I havn't used the phone in a long time, and I'm trying to sell it.
So I put my SIM Card in to delete everything on it, and it asked for a Phone Lock password. I don't remember setting a password. So how do I get past this?
Is there some sort of hard reset? Or a default code?
Thanks in advance.
Well crap! I finally decided to make the jump to encrypt my phone, Samsung Galaxy S4 using the built-in Android encryption.
I was a little disappointed that the password I choose to boot my phone is the same password I use to wake my phone. I either have to choose an annoyingly long password every time I turn on the screen, or an insecure password at boot, because they're one in the same.
I found a genius work around that could separate the passwords and fix the problem, here:
niki.hammler >o< .net/w/index.php?title=Android_Device_Encryption&oldid=1400
Worked amazing. In a nutshell, it uses Secure Settings/Tasker to change the device PW to a 4-digit pin, and then uses Terminal emulator and "cryptfs changepw" to change only the encryption keyphrase. Couldn't be happier.
One problem has just occurred, however. Using Terminal to change the cryptfs password, I made a bad mistake. I fed it a password that is 17 characters long and it was happy to take it. Turns out, Android only supports 16 characters, so when I reboot my phone, I can only type in 16 characters. I tried entering just the first 16, but it's a no go. I'm completely locked out. No clue what I can do. Please help!
I guess there's no way around it....
Hi guys, I created this account just for this question so I hope I'm posting in the right section!
On to the problem, I have a SM-G920I S6 that I have locked with my fingerprints. I set my backup password to my gmail one so it would be easy to remember. This morning I went to unlock my phone and the scanner didn't recognise my finger 3 times(happens sometimes as we all know). It asked me for the backup password which I entered and it told me was wrong (3? times). It then asked for my google email and password which it also says is wrong!
I haven't set up the 'Find my mobile' thing yet (idiot) so I can't remotely unlock it. I tried logging in and out of youtube on my pc and that works fine but now I can't access the verification code message because there are multiple messages/texts (on my phone) at this point *sigh* - but it demonstrates that my password is working at least!
I guess the last thing I can do is wipe the phone? but I obviously don't want to do that...
I also only just recently changed my password and enabled 2-step verification (before buying the phone though so that shouldn't break it???) if that helps.
Thanks guys!
Hi again guys, I just want to announce that my phone has magically let me in with the password I've tried dozens of times!
I'm not sure how to delete/end a thread so I just wanted to post a conclusion. Sorry if I haven't done the right thing.
I already posted here about an issue where both my wife's and my GS7E's had a login issue where our pin/password would not be accepted, but with new info thought this should stand alone. It happened again this morning. I awoke to a request for my password to "protect" my fingerprints. The password like the pin in the previous 2 incidents is not accepted. My phone is locked and it seems after contacting both Sprint and Samsung? The only option is a factory reset. I spoke to a rep at Sprint and she said this is a known bug and they are receiving many calls about it. Sometimes, after rejecting the password/pin repeatedly it will suddenly work, but I'm already at the 1hr between tries point. I even tried to use the google dashboard but it will not replace the password because the phone is already locked with a password. I have removed security from my wife's phone to prevent this. I will do the same with my phone when I gain access. After loving the phone, I'm now at a point where I'm considering returning both for either G5's or holding out for the HTC 10 which should be released within my 30 day window. I don't know if this is specifically fingerprint related or pin/password? If you don't want to face a factory reset? You may want to consider turning off login security till a fix is found. Waking up with a locked device and no way of fixing without completely wiping the same is not conducive to a good day.
Why not just use Fingerprint with pattern backup?
its the update APC thats warned about in this forum
it breaks all kinds of stuff
(I posted this in the other topic but will post it here as well to help further discussion)
Yeah, it's the strangest thing. This happened to me as well only it was a password and not a pin. I honestly thought it was a mistake on my part. About a day after initially getting the device and setting up the fingerprint and password, my phone died ( I was using Gear VR and it didn't alert me that battery was even low), and when I rebooted it said something like " enter password for storage encryption" or something of the sort. I assumed it was my unlock password but it wasn't working....
So I looked all over the internet and all I could find were recommendations to try your normal unlock password. I tried and tried until I got the dreaded "you have 9 attempts remaining before factory reset" popped up. That's when I thought back to when I first set up the password and how I wasn't used to the edge of the screen yet. So I kept accidentally hitting keys on the edge while I was typing (because normally you can rest your hand on the edge, but on this if you do that you're pressing the edge of the screen). So I tried my exact password with one of the characters as a common "typo" that I kept making for that letter. And voila! It worked! Now the weirdness continues.
At this point I'm happy I figured it out but found it SO odd that I typed that password so many times and input a typo.... I must had used that password at least 15 times over that day....the odds of me doing a typo every time..slim. So the whole thing felt extremely sketch so I immediately went to change the password (and just turn off security in general, don't need it, just was playing around with fingerprint and needed password) after it booted up. And, of course, even with the typo the pass no longer worked. I tried it until the wait time between each try was an hour, heh. I tried all sorts of typo variations of the password, but to no avail. But, at least the phone was now ON. So I was able to backup my SMS, Apps, Settings, Themes, etc and prepare for the factory reset. What a wild ride.
