How to Locate a Hidden or Lost Bluetooth Device

If you suspect there is a hidden Bluetooth device in your house, apartment, or office—or you just lost a Bluetooth-capable device—there’s an easy way to track down its physical location thanks to an app on iPhone and Android. Here’s how to do it.

How Bluetooth Beacons Work

All devices with Bluetooth running in an activated state emit a constant signal that can be picked up by other Bluetooth-capable devices. This is how they send data wirelessly—and also how the devices connect to one another.

Using this property of Bluetooth, apps like Wunderfind and UFind can help you physically locate a lost, hidden, or unknown Bluetooth device using your smartphone. This includes PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, Bluetooth headphones, Airpods, smartwatches, smart home devices, and more. To locate any of these devices through Bluetooth signals, however, they have to be powered on with Bluetooth enabled.

Wunderfind for iPhone is free to use without any annoying ads, and the Pro version that offers extra features is currently a reasonable $5 in-app purchase (as of December 2024). There are other Bluetooth tracker apps out there, but we’ve found some of them to have predatory app subscriptions or intrusive ads. Wunderfind currently has none of those problems.

In the past, we recommended Wunderfind for Android, too, but the developer at the time of writing hasn’t updated the Android version since 2022. It wasn’t available at all for our phone running Android 15, either. So after some testing, we recommend UFind for Android users. The experience is very similar to Wunderfind with ads that aren’t as intrusive as others we tested. It will prompt you when you launch it to buy an app subscription, but you can simply hit the top-left X icon to ignore it.

How to Find a Hidden or Lost Bluetooth Device With an App

To find an active Bluetooth device, first make sure you have Bluetooth enabled on your smartphone. Next, if you’re using iPhone, download Wunderfind, or if you’re using Android, UFind. For the demonstration, though, we’ll be using Wunderfind.

After installing it, launch the app. You might be prompted to allow Bluetooth permissions, which the app needs to work. Next, you’ll see a list of Bluetooth devices that your smartphone has detected using its built-in Bluetooth radio.

Beside each device, you’ll notice an estimated distance between your smartphone’s current location and the hidden or missing Bluetooth device. This number changes dynamically as you move around. To get more detail about signal strength, tap one of the items on the list.

After tapping an item, you’ll see a screen that instructs you to move around while holding your smartphone and watching the signal strength of the targeted Bluetooth device change.

As you get closer to the target device, the signal strength will rise closer to 100%. (On UFind, you’ll inch closer to zero feet). As you move away from the target device, the signal strength will drop closer to 0%. Using this readout, you can move around your space until the signal strength can’t get any higher. If the device is lost and is located is in your home or office, it will be nearby.

If the device is unknown and you can’t find it, it might be in someone else’s home, office, or apartment. Or it might be purposely hidden somewhere nearby. It’s worth noting that most hidden surveillance cameras use Wi-Fi and not Bluetooth to communicate, since Bluetooth typically has a short wireless range, and someone would have to be nearby to receive the data. (You cannot detect Wi-Fi-only cameras with these apps, but there are other methods that will help.)

In the past, we’ve seen a mystery Bluetooth device called “ELK-BLEDOM” in our Bluetooth lists and discovered it was a neighbor’s LED Strip Light, so don’t assume you’re being spied on if you can’t find the unknown device in your home or office—you are very likely picking up a neighbor’s Bluetooth device that is sending stray signals in your direction. Good luck, and stay safe out there!