But while your mind keeps pacing between the costs of acquiring another new Gizmo and more painfully the thought of lost precious data (Photos, Videos, notes) and then tracking it down yourself or using the services of the police, you need to immediately retrieve its IMEI. That’s if you didn’t take note of it while you still had the phone. And it’s really simple thanks to the Google settings Dashboard. Here’s how. Head over to your Google dashboard at https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard. Sign in if you already haven’t. You’ll be presented with a number of Google services such as Analytics, Adsense, Books, Cloud Print etc some of which you might not be using. Scroll down to Android and click on it. You’ll see all the devices you have ever used (as long as you sign in with your Google ID) with details such as Model Name, Manufacturer, Carrier, Last activity, Registered date and IMEI. I Know some of you will be freaked out by “Last activity seen on” detail, but hey, this is big “G” keeping your back, not spying on you. Anyway, take note of that IMEI. Now you can go to the police or your network to track your lost phone. Obviously whether or not you’ll actually succeed with Uganda Police is a story for another day. But as you can tell, I never really got lucky getting back my stolen Nexus 5. Image: judithleist.net
