How to Turn on Location Services on an Android from a Computer

Download Article

Find your lost Android phone in minutes with our simple guide

Co-authored by Darlene Antonelli, MA Reviewed by Stan Kats

Last Updated: February 3, 2025 Fact Checked

Download Article

Understanding Google's Location Services

|

Using Samsung's Find My Phone

Have you lost your phone? If you have a Samsung phone that's signed into a Samsung account with "Find My Phone" activated, you can use Find My Phone on your computer; however, you can't turn on location services remotely using Google. This wikiHow article will teach you about location services and show you how to use Samsung's Find My Phone.

Finding an Android through Find My Phone

Ensure Find My Mobile is turned on in Settings to enable tracking.
Visit https://smartthingsfind.samsung.com/login and sign in to Find My Phone.
Click on the phone you want to track from the list of devices in your account.
Select Track Location to view the phone’s location on a map.
Click Start to get a location notification every 15 minutes.

Section 1 of 2:

Understanding Google's Location Services

Download Article

You can't remotely enable location services using Google's Find My Device. Location services are there to help deliver the most relevant information to you, like helping your weather apps pinpoint your location so you can get forecasts for your area.
- To enable location services on your phone, you can find the map pin icon in your Quick Settings panel.^{[1]
  X
  Research source} Tap that map pin icon to enable location services (it's blue if it's enabled and grey if it isn't).
- If you don't see the map pin icon in your Quick Settings, access your Quick Setting panel (swipe down twice from the top of your screen) and tap + (it will be the last icon in the display, so you may need to scroll to find it). Finally, you can drag and drop the map pin icon from the "Available buttons" panel at the top of the screen to your Quick Settings panel. Tap Done when you are finished.
- If you have location services on, go to https://www.google.com/android/find?u=0. You should see your phone's location displayed on the map.^{[2]
  X
  Research source}

Section 2 of 2:

Using Samsung's Find My Phone

Download Article

1
Go to https://smartthingsfind.samsung.com/login and sign in. Your phone has to be signed in to your Samsung account for this to work.
- You'll only be able to use this method if Find My Mobile is turned on in Settings > Biometrics and security on your phone.
2
Click the phone you want to track. A list of phones associated with your account is displayed in the panel on the left side of the page.^{[3]
X
Research source}
- It may take a few minutes to locate and connect to your phone. You can stop following these steps once you've located your phone and know where to get it.
- Continue only if your phone is still powered on and connected to a cellular or wireless network.
Clicking this will open a new window in the middle of your screen.^{[4]
X
Research source}
4
Click Start or Restart. You'll get a notification every 15 minutes with your phone's location.^{[5]
X
Research source}
- If you click Restart, any previous tracking will be deleted and replaced with the updated tracking.^{[6]
  X
  Research source}