


10 Security Tips to Protect Your Samsung Phone From Device and Data Theft
Jun 05, 2025 am 01:24 AMI don't need to remind you why losing your phone is terrible, but I do need to remind you of the many security features on your Samsung phone you're probably not using to help prevent theft and data loss. Here’s your complete guide to boosting security on Galaxy.
Set Up (and Test) Find My Mobile
Google's Find My Device service works for devices linked to a Google account, but Samsung enhances this with its own version called Find My Mobile (now part of SmartThings Find) to offer more control.
Both services let you ring, lock, and locate your lost phone, but only Find My Mobile can remotely activate location tracking, prevent shutdowns, block Samsung Wallet cards, keep a log of location history, and extend battery life with power-saving mode.
You can even add emergency contact details or a custom message on the lock screen, such as "Lost phone. Call [number] if found," to make it easier for someone who finds it to return it, assuming it wasn’t stolen.
To set this up, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Lost Device Protection > Find My Mobile and turn on "Allow This Phone to Be Found." I also suggest enabling "Send Last Location" as it automatically sends your phone's last known location to Samsung's servers before losing connectivity or running out of battery.
Enable "Offline Finding" so nearby Galaxy devices (with the feature enabled) can pick up a signal from your lost device and relay its location to the server, even if it’s offline, improving the chance of locating your device.
Two-factor authentication can stop you from accessing your Samsung or Google account from another device, making it impossible to find your lost phone. To avoid this and retain access, print the list of backup codes available in your account settings and store them safely nearby.
Require Screen Unlock to Power Off the Phone
Thieves often quickly power off a stolen phone to prevent tracking. People have long complained about this issue, and rightly so. What’s the point of a trackable phone if thieves can turn it off instantly?
In the past, with removable batteries, manufacturers couldn’t do much to locate phones since thieves could simply remove the battery. Nowadays, we should take advantage of this and boost security.
Granted, a skilled thief can still bypass your phone’s defenses, but if they plan to sell it, they risk damaging its internal components during dismantling, which ruins its resale value. Alternatively, they can remove the SIM card to achieve the same effect, which is why you should consider switching to eSIM.
Even though the screen is locked, preventing data access, it shouldn’t be possible for others to turn off your locked phone without permission—and it isn’t; not on Samsung phones. Navigate to Settings > Lock Screen and AOD > Secure Lock Settings, input your password, and toggle on "Lock Network and Security."
Once enabled, your phone will require biometrics or a password to power off when locked.
Auto-Lock the Screen in Case of Theft
The feature mentioned earlier is only effective if the screen was locked when the theft happened. If someone grabs your phone and runs, leaving you no time to lock it, you can enable Android's new Theft Detection feature. It uses the phone's built-in accelerometer to estimate theft and tries to lock the screen.
To enable this, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Lost Device Protection > Theft Protection and toggle on "Theft Detection Lock."
The feature is somewhat unreliable, as some users report it failing to trigger when tested, while others experience false positives. For extra security, enable "Offline Device Lock" which locks the screen when your phone loses network, and "Remote Lock" to allow Google to remotely lock your phone using Find My Device.
Remotely Factory Reset Your Phone
If you’ve tried finding your phone without success and are certain there’s no hope of recovering it, you might accept losing the hardware, but not the idea of your personal data still being out there in the wrong hands.
To address this, try remotely wiping your phone on either Samsung's SmartThings Find or Google's Find Hub page. Note that accepting this reset request requires your phone to be online. If it’s offline, the reset will be pending and happen once the device reconnects to the internet.
Auto Factory Reset After 20 Unlock Attempts
If you use a PIN code instead of a password, it’s not impossible for a thief to guess the correct sequence using your fingerprint smudges on the screen after enough attempts. It’s possible that by the time your remote reset request reaches your phone, the thief has already copied all your data to an external drive.
To avoid this, Samsung offers a kind of kill switch for your Galaxy phone that triggers a full factory reset after 20 consecutive incorrect unlock attempts. If someone is making that many attempts, it’s a strong indication they’re trying hard to bypass the lock screen to access your data.
