A friend of mine bought a Galaxy S6, and has used it for a few months now. He has it locked with the finger print scanner. I'm sure this topic has been covered here before. The scanner no longer recognizes his finger print, and his back up password doesn't seem to work for some reason. Both Verizon and Samsung say all he can do is a factory reset. Samsungs findmymbobile was not setup on his phone. Googles ADM is useless all of a sudden. It tells you that since the phone is locked, there's no need to lock it to the specified password. He's fine with doing a factory reset, however, he has a ton of photos (he never setup cloud storage either) of his kids he is desperate to save. He's asking for my help. I told him I'd take a look, but it's pretty tough to do much of anything when I can't enable USB debugging.
A couple questions;
When I boot into odin on the phone, there's an option to enable USB debugging. Does this actually do anything? It seemed to reboot the phone and just bring me to the password screen again.
Is there any way I can root the phone and remove the password, while maintaining the pictures on the phones internal storage?
Is there anything else that has made its way into the scene for dealing with this bug? I've done a bit of research, and it seems it's happened to quite a few people.
Apparently when you don't use the pattern lock, it does not give you the option to unlock your screen with your google account credentials. Google has been no help in this matter.
If this has already been answered in the past, I apologize.
Thanks for the help.
Related
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.
Friend got into a fight with his brother. His brother was able to break into his phone.
Friend changed the password on the device last week, and because of his school, he doesn't take the phone with him.
He opened the phone today, and can't remember the password.
It is a Moto G7 Power, running Android 9
It has GenTech installed on the phone.
I do not know any specifics beyond that, as the settings are hidden behind a lock screen.
When I logged into the Google account, it looks like the account hasn't been backing up photos, contacts, etc since the GenTech was put on. iDrive also hasn't been backing anything up.
Are there any tools that can remove the lock screen? Preferably free, but I wouldn't mind paying a small amount. And NOT wipe the device.
Before coming here, I saw Eelphone, but it looked super shady.
Searching through XDA's forums, I saw Dr.Fone as an application as well.
Are these the best options? I mean, I troubleshoot devices for clients all the time, and thankfully haven't had to recover their devices like this, and I know that it has changed a lot since the beginnings of Android, but I need something in the toolbox for sure.
Any help is appreciated, thank you!
Edit: I thought I might try Dr.Fone on my Motorola device. Uh, not the right application that I need! I want the data preserved, not wiped. If I wanted the phone wiped, I'd have done it from the bootloader.
(Or do they make a copy of the device, wipe the phone, and reload everything minus the lock screen?)
(Or is Dr.Fone a malicious program masquerading as legitimate?)
DaNissNYC said:
Friend got into a fight with his brother. His brother was able to break into his phone.
Friend changed the password on the device last week, and because of his school, he doesn't take the phone with him.
He opened the phone today, and can't remember the password.
It is a Moto G7 Power, running Android 9
It has GenTech installed on the phone.
I do not know any specifics beyond that, as the settings are hidden behind a lock screen.
When I logged into the Google account, it looks like the account hasn't been backing up photos, contacts, etc since the GenTech was put on. iDrive also hasn't been backing anything up.
Are there any tools that can remove the lock screen? Preferably free, but I wouldn't mind paying a small amount. And NOT wipe the device.
Before coming here, I saw Eelphone, but it looked super shady.
Searching through XDA's forums, I saw Dr.Fone as an application as well.
Are these the best options? I mean, I troubleshoot devices for clients all the time, and thankfully haven't had to recover their devices like this, and I know that it has changed a lot since the beginnings of Android, but I need something in the toolbox for sure.
Any help is appreciated, thank you!
Edit: I thought I might try Dr.Fone on my Motorola device. Uh, not the right application that I need! I want the data preserved, not wiped. If I wanted the phone wiped, I'd have done it from the bootloader.
(Or do they make a copy of the device, wipe the phone, and reload everything minus the lock screen?)
(Or is Dr.Fone a malicious program masquerading as legitimate?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the device rooted?
Does the device have USB debugging enabled in system settings?
If the answers to these questions are no, then all you can do is factory reset. After resetting, it will probably be FRP locked(Factory Reset Protection), which means you still need to remember the google account username and password to get logged into the device, but, the lockscreen pin/password will be removed. You'll lose the user's data in the process. At this point, if it isn't rooted or does not have USB debugging enabled, there aren't really any options to save their user data before resetting the device.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
The phone is not rooted, unless the GenTech software gained the root access. (I am too new to post a direct link, but it is a monitoring program - I don't know how common it is outside of my community)
If I recall correctly, I did get access to developer options, but that was back in July - I'm not sure if I have developer options enabled at this time.
The paid softwares can't crack it? That really is too bad.
After 10 years I really should know the answer, but I don't, and the XDA search function still doesn't work for me.
My N5 has a broken SIM tray. I bought an eBay broken-screen N5 and put this motherboard into mine. It asks for a PIN, which I obviously don't have (understandable that the seller couldn't remove the account, since the screen was totalled).
I've asked the seller for the PIN, but personally I'd be reluctant in his shoes.
Is there a workaround? I've seen the YouTube video (factory reset, settings, enable bootloader unlock, etc.) but that looked as if it was on an Android 5 device and I'd be surprised if Google haven't closed the loophole.
In the absence of a PIN, any suggestions? I've seen a suggestion that the seller could remove the device from Google via his PC - would that work?
(Edit: No, the seller says that the device doesn't appear on his Google device list.)
Thank you...
Update to prevent anyone spending time trying to think of a way to help...
In fact for reasons which appear to go against everything I've read about FRP I was able to use Fastboot to boot TWRP and factory reset the device, after which I was able to install CrDroid. Maybe it's because the device was on Android 6, too old for FRP to be a problem.
Anyway, bottom line, all ok now.
Hello,
Recently a friends son passed away and the family wants to recover whatever is in his phone including his last text messages and phonecalls.
Xiaomi only offered a full wipe which cannot happen even though the phone and receipt is on his mother's name ( the person who currently has the phone).
I'm uncertain if the phone has USB debugging turned on as I havent got it in my hands yet, trying to gather as much info as I can before I try anything on it.
The family also has a second Poco x3 so the idea was to try anything I find on the 2nd phone first to make sure it doesnt wipe.
It is locked with a pattern and face recognition, but they told me it doesnt ask for the face recognition unless its turned off and on again so they keep it charged at all times to prevent that from happening for obvious reasons.
Any ideas or ways or direction is welcome and very much appreciated.
Doesn't matter if phone has USB debugging turned on, you need to actually allow access from inside the phone to allow debugging on untrusted machine. Sorry, don't think there is any way, unless you know the password, or maybe try to face unlock by pointing the phone at a picture of their son? Don't know if this will work.
Popletenec said:
Doesn't matter if phone has USB debugging turned on, you need to actually allow access from inside the phone to allow debugging on untrusted machine. Sorry, don't think there is any way, unless you know the password, or maybe try to face unlock by pointing the phone at a picture of their son? Don't know if this will work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The picture is worth a try. Theres also a google recovery thing when you fail multiple times on the pattern to answer a secret question, so im hoping that he put an easy one so the family can figure it out. Thanks for your suggestion