https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9852500
Congrats. Thanks for sharing the whole process.
Tracked and recovered my stolen Samsung mobile
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My Galaxy S21 mob was stolen 6days back. I lodged a diary at local p.s.
Chances of recovery was dim as the miscreant had removed the SIMs and it was not connected to wifi. Google find my device tracking was stopped and practically I was not able to use it any more even to wipe data or secure lock. However using Samsung smartthingsfind I was able to get occasional email alerts on it's location near to few hundred meters (5-6 apartment buildings).
High end galaxy devices can use a special technology called uwb (as of now provided in Apple and few Samsung devices) to ping other nearby devices to send alert whenever any other similar devices pass nearby. I kept visiting the locations and kept searching for it using another old phone. At one point, coser to the lost device, the map in the App turned into a signal strength indicator. I zeroed on the building and the apartment where the signal level was highest.
Finally with help of a patrolling police van, we entered the place last night and made the device to ring (wo any network). Miscreant was taken to PS and my ph was handed over after another GD.
I was not aware of the full potential of the technology. There is not enough user guides in DD or elsewhere in net. Forget police, even Samsung service centre staff couldn't help. I kept searching for more info how to zero on the target but couldn't get any practical guide. However I have gathered some experience and learned xiaomi and vivo are also part of Fira consortium and will be enabling this feature on their phones.
I will add some more practical tips for device protection when I have time.
Deal Wiki
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Last updated by: Total_Fun
What is ultra-wideband (UWB), and how does it work?
https://insights.samsung.com/2021/08/25/what-is...
Top Comments
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853116
@Watson fabulous to know u got bk your mobile!!! Thanks for the useful info !!! vU
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853258
Got excited but found that uwb is available only on expensive models.... so not useful for me....
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853310
Real gangsta... Epic drama with happy ending.
Kudos to efforts and outcome.
Surprised to find police actually helped than giving useless brainwashing lecture or jargon. May be few good men still exist in police who really do their job genuinely rather than milking common people.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853372
अभिनंदन हो। आपको आपका मोबाइल आखिर UWB TECH के आधार से मिल ही गया।
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853405
UWB means U Watson bang it
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853732
How to get in Motorola or one plus
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9853796
remotely and use it to locate a lost device. Follow the steps on your phone to activate SmartThings Find: Open your Galaxy device's Settings.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9854102
Great find and Great tutorial, this might come handy some day. Bookmarking.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9854209
Wow. Great News. Have bought S24 Ultra
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9854293
I lost my Samsung F62 in 50 meters circle from my home, was never able to track using "find my device" app.
Police asked to submit complaint in Suvidha centre and online portal, nothing worked though.
Kudos to your efforts and sharing your experience with us.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9854434
damn finally someone used this in India. Kudos brother
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9854666
+more fun
-read respective law in place and the fine & maximum sentence
-take a print and police
-compensation?
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9855033
Wow, this is some James bond sh*t…!
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9855248
List of UWB-enabled mobile devices :-
Smartphones, foldables, & tablets
| Brand | Device name | Platform | Release date | Availability | UWB Controller |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | iPhone 11 | iOS | 2019 September | All models | Apple U1 |
| iPhone 12 | 2020 October | All models | Apple U1 | ||
| iPhone 13 | 2021 September | All models | Apple U1 | ||
| iPhone 14 | 2022 September/October | All models | Apple U1 | ||
| iPhone 15 | 2023 September | All models | Apple U2 | ||
| Pixel 6 | Android | 2021 October | Pro model only[3] | Qorvo DW3720[4] | |
| Pixel 7 | 2022 October | Pro model only[5] | |||
| Pixel 8 | 2023 October | Pro model only[6] | |||
| Pixel Fold | 2023 June | All models[7] | |||
| Pixel Tablet | 2023 June | All models[8] | |||
| Samsung | Galaxy Note20 | 2020 August | Ultra model only[9] | NXP SR100T | |
| Galaxy S21 | 2021 January | Plus (+) and Ultra models only[10] | NXP SR100T | ||
| Galaxy S22 | 2022 February | Plus (+) and Ultra models only[11] | |||
| Galaxy S23 | 2023 February | Plus (+) and Ultra models only | |||
| Galaxy S24 | 2024 January | Plus (+) and Ultra models only | |||
| Galaxy Z Fold2 | 2020 September | NXP SR100T | |||
| Galaxy Z Fold3 | 2021 August | NXP SR100T | |||
| Galaxy Z Fold4 | 2022 August | ||||
| Galaxy Z Fold5 | 2023 August | ||||
| Xiaomi | MIX4 | 2021 September | NXP SR100T |
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9855250
Smartwatches support UWB -
| Brand | Device name | Platform | Release date | UWB Controller |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | Watch Series 6 | watchOS | September 2020 | Apple U1 |
| Watch Series 7 | October 2021 | |||
| Watch Series 8 | September 2022 | |||
| Watch Series 9 | September 2023 | Apple U2 | ||
| Watch Ultra | September 2022 | Apple U1 | ||
| Watch Ultra 2 | September 2023 | Apple U2 |
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9855261
Can I have your Twitter id so I can tag you while pinpoint this thread. This is mind-blowing, i don't know how to tell you but after reading your incident, my body, my soul felt pride and confidence. You are like hero of the movie brother 😍😍. I want to share your story with everyone even with Samsung ceo by tagging them on Twitter. I own s22 and my whole family members own Samsung galaxy devices. You are awesome brother mtlb awesome say bhi awesome....
