Android Phone locked out - how to unlock it without Hard resetting it

I was watching heroes season 3, playing with the unlock schema of my phone (Android(1.6) HTC Magic) drawing strange pattern until I locked it down.

The phone shows a message : wait 30 seconds until next try (translated from french).

I did hit by mistake the recovery button which lead me to a login form asking me for username and password to unlock the device.

My phone is set-up with my google apps account 'login'@mansonthomas.com.

I've tryed everything and it fails to unlock telling me 'wrong username or password'...

For example I've tryed : login@mansonthomas.com, login, my other gmail address with and without the @gmail.com...

I've googled and find why it won't works :

Apparently, the phone needs a wifi internet connection so that the login/password check passes. It's plausible as the login failure is instantaneous while it should take some time to check your password over the internet through a 3G connection

it's said here by ladygrant87 :

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=66fb49eae3015c6b&hl=en&fid=66fb49eae3015c6b000487d837

but the given solution won't work for me : call yourself, pickup, send you a mail, get it for the drop down menu(top of the screen), click the link, activate wifi, try login/password again to get it unlocked.

I couldn't get the drop down menu.

Any other solution fails (which involve playing with home/menu physical buttons) expect this one which do not involve an Hard Reset of the phone :

type your login address that you use to configure your phone without the @domain.tld extension and as password type the 'null' string without quotes.
(big big security hole btw !)


For example, if you use a gmail.com address  like toto@gmail.com, type :

toto
null

if you use a google apps mail account like login@mansonthomas.com, type :

login
null


Then it ask a new lock schema. Once it's done, your phone works as before.

(Even if I use mylookout.com solution for backup I didn't want to hardreset !)

sources:

Comments

Ben Nuttall said…
Haha OMG can't believe that just worked. I've been locked out of my phone all day and the google account username & password wouldn't work (which I know is right as I've had it for 5 years with Gmail!)

That's a serious bug there! Glad it helped me this time but it ought to be fixed! Well, I'm off to hack in to all my Android-user friends' phones...

Cheers for the blog post.

Ben
fruit said…
you ask the customer help with google
Manson Thomas said…
Nope, just use google search engine...

btw, I've already contact google on android subjet (market issue) the repsonse time was about 3 or 4 days... far too long for this matter!
Unknown said…
You are the man! I just got my Dell Streak and it was doing the same thing. Then used your method and POW!

Thank you SO much...
Unknown said…
hey, i dont know if this will work for everyone but i got by this on my x10i by doing it and so you may be able too also. None of the other things helped me null pass etc. What i did was get another phone and call mine and then answer it - couldnt access the menu during a call but if i hang up with the power key i get approx 1 second to press buttons so i opened settings with some fast button pressing then rang my self again and hung up and entered security, the hardest part is when you deselect require pattern you have to write your pattern in so if you dont know it then it wont work but you have to write your pattern really quick then it is unlocked.
anicca said…
It did the job here aswell! Thanks for you blog, it was really helpfull.
Classicstyle088 said…
aaaarrrrgggg!! nothing is working! I'm about to lose my mind! I can not figure out for the life how to unlock my phone. Nothing is working! somone PLEASE help
Manson Thomas said…
Well, if you tried everything, remove your SD card, back it up, and hard reset...

If you have a premium google account you can try to get some support from google or try to contact the manufacturer of the phone itself... you paid for that phone... right? so you should be entitled for some support, shouldn't you ?

The good thing with android is that contacts, mails, calendar are on the cloud.

Apps you paid, you can re-download them without paying.

I guess it's time consuming, but could also improve your mobile performance (mine tends to be slower and slower the more apps & data the mobile gets (sms for instance))

Good luck !
චේතක said…
If this is not working, I found a solution to unlock it via adb commands. For that USB debugging should have been enabled before locked out it.
Here is the solution : http://chethaka.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/unlock-an-android-device/
Anonymous said…
lol...but its not working on my phone...need help...plss
Manson Thomas said…
Sorry, but this was working for Android 1.6, and I remember having search quite a bit to find this solution.

I guess with newer version of Android, it may not be possible anymore or differently...

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