Loosing your smart phone is not just loosing some money. A lot of confidential information including your contacts, email, documents and even your electronic wallet can get into the wrong hands. There are 3 things you would wish you could do in this situation-

  1. Most tempting - some how track and find your phone.
  2. If you can't find it, lock it so nobody else can use it.
  3. If it has some real confidential files, erase them completely.

Microsoft has made it real easy to track a lost or stolen Windows 8 phone so you could either find it, lock it or erase it offline. The first thing to do if you have lost your Windows 8 phone is to login to the windowsphone page and go to the "My Phone" section.

Click on the "Find, ring, lock or erase your phone" link and if the phone is connected to the internet, it's location will be shown on a map. You will be also shown links to do three things - Ring, lock and erase.

  • Ring:
    Click on the "Ring" link and your phone will start ringing even if you have put it in silent/vibrate mode. This is useful if you have misplaced the phone in your home, office or some other familiar location.
  • Lock:
    If you think you can locate the phone, but want to prevent anybody from using it in the mean while, you could use the "Lock" link. This will immediately lock the phone with the password you have set. If you have not set any password, you will be prompted to give one. You can also enter a message to be shown on your locked phone screen.
  • Erase:
    This is the last and final resort and is pretty much suicide. If you are absolutely certain you won't get back your phone and want to prevent your files/data to get misused, you erase the phone which means a factory reset. Beware that once you erase the phone, you will loose all contacts with the phone as well as delete all files in it.

If you are lucky enough, you will be able to find your phone using the map and the ringing facility. But if you turn out to be among the unlucky side, please do remember to inform your service provider too to prevent any illegal calls from being done under your name.