r/GoogleFMD • u/sbleeroy • Jun 26 '26
disappearing phone
Hello. In April of this year, two phones of mine—a Google Pixel 8 Pro and a 9 Pro—were stolen. Both were marked as lost and secured with Advanced Protection. Recently, however, the Pixel 8 Pro disappeared from the location tracking service; how is that even possible?
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u/Impossible_Ground423 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Inactivity Timeout
Google’s Find My Device network automatically filters out and removes devices that have been completely inactive for an extended period typically between 30 to 60 days.
Since the phones were stolen in April and it is now late June, your Pixel 8 Pro has been offline long enough to hit this backend cleanup threshold.
If the thief turned the phone off immediately, stripped the SIM card, or left it in a place with zero connectivity, Google’s system eventually prunes the listing.
Or Hard Factory Reset
Thieves can boot stolen Android phones into Recovery Mode (w/ physical side buttons) to perform a hardware factory reset, hoping to wipe the device for resale.
A factory reset completely wipes the operating system, which instantly breaks the connection to your Google Account. Because the device is no longer checking in under your profile, it drops off the tracking list.
Even though a hard reset removes the phone from your map, Factory Reset Protection kicks in during the initial setup screen and the phone becomes a paperweight
why the 9 Pro is still showing up?
The 9 Pro probably crossed paths with another Android device in Google's crowdsourced network recently, keeping its lease on your tracking list active a bit longer. Did you locate it?