Android Phone locked out - how to unlock it without Hard resetting it
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:
- where I found the solution : http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/37705-helpphone-locked-htc-magic/
- the bug in google code reported on september 2009 : http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3006
Comments
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
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!
Thank you SO much...
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 !
Here is the solution : http://chethaka.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/unlock-an-android-device/
I guess with newer version of Android, it may not be possible anymore or differently...