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856071
OMG Sherlock Holmes 
One day i will also have such swag 🥹
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856114
Congrats man, Managing help from wb police for 300 is not that easy. You are smart for sure.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856388
I have to given the live location of my stolen mobile to the police but they can't knock on someone door for some mobile.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856435
Kudos to the police who helped you. He rightfully did his duty without causing you trouble.
The young police inspector in bharulumukh police station abused me (a HS first year student back then) in front of my dad when we wanted help to get the phone from the thieves hanging in the restaurant with my dad's new stolen phone. There was GPS tracking at that time.
P.S. he got angry when I said it's his duty to help us citizens when he refused my dad's request. No wonder my parents generation always view them as nuisance.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856891
Any such similar app for Android mobiles?
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856919
Mera ek earbud kho gaya koi tarika h kya ...
Boat ka tha 
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9856939
Watson O Mighty one, here forth you shall be known as Sherlock!
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9857211
Great to read this. Thanks for sharing.
I am using Samsung since last 4 years and really like whole ecosystem.
This feature of find is really great. Many people who have Samsung (S series) also somehow are not aware OR fear for privacy.
I ensure that my friend's, relatives who use Samsung have this feature enabled.
Apart from selling phone for parts , thieves have almost no chance to use such phones.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9857295
Nice post. Very cool.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9857715
Well done Watson. 👏👏
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
https://www.desidime.com/discussions/tracked-and-recovered-my-stolen-samsung-mobile?page=3#post_9857905
This is actually quite clever that you thought of making use of Smart Things to locate your phone. I wish all phones shipped with Ultrawide Band (UWB). It is actually a pretty remarkable technology for accurately pinpointing location down to a few metres. Sadly some awesome features like eSIM, USB 3.0, UWB only ship in high-end phones only 
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Kudos bro!
Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments. Indeed it was a challenge and more than the phone I couldn't give up on precious photos, videos and some old ver APKs. So I stayed on despite the odds. The cold winter outside helped me to somewhat move in stealth and avoid getting spotted but I didn't require to trespass. I needed to stay low to avoid alerting the thief who could throw the device beyond a point.
My cloud backup was already touching limits and I was procrastinating taking a backup before I lost the phone. Unless until you loose a phone, you don't realise the pain of delaying a few simple steps. Best option is to sync backup of everything so that your pain is easier. It was my primary device and linked to all my accounts and everything else possible but I didn't panic and was waiting for the guy to do mistakes. After power off/battery drained, he kept it off for first 2 days. I was trying to get into his mind to read his next possible moves.
In the meantime I blocked my SIM and managed to get the duplicate sim. It was not easy as my biometrics were locked in aadhaar and without biometrics, carriers wont give you a duplicate sim. And one cannot unlock biometrics without OTP sent to your original number. Presently only way to do that is by visiting an Aadhar centre and changing the linked phone number. It takes only few hours to reactivate your sim but outgoing SMSs are barred for first 24hrs so one cannot use any financial apps during this time.
I am putting down the replies together.
This UWB microchip thing is limited to a few devices available to S & Z series. Its more like a boosted NFC. This will not work if the device is off.
You don't need anything extra. Your device should be logged into Samsung account and you should not forget the Samsung account email and password. Samsung security is very strict and even after device wipe or reset, Samsung account cannot be deleted without original password /OTP so tracking will continue even if the thief manages to break into your lockscreen. Unless one uses common patterns or PIN, it is not easy to break into android security. Using a pwd is best choice.
I used an app from Galaxy store on my 2nd phone called "SmartThings". It is available in Galaxy or Play store. The official guide is here:https://www.samsung.com/in/support/apps-service...
Apart from mobile, it can also track Galaxy smartwatches, buds etc. you can also login using google account as well into https://smartthingsfind.samsung.com...in to start tracking right away.
Even if your phone is not S series or UWB enabled, still I would recommend to use this app. The android app has some benefits over the browser based tracker.
Once you install the app, click "Life" at bottom,
Click the '+' button on top right,
Add 'Find' from the list,
It will show all your mapped devices with Samsung account; click done at bottom.
Now you can click your device from Life tab to track and also can send an "invite" to a trusted contact to use the tracking features in the event you are middle of somewhere and not able to start tracking yourself. These days, no one offers to help a stranger with his device in a lost mobile case.
Lastly using 'side button' menu in settings, remap 'power off' with 'bixby' (for S & Z series). And use eSIM instead of physical SIM.