If you somehow forgot your Android phone’s PIN, Password, or Pattern lock, you cannot unlock your device. Formatting or performing a factory reset will be the only option left. But you cannot perform a factory reset if you have some crucial data on your phone. There are other methods to unlock your Android phone password without a factory reset, which we will be covering in this article.
On older Android devices (way back to Gingerbread), Android provided the option to unlock your phone by using your Google account linked to your device. But the latest phones lack this feature to protect the privacy and data of users. So how will you recover your phone when you cannot remember the password?
How to Unlock Android Phone Password Without Factory Reset
The process to Unlock an Android phone password without a factory reset is not an easy one. Android is designed with security in mind, so no robber can get into your device and steal your personal information and data that easily. But if you forgot your password and want to unlock your device, then here are some methods you can try.
Method 1: Samsung Find my device
Samsung offers an option to secure your phone remotely in case of loss/theft. This option can also be helpful in resetting your locked phone.
Requirements:
Before continuing any further, just make sure these requirements are met:
- Your phone should be on, and you should know the Samsung account linked to the device.
- You should have access to two-step verification methods for your account.
- Your phone should be connected to the internet using mobile data or Wifi.
Steps to unlock Samsung android phone without Factory reset
Step 1: Visit Samsung Find my mobile from any of your other devices.
Step 2: Sign in using your Samsung account and verify using two-step verification (if enabled).
Step 3: Now from the options, select Unlock your Device. This will remove all of your current device passwords, including biometrics.
Step 4: Confirm that and enter your Samsung account password once again.
Method 2: Using TWRP recovery
If you have a phone that has a custom recovery like TWRP, you can easily remove the lock screen. Although if you have enabled USB debugging previously (Even when not using a custom recovery, you can remove the screen lock.
Also read: How to Transfer Contacts from Android to Android Phone
We can mount and browse system files in TWRP recovery. This will allow us to locate and remove the file that holds the password information. To do so,
Step 1: Turn off your mobile, Boot to recovery mode by pressing the Volume down and Power button at the same time. (This might change with respect to your mobile phone model/manufacturer).
Step 2: On the TWRP recovery menu, Tap on Advanced and Tap on file manager.
Step 3: Navigate to /data/system folder on the file manager.
Step 4: Delete the following files one by one:
password.key
pattern.key
locksettings.db
locksettings.db-shm
locksettings.db-wal
Step 5: Now tap the home button and tap on reboot.
Once the system reboots, you should be able to unlock your phone without a password.
Method 3: Using ClockWorkMod Recovery
Although not everyone has custom recovery on their phone, but you can install custom recovery into your phone if you’ve enabled USB debugging and unlocked your bootloader previously.
Keep in mind that you should’ve enabled USB debugging previously prior to locking out. For this task, there should be tutorials out there. Just google “how to install custom recovery on <your device>.”
Method 4: Bootloader Unlocking
As mentioned earlier, an unlocked bootloader is required to install a custom recovery to your android phone. Although, if you haven’t unlocked the bootloader prior to locking, it is possible to unlock it after locking too. But in most cases, unlocking the bootloader will result in data loss.
However, many android devices support unlocking the bootloader without data loss like Mi or Asus. But be sure to check before you do something that you might regret later.
Some Faulty Claims
There are specific claims and faulty articles and guides over the internet that claim to unlock your phone without formatting your phone. Most of them won’t work as they are intended to work with an obsolete version of Android (like Gingerbread or Ice cream sandwich, for instance).
Google strives to make their phones much secure with every version they move higher. That’s the reason you cannot use Google’s Find my device feature to reset your phone’s password (just like using Samsung’s find my mobile quality). Now, Google will use the same password/lock screen method that’s set up on your device to lock your device remotely.
There is also a specific third party software available on the market claiming to fix this for you. But they do not support all variants of mobiles out there, which also wastes our time ultimately. Hence it’s not possible unless you are broken all bounds with your manufacturer using custom recovery/custom ROMs that allow such activities.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are only a few methods available to unlock your phone if you forget your passcode. These make it harder to unlock your Android phone without performing a factory reset.
The point we are making here is, these restrictions are here to prevent unauthorized access to your personal data. Hence its always wise to keep your data backed up regularly. If you haven’t created backups, we would strongly recommend you to start it from now.
