How to Track a Stolen Laptop? Try 5 Easy Solutions

Your laptop saves all of your personal and formal data, which you have to protect at any cost. You may protect it in the best effective and efficient way possible, but what if you misplace it somewhere or someone steals it? In that situation, you may need to apply a manual approach or use a laptop tracking device.

I understand how damaging the consequence is, but let me tell you that there still exists an expectation.

So, can you track a laptop? Yes, you can.

If you’re wondering, “how to track a laptop”? Then seek your answers within this article itself.

How to Track a Laptop?

The thought of those dreadful consequences is scary if you lose your laptop by missing it at some place or become a victim of theft.

Many of you may have experienced it while some of you haven’t. Even so, you must get prepared for such a worst situation so that you can cope with it if it happens to you ever.

To help you in this regard, it’s time now to dive into some useful hacks which will help you track your lost or stolen laptop. I will start with the manual approaches followed by the effective use of the best laptop tracker software. So let’s start reading all of them carefully.

Solution 1: Use “Find My Device”

You should use the feature, “Find My Device” which was introduced by Microsoft in 2015. Its basic purpose is to track the closest location of your laptop.

However, it may also be possible that you have turned off this feature earlier, so now, simply turn it on again. Let’s understand how can you enable this feature: 

• Step 1: Press the command “Windows + I” to open “Settings” on your system.
• Step 2: Move toward the left side of the page and click on “Privacy & Security”

  

• Step 3: Shift towards the right side and choose “Security >> Find my device”
• Step 4: A new window will appear and you will see an option that reads, “Find my device”. You will see the slider next to it, simply move it to the other side to get the feature enabled on your device.

  

However, it may also be possible that your location settings itself are disabled. In such a situation, you see a warning saying, “This device can’t be located because location settings are turned off”. 

To solve this problem, do as directed below to enable the location settings:

Step 1: Click on the “Location Settings” which you can easily locate just below the warning. 

Step 2: Now move your cursor near the “Location services” and from there shift towards the slider next to it. To enable the feature, turn the slider to the other side.

Once you turn this feature on, the “Find my device” feature will be active on your device.

But you may still be in another situation. Let’s suppose you have lost your laptop before enabling this feature. Don’t worry because there is still something you can do to get this all right. All you need is to follow the process as illustrated below to track your lost laptop:

Step 1: Visit the Devices page in your Microsoft account. Herein, click on the option that reads, “Find my device”.

Step 2: If you haven’t turned on the location of your PC, then a prompt will appear in the top right corner of the map. To enable the location of your laptop, click on the “Turn On” option.

Step 3: Once you turn on the location of your device, Windows will start searching for it and as soon as they are done, you will see an approximate last location of your device based on which you can have a rough estimate about when it was last online.

Step 4: To add a security layer, you can further click on the “Lock button” as doing it you secure the whole system virtually.

Isn’t it great to not only detect the approximate last location of your missing device but also lock the system remotely?  

Solution 2: Use Your Gmail Account 

It’s not compulsory that you see the ‘Find feature’ enabled on your laptop. It may not be enabled too before it is stolen or lost. However, don’t become pessimistic here and use your Gmail account to solve this problem.

Yes, using it you can track the laptop’s IP address. Though the exact location may not be found, you will get an approximate idea such as which part of the city or town your laptop can be located in. Follow the below-illustrated steps to track your laptop’s IP address through your Gmail account:

• Step 1: Visit your browser and log into your Gmail account through the web version.
• Step 2: Open the “Inbox” page in the mailbox.
• Step 3: Scroll down till you reach the end of the page and then move towards the right side. Locate the “Last account activity” option. Click on “Details” under it.

  

• Step 4: An activity information pop-up window will appear.
• Step 5: Visit: Recent activity >> Access type column. Now, see the details that you think may be of your lost laptop and then click on the “Show details” link next to it to note down the IP address.

  

Solution 3:  Use Your Dropbox Account 

Similar to using a Gmail account for tracking IP addresses, you can also use your Dropbox account to find out the IP address of your lost system. Below-mentioned guidelines will let you know the exact process to do it: 

• Step 1: Visit your browser >> Drop the web version
• Step 2: Log in to your Dropbox account using this web version.
• Step 3: Move toward the upper right side of the home page to click on your picture.
• Step 4: Choose the “Settings” option from the menu.

  

• Step 5: You will be redirected to the “All files” head now.
• Step 6: Herein, choose “Security >> Personal account section”
• Step 7: Visit: “Web browsers field” >> “Most recent activity column” and you will see the current session here just beside it. Place your cursor on the “i” option and use it to note down the IP address of your missing laptop. 

  

You can send this IP address to the police for the investigation so that they can track your lost/stolen police using this information as soon as possible.

