The answer is yes, it's possible to track mobile phones even if location services are turned off. Turning off the location service on your phone can help conceal your location. This is important if you don't want third parties knowing where you are or being able to track your movement.
Regardless of whether you use an iPhone or an Android smartphone, it is possible for someone to install spyware onto your phone that secretly tracks and reports on your activity. It's even possible for someone to monitor your cell phone's activity without ever even touching it.
Go to Settings – Applications – Manage Applications or Running Services, and you may be able to spot suspicious looking files. Good spy programs usually disguise the file names so that they don't stand out but sometimes they may contain terms like spy, monitor, stealth, and so on.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking. The list shows the apps that requested permission to track you. You can turn permission on or off for any app on the list. To stop all apps from asking permission to track you, turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track (at the top of the screen).
Can Someone See Your Location on Airplane Mode with WiFi? If your phone is only in airplane mode, anyone who has access to your GPS can see your location. One way to ensure your location is hidden from others and third parties is to disable the GPS feature on your iPhone or Android.
To find a lost phone that is switched off; Go to Android.com/find on your web browser. Sign in with the Google account connected to the lost device. The device will be displayed at the top of the screen.
Can you Track Someone Location by Their Phone Number? Yes! Spy apps and phone tracking services made locating someone by phone number possible and easy. Not just that, with this advancement in GPS and phone technologies, you can even check the location history of a cell phone and get real-time location alerts.
Check for background apps
If an unauthorized person wants to see you through your phone's camera, using a spyware app is a viable method. Fortunately, if your stalker isn't a sophisticated hacker, the software they use may appear as an open application running behind the scenes.
Code to check if phone is tapped: *#21# Code to show unknown connections and tracking (for Android): *#*#4636#*#* or *#*#197328640#*#*
If you're using iCloud.com/find, you can't see your device's location if it's powered off, the battery has run out, or more than 24 hours has passed since its last location was sent to Apple. Learn how you can still protect your information.
Generally, the "no location found" warning displays when a phone is not connected to Wi-Fi or loses service. Location not available indicates that the GPS attempted but failed to determine the phone's location. Looking for a way to locate Android phone?
Open the Phone app and tap on the Keypad. Dial *#21# and hit the green call button. Note: This doesn't work with every carrier and every model, so results may vary. You'll get a screen with details on the activity of your calls, SMS messages and even faxes.
It is possible for someone to find your location by texting you if they have access to your phone's location information or if you share your location with them. For example, if you receive a text message with a link to a location, clicking on the link could allow the sender to track your location.
One way to tell if someone has checked your location is to look for the Location Services icon in the status bar of your iPhone. This icon will be active when Location Services is turned on, which means that your location is being shared with apps or other devices.
This stops all apps on your device, such as Maps, from using your location. No one is notified if you turn off Location Services, but some features may not work as expected without access to your location.
The most likely problem, for example, is that the other iPhone might not have cellular or WiFi reception. In addition, that other phone could be turned off, or your friend might have turned off location services in Settings.