I have no idea why it even happened in the first place. I never turned on any encryption and I never turned on "require password on boot up." Those settings were even toggled off when I checked while the phone was still on. (couldn't see all settings without password though).
Even weirder, I have no idea why the password with the typo even worked that one time to get it to boot. That same password never worked again.
IDK how widespread this is, but be CAUTIOUS and back up the things that you need to. Also, sign up for a Find My Mobile type service to unlock your phone and give you remote access should happen to you. Or just disable the security altogether until they announce a bug fix for this issue. I thought I was the only one with this issue and chalked it up to a weird freak occurrence. So thanks for the topic as I now know it wasn't just me.
corey52 said:
(I posted this in the other topic but will post it here as well to help further discussion)
Yeah, it's the strangest thing. This happened to me as well only it was a password and not a pin. I honestly thought it was a mistake on my part. About a day after initially getting the device and setting up the fingerprint and password, my phone died ( I was using Gear VR and it didn't alert me that battery was even low), and when I rebooted it said something like " enter password for storage encryption" or something of the sort. I assumed it was my unlock password but it wasn't working....
So I looked all over the internet and all I could find were recommendations to try your normal unlock password. I tried and tried until I got the dreaded "you have 9 attempts remaining before factory reset" popped up. That's when I thought back to when I first set up the password and how I wasn't used to the edge of the screen yet. So I kept accidentally hitting keys on the edge while I was typing (because normally you can rest your hand on the edge, but on this if you do that you're pressing the edge of the screen). So I tried my exact password with one of the characters as a common "typo" that I kept making for that letter. And voila! It worked! Now the weirdness continues.
At this point I'm happy I figured it out but found it SO odd that I typed that password so many times and input a typo.... I must had used that password at least 15 times over that day....the odds of me doing a typo every time..slim. So the whole thing felt extremely sketch so I immediately went to change the password (and just turn off security in general, don't need it, just was playing around with fingerprint and needed password) after it booted up. And, of course, even with the typo the pass no longer worked. I tried it until the wait time between each try was an hour, heh. I tried all sorts of typo variations of the password, but to no avail. But, at least the phone was now ON. So I was able to backup my SMS, Apps, Settings, Themes, etc and prepare for the factory reset. What a wild ride.
I have no idea why it even happened in the first place. I never turned on any encryption and I never turned on "require password on boot up." Those settings were even toggled off when I checked while the phone was still on. (couldn't see all settings without password though).
Even weirder, I have no idea why the password with the typo even worked that one time to get it to boot. That same password never worked again.
IDK how widespread this is, but be CAUTIOUS and back up the things that you need to. Also, sign up for a Find My Mobile type service to unlock your phone and give you remote access should happen to you. Or just disable the security altogether until they announce a bug fix for this issue. I thought I was the only one with this issue and chalked it up to a weird freak occurrence. So thanks for the topic as I now know it wasn't just me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI, find my mobile services will allow you to lock an unlocked device with a new password, but will not allow you to lock an already locked device. So far, it appears that using a pattern as the fingerprint backup is immune to the issue, pin and password are not. ALSO, the issue can go away and your pin/password is accepted, even after many tries. The worst case scenario is when this happens after a restart, when you must use your backup method (pin, password or pattern) instead of a fingerprint.
Hi,
Yesterday I set a fingerprint lock on my S7. It prompted me to enter a backup password and some other password, both with different requirements (one only had to be 4 letters, one was longer and had a number) and the longer one had to be confirmed whereas the shorter one did not. I set this up and tested it a few times, everything seemed to work great. Later I let my phone idle and it turned the screen off on its own for the first time, ever since then the phone has not been able to recognize my fingerprint. It doesn't even say "No match", it just acts like I'm not even putting a finger on it at all.
Tried over and over and eventually tried the backup password, which for some reason is the shorter one without a number. I put in what I am absolutely sure I put in, and it wouldn't take it. Tried a couple more times, even got so desperate as to emulate potential typing errors I might have made (since no confirmation for that password) and nothing worked.
Eventually I hit the timed lockout and I had to stop trying things then. So I went online and searched and discovered Google's Android Device Manager. I heard that if you lock the phone with it you can unlock it through the same manager and the phone will be unlocked. First thing that was odd was that ADM didn't give me an option to enter a password, just a contact message and phone number. I still put in a message and hit lock, and... nothing changed on ADM at all.
Now my phone shows the stupid message every time I wake it up and every few seconds on the lock screen (I can still attempt to unlock the phone with the password and use phone/camera though), but ADM doesn't even give an option to unlock, just change the locked message. I can't even get rid of the damn lock by changing it to blank. I heard Samsung offers a similar service but I never made a Samsung account and apparently one is required to use it.
Beyond that the only solution I've found is wiping the phone (which I can easily do, because there's an option in ADM for it which presumably works), which I really don't want to do since I have a lot of pictures and data on the phone that aren't backed up that I would absolutely hate to lose.
To make things worse it appears that this issue is specific to my phone/the S7/Samsung phones/something, as I have my old Nexus 4 listed in ADM as well and going through the options for it I see it has the ability to define a password, but no such thing for the S7. I really have no clue where to go from here, tons of googling hasn't found me any method I haven't already tried or can't do.
I'd be so grateful if someone here would at the very least find a way for me to recover data before wiping it to get rid of the lock.