac and probably smashed.
I was reading earlier about a bloke who lost a camera 12 years ago walking the Cairngorms, and quite by chance someone else, walking a completely different path stopped for a few minutes and noticed a nylon case lying in the peat. He took it home, but the camera wouldn’t power up. However, the SD card could be read, and the owner had taken a photo of his personal details, so could be reunited with camera and photos! He was delighted, as one might imagine.
On a side note, the shorts with the failed pocket were fairly new so I have just sent a polite email to the company explaining the situation with photos and even a link to this thread.
My dealings with them has been good so far and I am interested to see how they respond to my email.
I won't name them on here yet, but am happy for them to add to this thread if they like and will probably share their response to my email as I think good customer service should be publicly acknowledged as well as negative experiences.
And 30 minutes later they respond!!!
Hi Nick
Thanks for your wonderful detailed email, it cheered me up on a grey morning. I'm really impressed with all your sporting statistics!
Thanks also for the photos which is what we ask for and what i need to open the faults process with our factory so that's great too. I'll process a credit note for the full amount of the shorts - therefore you can re-order as and when and add another pair if you so wish.
Thanks again for your courteous email, you'll get an auto email when i've processed the credit which will have the discount code on. FYI we've been alerted to the fact that viewing in portrait mode on a smart phone knocks off a few digits so please bear that in mind.
Happy continued cycling (when you get your new shorts!).
Best wishes, or as we say up here - s'thee
Mandy
Lass in t'office
TOP JOB
I won’t name them on here yet
Having posted their excellent response I think you should.
I have checked with the delightful Mandy and she is happy for me to share.
Top Customer Service award goes to....
I even like their order numbers. Given they are for the stouter figure, the orders all start : FLABxxxxxx