Solution 4:  Use Your Facebook Account

If the above two solutions fail to work for you, then it’s time to use your Facebook account. Open it on another device to detect the IP address of your lost laptop. Following this way you can track the time of its last online session. 

• Step 1: Head over to your browser and sign into your Facebook account.
• Step 2: Move your cursor to the upper right corner of the Facebook page and click on your account.
• Step 3: Locate the “Settings & privacy” option and click on it.

  

• Step 4: Under the settings page, click on the option that says, “Security and login”. 
• Step 5: Move towards the right side to click on the “Where you’re logged in section”

  

• Step 6: You will see the details here about the last session of your stolen laptop. Note down the city’s name and IP address.

Now it’s time to hand over the IP address to the local police in your area. They will track the location of your laptop at their earliest convenience using the IP address you shared with them.

Solution 5: Use Tracking Software

If the manual methods as explained above couldn’t do much good for you, then you should shift towards online laptop tracker software to get help in tracking your lost laptop.

Though using professional software to track your laptop may seem expensive at first sight, trust me, it will provide you with the one-stop solution to track your lost/stolen laptop.

Let’s go through some of the best location-tracking software which will help you track a stolen or missing laptop quickly: 

PreyProject is one of the widely known laptop tracker software with the help of which you can secure and track your device and lock the data also. Let’s shed light on some of its significant features:

• Using it you can access some Control zones to track the area of your lost/stolen device.
• It provides Aware Tracking and Location History features that let you check the location of your device after every hour.
• You can delete some sensitive data remotely or fetch some significant documents from your missing device.
• This software can also generate reports with evidence including location, and images. WiFi is in the proximate area.
• Furthermore, using it you can receive automatic messages by setting an anti-mute alarm. Alternatively, you can also add a lock on the device’s screen remotely.

This is the second option to track your laptop using tracking software. Its in-built sophisticated technology keeps you informed about whether the lost device is within the network area or not. Its core features are as follows: 

• Besides being a continuous watchdog on your device’s network, AbsoluteDDS fetches a large amount of data related to hardware and software details, usage, security situation, and location points.
• Even if your device is located in a prohibited area, a laptop tracking device will detect it easily and take the necessary action to protect your crucial data stored on it.

Let’s say, it can either delete all the data by fetching the same into your other device and thereby, making the stolen/missing laptop useless completely.

• It ensures that the crucial apps in your lost device keep functioning securely. Besides, it also ascertains who is using your missing or stolen laptop currently. 

For all of you who want to have your hands on freeware for finding your laptop efficiently, the Laptop Alarm is a wonderful choice. The major feature it has is the “software rings” which alarm automatically whenever the software detects the laptop being exposed to an external threat.

Let’s say, if a thief tries to rob it, then this laptop tracking device will secure your lost device for free of cost. I know it feels tempting now to know its highlights, so let’s dive into them:

• The core feature of this software is its “theft alarm” which raises its sound whenever any unauthorized person tries to steal it. You will hear a sudden alarm to make you alert about the unsafe location of your device and allow you to prevent any of its misuse.

• A battery alarm is another amazing feature that you can find in this software. Whenever you want to save the capacity of your battery and increase its lifetime, this one comes into play.
• On the other hand, disk alarms can also be raised when you are supposed to repair or replace your disk drive. 

This online laptop tracker is perfect for you to choose if you are running a business, or are a part of any organization. To know its major characteristics, read the following points carefully: 

• You can track the real-time location of your device using the Hidden app. The best part to know is that the location discovered is accurate and hence, you can monitor your laptop easily through any remote place.
• It’s incredible to know that this software has an “ISight” feature that captures the real-time of those who have stolen your laptop. Thereafter, you will see the following two options:

1. You can see what the users are doing on your device.
2. You can receive a green grab through which you can access any on-screen activity.

To know how the laptop tracker, Pombo, helps you differently when it comes to finding your missing/stolen laptop, start reading its highlights as discussed below: 

• It’s open-source tracking software that you can discover easily via GitHub. 
• Do you know what makes this software interesting? Well, it is the software’s hidden function of running in the background to share all tracking-related details with you on a web server preferred by you.

Therefore, whenever you discover that your laptop has gone missing, you just have to log into your web server and access the files uploaded by the software.

Lastly, you have to unlock the file before transferring it to your local police. You can share crucial details such as IP address, routers in the proximate area (if any), screen grabs, and any picture of the suspect (if your lost device has an attached webcam) along with the date and time with the local police. 

Google Proposed a New Location Tracker

Did you know that Google recently revealed its new location tracker killer feature at Google I/O 2023?

Since many unauthorized users access others’ sensitive details easily, it’s high time that a serious step should be taken against their ill goals. According to Hindustan Times, to help in this rising issue worldwide, Google joined hands with Apple to make a specific industry.

Herein, the experts can stop the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices. With this way, they can control the practice of unwanted tracking.

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