"Where's My Droid" not working

[sukayser]

I recently installed "Where's My Droid", the "donate" version, and I can't get it to work as advertised.

I don't have a texting contract (which means that if I do send or receive a text, it costs me 20 cents each time), so I preferred to use the email option. This means, I should send an email from a gmail account from another android phone or a computer to <mydroidnumber>@vtext.com (with my 10-digi phone number in, of course) and my special word, and a few minutes later a message should come back with the gps location of my Droid. (Of course, my Droid has to be on, with GPS enabled, for this to work.)

I have tried this several times, from my home computer and from another Droid. Each time except once, the message seems to have vanished into thin air. The Sent mail confirms it went out, but nothing ever comes back. The one exception was that my Droid received my message as a text message, but did nothing else.

I've tried contacting the developer, with no success.

Has anyone made this work? Or can anyone suggest a better app? I installed this when I thought I had lost my Droid at the airport, and would have liked to locate it. The Droid turned up in my car, but if I'd had the app on it and working, I could have found this out and not spent the next week worrying.

 

[Droid DOES!!]

Is it designed to work through emails that way? I send mine as SMS messages and it works every time. Text packages start at $5 for 250 messages or you can set up a Google Voice account and text that number.

I recently installed "Where's My Droid", the "donate" version, and I can't get it to work as advertised.

I don't have a texting contract (which means that if I do send or receive a text, it costs me 20 cents each time), so I preferred to use the email option. This means, I should send an email from a gmail account from another android phone or a computer to @vtext.com (with my 10-digi phone number in, of course) and my special word, and a few minutes later a message should come back with the gps location of my Droid. (Of course, my Droid has to be on, with GPS enabled, for this to work.)

I have tried this several times, from my home computer and from another Droid. Each time except once, the message seems to have vanished into thin air. The Sent mail confirms it went out, but nothing ever comes back. The one exception was that my Droid received my message as a text message, but did nothing else.

I've tried contacting the developer, with no success.

Has anyone made this work? Or can anyone suggest a better app? I installed this when I thought I had lost my Droid at the airport, and would have liked to locate it. The Droid turned up in my car, but if I'd had the app on it and working, I could have found this out and not spent the next week worrying.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[spaz33g]

I just tried it with the text and email option and it worked flawlessly both times. Are you sure your entering the code correctly?

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[sukayser]

Yes, it's supposed to work with email--that's why I chose that app. I checked on my Droid what I'd put in for the GPS word, and that was what I entered when I sent the gmail. I'll try it with text, just to complete all possibilities.

Am I doing it correctly after all? In my gmail account, I entered my 10 digits of the Droid's phone number followed by @vtext.com as the address, in the subject line I entered my GPS word, and left the body blank. Then I sent off the message.

 

[spaz33g]

When I did it I left the subject line blank and put my word in the body.

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums App

 

[sukayser]

Putting the word in the body isn't what the developer said, but it's worth a try...

 

[sukayser]

Didn't work. I gmailed the message from my computer, since I don't have a second phone available right now. The address was my 10 digit phone number @vtext.com, nothing in the subject line, and the special word in the body.

Nothing came back to the computer, but a text message was received on the Droid, consisting of the special GPS word. This is useless to me, of course.

Any more suggestions? When I can get the use of another smart phone, I will try sending a text message for the GPS location, just to see what happens. I have not tried sending a message with my special texting word, because I don't care if it will ring or not. It's the GPS location that I am solely interested in.

 

[Droid DOES!!]

I use this app for texting from another phone and Mobile Defense for tracking it with GPS

 

[sukayser]

Well, I've tried everything I could think of. I uninstalled "Where's My Droid", reinstalled it, assigned my special words, and got a friend with another Droid to text a message to my Droid with the message consisting of my special GPS word. The message was sent, but nothing came back (and nothing showed up on my Droid, either).

This app is useless for me. I'm giving up on it, with some disgust.

 

[mwhartman]

Sorry that you are having such a difficult time with this app, Sukayser. I have no experience with "Where's My Droid" so I am not able to provide any additional recommendations.

I noted that your repeated attempts to contact the developer have been unsuccessful. Perhaps it is time to post a comment on the app's comments page.
Mike

 

[sukayser]

Sorry that you are having such a difficult time with this app, Sukayser. I have no experience with "Where's My Droid" so I am not able to provide any additional recommendations.

I noted that your repeated attempts to contact the developer have been unsuccessful. Perhaps it is time to post a comment on the app's comments page.
Mike

I tried to do that, but couldn't figure out how without signing up for something I didn't want to sign up for. I've been posting my problem all around. I see from various forums that others also have a problem.

Susan

 

[mwhartman]

Sorry that you are having such a difficult time with this app, Sukayser. I have no experience with "Where's My Droid" so I am not able to provide any additional recommendations.

I noted that your repeated attempts to contact the developer have been unsuccessful. Perhaps it is time to post a comment on the app's comments page.
Mike

I tried to do that, but couldn't figure out how without signing up for something I didn't want to sign up for. I've been posting my problem all around. I see from various forums that others also have a problem.

Susan

To add a comment open the market. Tap downloads and tap Where is my droid. Tap My Review and select a star. Then tap Post a comment.

Hope this is helpful.

Mike

 

[sukayser]

Hurrah! I just installed the new upgrade to "Where's My Droid", sent a gmail message to the Droid from my computer, and got back two messages, one with the latitude and longitude, and one with a map link!

Actually, that was the second trial. The first time, I got this message:

Unable to get Android's current location, but the last known location is:
Latitude:null
Longitude:null

but I think that is a Google Maps app problem. When I checked the Droid, went to Maps, and clicked the "find my location" button, the app did NOT find my location. I had to click again (this time nearer a window) to get the app to find me. This inability to find me in Maps has happened several times in the last couple of weeks. But "Where's My Droid" is working!

Susan

 

[APP]

Didn't work. I gmailed the message from my computer, since I don't have a second phone available right now. The address was my 10 digit phone number @vtext.com, nothing in the subject line, and the special word in the body.

Just wanted to add that this worked for me on the verizon network. Could not get it to work until I read the quote above. Left the subject line of the email blank and just put the secret phrase in the body (deleted my auto-signature out of the email as well - not sure if that matters). Worked great.