Have you forgotten the password or unlock pattern of your smartphone, and you can no longer access it? This very common misadventure is fortunately not hopeless. This article offers you several solutions to try to access a blocked phone. The techniques offered range from the most accessible to the most technical.
Smartphones now contain all of our personal data, professional, financial, and health. The screen lock is therefore a essential safety measure to protect the privacy of your information. That said, it’s not uncommon for users to forget their pattern or password, and thus find themselves “locked out”. Nowadays, many people unlock their device with a biometric ID, and lose the habit of using passwords.
Before getting to the heart of the matter and talking about unblocking, let’s emphasize that this situation is avoidable. As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”. When you receive a new Android smartphone, a few preliminary manipulations can save you a lot of inconvenience in the future.
The first steps to take when you receive your new Android smartphone
- Always link your Android smartphone to your Google account
- Make sure it always has WiFi or cellular connectivity
- Enable Location Services of your device
- Activate “Find my device” on your terminal
- Use the Smart Lock feature or smart lock available from Android Lollipop
This last function exempts you from entering your password as long as you carry your phone on you, “or when it is in a verified place or near your connected devices”.
To activate the “Smart Lock” function:
- Go into Settings ⇒ Security & Privacy ⇒ Other Security Settings ⇒ Smart Lock
- Define, either or all at once, the “Detecting the device when worn”THE “Verified Locations”and the “Verified Devices”
Note that to change the Smart Lock settings, you must enter your current passwordthis is why it is best to make these settings as soon as you receive your device.
- Activate it Developer Mode on your smartphone
To go even further, and be sure and certain to be able to troubleshoot your device, it’s a good idea to enable Developer Mode on your smartphone.- Meet in Settings ⇒ About phone
- At the very bottom of the screen, tap repeatedly “Build number” until a message informing you of the appearance of the menu “Developer options” in the System screen appears
- Go back a page
- Go to the screen System ⇒ Developer Options
- Tap “Use Developer Options”
- In the submenu Debuggingactivate the button “USB Debugging”
If your computer is running Windows, you must download the USB driver for your smartphonean unnecessary operation if you are debugging your Android on a system running Linux or macOS.- “Browse My Computer for Drivers”
- Click on ” Browse “ and find the usb-driver folder. Windows 10 or 11 will install the correct driver for your device
- Download Android Debug Bridgeand unzip the file
From now on, if there is a problem with your smartphone, you can access its file system from your computer and fix the problem from the Windows command prompt.
5 Techniques to Unlock Your Android Device’s Lock Screen
1. Reset through Google’s “Find my device” function
If you really forgot your password, this is the fastest way to reset your android smartphone remotely. Google’s “Find My Device” feature not only locates a misplaced device, but can also lock it, ring it, or erase the data on it.
For the procedure to run smoothlymake sure your smartphone is well connected to the Internet (if not, go to technique number 3).
Likewise, if you have not activated the feature “Find my device” first, go directly to technique 2.
If you meet all these conditions, the procedure to follow is very simple:
- Visit the site ” Google Find My DeviceI “ from your computer
- Select the device to restore and click “Reset device”. This will remove the lock password
2. Use recovery software like DroidKit
Droidkit is a software suite which acts as a real Swiss army knife for Android. This program, available on Windows and macOS, is unfortunately chargeable, but it allows you to repair or recover lost data, reinstall or update the operating system, free up memory, or even bypass Google account verification on Samsung devices. It supports nearly 20,000 phone models, with the notable exception of OnePlus, whose support is imminent.
It has a very intuitive interface, which makes it accessible to all audiences.
Droidkit is an effective tool, but it is not the only one to offer this kind of service. Its only downside, and it is significant, is thatit pays.
Here is the procedure to follow if you have forgotten your password, but you have activated “USB debugging” on your smartphone. This procedure is not that complicated, and it will not cost you anything.
3. Clear PIN file with Android Debug Bridge (ADB)
This technique requires having prepared the ground beforehand andhave followed the preparatory steps described at the beginning of this article.
First of all, connect your smartphone and your computer with a USB cable
ADB is a tool primarily designed for Android application developers. It allows you to interact with Android emulators and devices connected to your computer. This program will allow us to access the saved KEY file which contains all your identifiers, whether it is your passwords, your patterns and other fingerprints. Deleting the latter will have the effect of make lock screen disappear after reboot.
You should launch ADB manually in its own folderfrom the Windows command prompt.
To do this :
- Go to the folder where you unzipped ADB
- Right click on the titled folder “platform-tools_r…/platform-tools”
- Choose the option “Copy as path”
- Open the order ” Execute… “ with Windows + R shortcut
- Enter cmdand press Enter
- Type “cd/d”then do Ctrl+V, as on the capture, take care to delete the quotes, then press Enter
You should now be in the right folder to run ADB.
To verify that this is indeed the case, simply type ‘adb’, then Enter.
If the list of Android Debugger Bridge commands appears on the screen, it means that you are gone! - Type “adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key” (still without the quotes)
- Restart your smartphone.
The lock screen should be gone.
Note that this method is temporaryand that a new PIN must be set before the next restart.
4. Manually reset the smartphone (Hard Reset)
If you’ve come here, it’s becausenone of the proposed solutions so far have worked. All you have left is the nuclear option: reset your smartphone to Android. This method will work for sure, but it has the disadvantage of deleting absolutely all the data contained in your device, whether it is applications, call history, SMS/MMS, photos, music and other videos. That is why it is a good idea to regularly back up your smartphone to your Google account (an operation that can be automated).
To unlock the smartphone, we will simply restart it in its original state (so-called factory restore).
To do this, the manipulation is very simple:
- Turn off your smartphone or tablet
- Restart everything in recovery mode (handling may vary from one device to another, refer to your phone’s manual if in doubt):
In general, we keep the buttons’Home‘, ‘Volume Up‘ And ‘Power‘ supported at the same time - In the menu without interface, go to the line ‘Wipe data/factory reset’ using the ‘ keyVolume Down‘ to go down
- Validate your choice by pressing the ‘ keyPower‘ from your device
- Restart your smartphone or tablet using theoption ‘reboot system now’ from the menu.
Your Android system is refurbished.
Once the reset is done, you will need to re-enter your Google credentials in order to be able to reuse the device and reconfigure it.
4. Use the Find My Device app if you have a Samsung Galaxy
If you are the owner of a Galaxy smartphone, whether it is a Galaxy A54 or a Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung offers a service similar to “Google Find My Device”. It is on your terminal as “Find My Mobile”. You have to you must have created a Samsung accountand make sure that your operator does not block this service.
- Open the app and sign in with your Samsung account credentials
- Click on ‘Lock my mobile device’
- Then establish a new password/PIN code in the first field and click on ‘Lock’
- Your new code will be installed. After a few minutes, you will only have to enter it on your smartphone to unlock it
5. Bypass Non-Native Lock Screen
The Play Store is full of alternative lock apps, DIY Locker, for example. If you are using one of these rather than the native service :
- Start your smartphone in safe mode (usually possible by long pressing the power button)
- Validate by pressing ‘To extinguish’
- Long press the button ‘To extinguish’which will bring up the option ‘Restart in safe mode’ after a few seconds:
From there, all you have to do is go to the application settings, and clear the data of the application responsible for the lock screen or uninstall it completely.
If you know other faster, or more effective ways to unlock the lock screen of your Android device, do not hesitate to share them in comments.