How to recover data from your lost or stolen Android phone

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As you would imagine, you cannot really recover data from your lost or stolen Android phone once it has gone. You can only use the data cached in the cloud by Google, which can include contacts, wallpapers, calendar entries and some account information. It does not automatically back up images, games, movies and other data so you should configure backups right away.

Enable sync and backups in Android
1. Navigate to Settings, Accounts, then Google.
2. Select the account you want to back up.
3. Select Gmail, Contacts and Calendar.
4. Navigate to Settings and then Backup and reset.
5. Select Back up my data.

If you want to backup images, videos, music and other data you can set up sync to Google Drive. You have 15GB of space by default and can buy more if you wish.

1. Download and install the Google Drive app if it isn’t already on your phone.
2. Open Google Drive on your handset and select the three menu lines in the top left.
3. Scroll down to Settings and select it.
4. Choose how, what, where and when your phone backs up to Google Drive.

Google Drive can either automatically back up your files to the cloud or you can do it manually. I tend to allow it to do it automatically but only when connected to Wi-Fi. That way I get all the benefits of auto syncing without burning through my data allowance.

There are also apps that can automatically back up your phone to the cloud through Drobox or other cloud storage if you don’t want to use Google Drive. Just remember to set it up now. You can’t recover data from a lost or stolen Android phone once it’s gone unless you have backed it up!


 
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