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WM6.1 - I'm asked for a password, but I don't have one!

Hello.
I recently got a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (with Windows Mobile 6.1), and I set a password on it.
Sometimes when it would ask me for my password, the shift or fn keys wouldn't work, so I couldn't enter it. I would have to soft reset the device to be able to type in my password.
Frustrated, I decided to disable password protection entirely. I then found that after leaving the device alone for a period of time (while sleeping, for example), it would lock and ask me for a password - but since I no longer had one, I couldn't. I would have to soft reset the device to bypass the password screen.
I searched around, and found that this was a bug in Windows Mobile, and the only solution was to hard reset and never enable password protection. After a while of putting up with it, I flashed my device to use itje's Touch-IT v7, and I performed a hard reset. It was fine for a while, but now it's doing it again: it's asking me for a password when I leave it alone for a period of time, but I don't have one. I never set a password this time.
Is there any real solution to this? It's incredibly frustrating. Thank you in advance.

you mean the security password that is enforced when using exchange email? there is ap app that will enable you to turn it off, but you should read this thread (the app is listed here but you should take heed of the warning from deedee). I leave it up to you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=358695

Try "hard reseting" it

I'm not using Exchange email, and the checkbox to disable password protection isn't greyed out (like it is in that thread). Thanks for the link anyway though, I'll have a look around the registry.
Anyone else know anything about this?
Edit: As I said in my original post, I already tried a hard reset when this problem originally appeared. I hadn't touched the password protection settings at all since my hard reset, but it's happening again.

Does nobody have a solution for this?

are you sure someone isn't messing with your phone and setting a password? I've been using windows mobile for 6 years and never had that problem.
And you said something about a bug.... can you link me to whatever you found?

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.
I just tried searching for that again, but unfortunately I can't find it. It was a thread with somebody saying that they have no password set, yet the device asks for one so they can only bypass the screen by soft resetting - and that's the exact problem I'm having now. There was no solution posted so I didn't bookmark it or anything.
I am the only person that has had access to my phone, so nobody has messed with it. The password setting is definitely disabled, and the HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies\00001023 registry value is set to 1 (disabled). My phone doesn't ask me for a password when I first start it (so I can get past it each time via a soft reset), it just seems to happen after 10 hours or so - I'm not exactly sure what triggers it.
Edit: I'm not sure if this is what I read before, but it seems to describe the same thing.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=291567
nuclear said:
Thats the question: is it really time for WM6?
So far i believe that the device cannot digest what we have so far of WM6. Too many non-functional things or bugs if you would like to say =_=
Device auto-locks and asks for password and if you dont have a password you cannot get into the device other than by soft reset. Asks password even for activesync! PDAViet has problem with activesync in vista as it disconnects after 5 minutes. WiFi only turns on from Comm center. Hang up's on 25MB free RAM. A lot of memory leak! 10MB to run SPB Time -_-...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit 2: Here's another one... No real solution posted.
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsmobile/thread/88834ba5-b64a-45c3-8dc4-378ffc3a40d6
seckin38 said:
I have recently purchased HTC Touch with WM6. 2 days ago, it suddenly locked. I couldn't unlock because it asks for password. Because I didn't set a password, I couldn't unlock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

This is really wierd, i have been using wm since 5 was on the scene and ive never come across your issue. I appreciate that your not using exchange but did you try the zeynee unlock app? It might stop the lock screen, you never know. If it doesnt work then nothing lost huh??

I didn't try it, no. I was concerned about the posts saying the application used up too much battery power, and thought checking the registry would be good enough (since nothing should be changing the value). I'll install it now and see if the problem still occurs. I don't have much hope that this will help though.

Okay, it just happened again. The application didn't help.

Ok, worth a try...
Have yoyu considered flashing to a different rom to see if this works? Is there a new stock Rom available?
Ill have to look more into this, maybe msdn has something on it.

Well, I had this problem with both my original Vodafone ROM and the custom one I'm using now. I'm reluctant to flash it again due to the hassle of reinstalling everything again.
I think it may be related to notifications. It just happened again as I got a text message, and last time it happened just before I received a Skype call. When I'm away and come back to find it locked, there tends to be a new icon in the notification area. It definitely doesn't happen every time I get a notification though...

Can't unlock phone

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.

Password/pin security issue!

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.

Password required after 24 hours

My device is set to use fingerprint unlocking but I am required to enter a password after a day of unuse.
How can I prevent the password requirement and just rely on Fingerprint ID? ( I realize something else is going on when the device reboots but that is not the problem I wish to resolve)
Tab S2 TM-t813 (US WiFi model) with Android 6.0.1.
The Tab has SU and TWRP now and hopefully that will make it easier to solve my problem.
Moved to troubleshooting

Restarts may be the cause
For security reasons, every time my moto g4 is restarted, I'm asked to insert the pin, in order to use fingerprint unlock.
* Your device may work the same way, and as it is restarting randomly, it may restart at a time when it was not looking and when it picks up the device it seems that "it just asked for the pin without reason".
* I've never had a Tab S2 and hand and I may be talking silly, but I'm just trying to help you solve the problem
sorry about my inglesh <-

The uptime always shows it has not rebooted. Thanks for the response though. I am wondering if this is a hardware, firmware or software issue. I would like to know what can cause a device to need a password at any given time. Would a different ROM address this issue? I will keep hunting for an answer....

Locked out of Galaxy S7, can't afford to lose data on phone, need help now.

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.