Remote Wipe Android: How to Erase a Lost or Stolen Phone

To remote wipe an Android phone, open Find Hub (formerly Find My Device) at google.com/android/find or in the Find Hub app on another device, sign in with the Google account on the lost phone, select the phone and choose Factory reset. The phone must be on, connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi, signed in to that Google account and have Find Hub turned on. After the erase you can no longer locate it, and anyone who sets it up again needs your Google account password. Company phones are wiped from the organization's MDM instead, and on a personal phone with a work profile, IT removes only the work profile.

If your own phone is missing, the Find Hub steps below are all you need; the sections after them are for IT teams wiping company devices.

How to remote wipe an Android phone with Find Hub

1. On another phone, a tablet or a computer, open the Find Hub app or go to google.com/android/find. On a friend's Android phone, you can use guest mode.
2. Sign in with the Google account that is on the lost phone.
3. Select the phone from the list.
4. Try Play sound or Secure device first if there is a chance of getting it back. Securing it locks the screen and lets you show a message and a callback number.
5. When you are sure, choose Factory reset and confirm. You may be asked for your Google account password.

Google's labels move between app versions, so if you do not see Factory reset on the main screen, look in the phone's settings inside Find Hub.

What the phone needs for a remote wipe to work

Google lists these conditions for finding, securing or erasing a phone:

• It is turned on.
• It is connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi.
• It is signed in to a Google account.
• Find Hub is on (adding a Google account turns it on by default).
• It is visible on Google Play.

Check these on your phones now, before one goes missing: Settings > Google > All services > Find Hub on most phones (the path varies by maker), and set a screen lock while you are there.

What happens after you erase the phone

• Everything on internal storage is deleted. Apps, photos, messages, accounts and settings go.
• You can no longer locate it in Find Hub. Locate first, wipe last.
• Factory reset protection stays on. Anyone who sets the phone up again must sign in with the Google account that was on it, so a thief cannot simply reset and reuse it.
• SD cards may not be erased. Google warns that data on a memory card can remain.

What is remote wipe?

Remote wipe is a command, sent over the internet, that erases data on a device you cannot hold. On Android it comes in two sizes:

• Device wipe: a full factory reset. Used for your own phone through Find Hub, and for company-owned, fully managed phones through an MDM.
• Work profile wipe: removes only the Android work profile, with its work apps and data, from a personal phone. The owner's photos, apps and accounts stay. This is the only kind of wipe a company should send to an employee's own phone.

Prerequisites for wiping company Android devices

For IT, the time to prepare is before a phone is lost:

• Enroll every company phone in your MDM as fully managed (company-owned) or with a work profile (personal). A phone that was never enrolled cannot be wiped by IT. For company phones, Android QR code enrollment walks through the fully managed setup.
• Require a screen lock and encryption. Android encrypts storage when a lock is set, which protects data while a phone is offline and a wipe cannot reach it.
• Keep the inventory current: who has which phone, its serial number, and whether it is company-owned or personal.
• Write down who may send a wipe and when, so nobody wipes the wrong phone in a hurry.

How IT wipes company Android devices

Company-owned phones: full device wipe

On a fully managed phone, the MDM can send a factory reset. Through Google's Android Management API, deleting a company-owned device attempts a wipe; Google notes that a phone that stays offline for a long time may never receive it. The same API can keep factory reset protection data through the wipe, so a stolen phone stays tied to your organization after the reset.

Personal phones: remove the work profile

On a personal phone enrolled with a work profile, the same command removes only the work profile. The MDM can show the employee a short reason before it goes. It cannot erase personal data, and it should not try. For the employee's side of this, see how to remove a work profile on Android.

Google Workspace: wipe account or wipe device

If your phones are managed in the Google Admin console, you have two options under the device's details: Wipe account removes the Workspace account and its data from the phone, and Wipe device factory resets it. Wipe device is for company-owned phones; on a personal phone, wipe the account.

Before you wipe a company phone

1. Confirm the phone and the owner. Check the serial number and ownership in your inventory.
2. Try to locate and lock it first. Once a phone is wiped, you can no longer locate it. See how to remote lock an Android phone.
3. Make sure work data is backed up in your cloud services, not only on the phone.
4. Sign the user out of company apps and revoke sessions in your identity provider, so the account is safe even if the wipe is delayed.
5. Record the request and the result for your incident notes.

Remote wipe limitations

• Offline phones. A phone that is off, in airplane mode or without signal cannot receive the command. Encryption and a strong screen lock are what protect it in that time.
• Memory cards. External SD cards may keep their data.
• Cloud copies. Data synced to Google Drive or other services is not touched; secure those accounts separately.
• Maker differences. Settings paths and some behaviours differ between Samsung, Pixel and other phones. Test a wipe on one spare phone of each model you use.

Troubleshooting a remote wipe that does not happen

• The phone does not appear in Find Hub: it is signed in to a different Google account, Find Hub was off, or the phone is hidden on Google Play.
• The command is sent but nothing happens: the phone is offline. Leave the command in place and check the device's last check-in in Find Hub or your MDM.
• The MDM shows the phone as not reachable: look at when it last checked in. A phone that has not checked in for weeks may be powered off for good; revoke its accounts and treat the data as exposed until you know otherwise.
• Only the work profile disappeared: that is expected on a personal phone; a full wipe is only possible on company-owned devices.

Remote wipe methods compared

Managing this across many devices

When a company phone goes missing, IT needs to find it, lock it and, if it is gone, wipe it without waiting for anyone. trio.so locks and wipes company-owned Android devices from one console and shows where each device is. See Android device management.

Related reading: remote wipe for mobile devices, how to remote wipe an iPhone, remote wipe on Windows and remote lock on Android.