Is there a way to track a stolen smartphone using IMEI codes?

Question

Mobile devices

Every person encounters theft in life. It became interesting whether it is possible to track a stolen phone by IMEI codes, and if so, how to do it?
At the police station they said that they would not even waste time and energy on such a trifling matter. The fact that at the time of writing the statement about the loss of the phone, he, in turn, was still on the network until (as I think) the SIM cards were pulled out. On the smartphone, accounts from Google and Xiaomi were connected, but they only show that it is impossible to find the device. Most likely the smarfton has already been brought to the factory settings or something like that. I just want to somehow try to return the smarfton, or at least find out where it was last time. I will be grateful for any answer.

Answer 1

At the police station they said that they would not even waste time and energy on such a trifling matter.

This is not happening in Russia, as I understand it? I just haven't heard of this in years.
Yes, you can track it, this is exactly what law enforcement agencies should do, who send a corresponding request to mobile operators, who either block (as is done by Apple) or track the phone through base stations, or both.

Answer 2

IMEI does not change when resetting to factory settings, even when changing firmware. There are few ways to change it, but it's illegal. You can easily track it when connected to any type of network, even with a changed SIM card and under a different Wifi. Any access to the Internet fires a smartphone by IMEI.
I would also recommend making search services on a smartphone by geolocation, FindDevice from Google.