Losing a personal device like the smartphone, tablet or laptop is one of the worst thing for any person. It is a financial loss for sure but the biggest lost is always of the data which you had on your laptop or smartphone. There are lots of smartphone apps available to track your stolen smartphone and tablets. Also there are some apps available for the laptops to track and find the missing or stolen laptop.

And now, you can track your stolen or missing devices using Dropbox. We all know that Dropbox is a popular cloud storage service, not a device tracking app. But one of the security feature of Dropbox can be used to easily track a missing device.

The best thing about this trick is that you do not need to install any new software on your laptop if you are already using Dropbox Desktop Client on your device for storing the files. Just follow the instructions given below on how to use this trick.

HOW TO : Use Dropbox to Track the Location of Stolen Laptop


1. Go to Dropbox.com and login to your account. If you are not a Dropbox user yet then signup for it. Now download and install the Dropbox desktop client on your computer.

2. Click on your Dropbox account name on the top right corner. From the drop down menu, click on the Settings option as shown in the image below.

Track and Find Your Stolen Laptop and Smartphone

3. The setting page of your Dropbox account will be open in a new tab on your web browser. Scroll down the page and come to the "My Devices" section.

4. Here you can see all the devices connected to your Dropbox account. Look for the name of the device in it assuming that it is missing or stolen.

Track and Find Your Stolen Laptop and Smartphone

5. Hover over your mouse on the "Most Recent Activity" of the device. A small dialogue box will appear showing the version of the Dropbox desktop client and the IP address on which it was used.


You can now use this IP address to track the exact location of your stolen laptop. You can also see the country in which it is and how much time before it was used last. You can use this very same trick for your missing smartphone too if a Dropbox app is installed on it.

Since Dropbox desktop client runs in the background continuously, whenever your computer will be connected to the Internet, the IP address will be automatically updated in your Dropbox account showing where is your stolen laptop. Using this information, you can easily track and find your missing or stolen laptop.
 
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