It’s highly unlikely that you, as the owner, will ever make that many incorrect attempts, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally wiping your phone. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Lock Screen and AOD > Secure Lock Settings, enter your password, and toggle on "Auto Factory Reset."
Encrypt Cloud Data to Protect From Data Breaches
In a recent data breach, 270,000 Samsung customer records were exposed, revealing full names, email addresses, home addresses, transaction histories, payment methods, delivery tracking links, and more. Clearly, securing your cloud data has become crucial.
While you can’t stop hackers from attacking, you can make their job harder by encrypting your cloud data. Go to Settings > Security and Privacy > More Security Settings > Enhanced Data Protection, and toggle on "Encrypt Backup Data" and "Encrypt Synced Data." You’ll then be prompted to enter your Samsung account password.
This feature isn’t enabled by default because it makes data recovery slightly harder: after enabling it, you’ll receive a recovery code to decrypt and restore your backed-up cloud data, but losing both the recovery code and the device used to encrypt the data means your data is gone forever.
It carries the same level of risk as enabling two-factor authentication and the same level of inconvenience as storing backup codes.
Encrypt SD Card to Prevent Use on Another Device
A thief may not access your internal storage, but they can certainly eject the SD card with a SIM ejection tool and insert it into their own device to instantly access some of your data. High-end Samsung phones no longer come with a microSD card slot, but if yours does, consider encrypting it.
Encrypting your SD card ensures it only works on your phone, so even if a thief inserts it into their device, your data remains inaccessible.
Encrypting an SD card requires your phone to erase everything on it, so before proceeding, move everything on your card to internal storage or an external drive to retrieve later. Then, perform the encryption, and move everything back.
After backing up everything on your SD card, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > More Security Settings > Encrypt SD Card, and tap "Delete All Data and Encrypt SD Card." You may be asked to confirm with your Samsung account password.
Pin App to Screen Before Lending Your Phone
Use app pinning when lending your phone to someone temporarily and you want to ensure they don’t snoop around your gallery, messages, files, call logs, transaction history, and other private data. While snooping isn’t technically data theft, it’s still unauthorized access and a major privacy violation.
When you pin an app to the screen, the user can’t exit it or access anything else on your phone until you unpin it using biometrics or a password. To unpin, long-press the Recents and Back buttons simultaneously, or swipe up and hold from the bottom of the screen if you’re using gesture navigation. The screen will lock immediately after unpinning.
To use this, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > More Security Settings > Allow Apps to be Pinned, and toggle the feature on. Ensure "Lock Phone After Unpinning" is also enabled. Then, open the Recents screen, tap your desired app, and select "Pin This App."
Move Sensitive Files to Secure Folder
The Secure Folder app on your Samsung phone is great for keeping sensitive information hidden. Data inside it is protected by Samsung’s proprietary Knox security platform, and the app requires your biometrics or password to unlock. Even if you lose your phone, your Secure Folder contents remain safe.
Secure Folder isn’t just for private photos and documents; it’s a completely separate, isolated space on your phone. You can add any third-party app to it. Dating apps, payment apps, and investment apps benefit greatly from having their own private space, which isn’t visible in the app drawer.
Use Private Sharing to Share Sensitive Photos
If you’re sending sensitive photos or documents to another Samsung user, you can send them via Quick Share’s Private Sharing option to prevent screenshots, downloads, or further sharing of your sent files. You can also set an expiry date (from one minute to one week), after which your sent files will no longer be accessible to the recipient.
This way, you can avoid misuse and unauthorized redistribution of your files, maintaining your privacy. To do this, go to your gallery and share the item of your choice, tap Quick Share, tap the three-dots menu, and tap "Turn on Private Sharing." Change the expiry date and select your desired contact. You can also choose to send to a non-Samsung user via Bluetooth.
Samsung phones come with many security features, and while none provide enough security alone, they all work together to minimize the chances of device and data loss.
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