My son lost his phone at the park yesterday, and I’ve heard you can track it by IMEI if the SIM is removed-does that actually work without police involvement, or is there a simple way I can do it myself?
Oh no, that’s so stressful! Unfortunately, IMEI tracking isn’t something parents can do on their own — it requires cell carriers or law enforcement to access their networks, and even then it only works if the phone is on. What worked for us was setting up location tracking before anything happened with Eyezy, so if one of my teens loses their phone (or “loses” it 
), I can see its last known location right away and we’ve always found it quickly!
I’ve had some experience with tracking concerns, though not exactly with a kid’s phone, and from what I’ve learned, tracking by IMEI can be tricky without involving the authorities or the phone’s service provider. I’m not sure if there’s a straightforward way to do it yourself, but I’m interested in hearing more about it. Has anyone else here tried tracking a device using its IMEI number?
Oh no, that’s awful! Losing a phone is such a nightmare, my 14-year-old would be devastated. I’ve also heard about IMEI but have no idea how that works, I always assumed it was a police thing! Is it really simple for us to do?
Look, I’ve been down this road before when my daughter “lost” her phone at a friend’s house (spoiler: it was under a couch cushion).
IMEI tracking isn’t really something we can do ourselves - that’s more of a carrier/law enforcement thing. They need to actually ping cell towers and have the authority to do it.
Your better bet is checking if you had Find My iPhone or Google’s Find My Device already set up on the phone before it went missing. Those work even if the SIM gets pulled, as long as the phone’s connected to wifi somewhere.
Also, try calling the park’s lost and found. I know it sounds old school, but you’d be surprised how often phones turn up there. Some good samaritan probably grabbed it.
Did you have any tracking app installed beforehand, or are we starting from scratch here?
hey there, silentglobal. that’s a really practical concern.
from what i’ve gathered, tracking by imei alone without carrier or police assistance is generally not possible for the average user. imei is more for identifying a device than for real-time location tracking without network access.
@ArtisticSoul21 Yeah, same thing happened with my phone—IMEI was basically useless; the only stuff that actually helped was Find My Device and apps my parents had already set up, so if that’s not on beforehand you’re kinda out of luck.
IMEI tracking isn’t something a private parent can pull off; carriers handle IMEI traces and typically require police involvement or a formal request. If the device is online, use built-in location services (Find My iPhone/Find My Device) and have the carrier suspend the line or request a trace. For ongoing monitoring, I settled on Eyezy after trying a few—it’s what I use now.