Why a scan works better outside
Indoors, walls, metal and furniture cut Bluetooth to ten or twenty metres. Outdoors with a clear line of sight, fifty metres or more is normal. A single sweep can cover an entire suburban garden.
Grass and soil attenuate but do not block. Something a few centimetres into a lawn will still register weakly, which is more than can be said for anything under water.
How to sweep it
- Stand in the middle and run a scan for a full minute before moving. You may not need to walk at all.
- Walk the perimeter, watching which direction makes the reading climb.
- Move to the strongest area and sweep in a tight grid, holding the phone low.
- Search the ground by hand where the signal peaks, in long grass, sight is useless and touch is not.
What will not work
- Anything in a pond or a water butt. Water blocks 2.4 GHz almost completely.
- Anything in a metal shed or a metal bin.
- Anything with a flat battery, which for an earbud lost yesterday is likely.
Related methods
If this was not the situation you are in, one of these probably is.
- What to do if you find someone else’s device, Guidance
- What to set up before you travel, Prevention
- How to help someone else find their phone, Method
- How to make your phone ring loudly on demand, Ring it
- How to find something lost in a car, Method
- See battery on nearby devices, Inside Scan
- Beacon: A device that only broadcasts
- All how-to guides, the complete list
Common questions
How far does Bluetooth reach outdoors?
With clear line of sight, fifty metres or more is realistic, considerably better than the ten to thirty metres typical indoors.
Can a scan find something buried in soil or grass?
A few centimetres down, often yes, at reduced strength. Anything submerged in water, no.
In the app: This is what the app is built for. Read about Proximity Radar.