Smartphone screen locks are an effective method to keep the contents of your device secure. Locking your phone has changed from being a choice to a requirement in an age where you may store financial, professional, and personal information on it.
It goes without saying that if you forget your phone’s passcode, you will be locked out. Because fingerprint scanners on newer devices use passwords as a backup, there is a larger danger of forgetting.
Here are several methods for regaining access to your Android phone if you have forgotten your password.
ARE YOU SURE YOU FORGOT IT?
If you just put “How do I unlock my Android phone if I lost my PIN” into Google and ended up here, it’s a good idea to double-check that you’ve genuinely forgotten your passcode before proceeding. While this may appear apparent, it will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.
For your PIN, Android allows you to enter any amount of digits. Consider whether your passcode is truly a different length if you’re trying to recollect a four or six-digit code. This may help you remember it. Allowing your muscle memory to perform the task is another method to try. Go do something else, then pick up your phone and notice which keys your fingers naturally move to.
However, if you have absolutely forgotten your Android PIN, here are several methods for unlocking your phone.
UNLOCK WITH SMART LOCK – Smart Lock is an Android feature that allows you to choose which situations will allow you to circumvent your lock screen protection. Most phones have it under Settings > Security > Smart lock, whereas Samsung devices have it under Settings > Lock Screen > Smart Lock Type.
But you must have done it before you lost your PIN.
To make changes to the feature, you must provide your existing lock password. Then you have five alternatives for unlocking your smartphone without a password:
- On-body detection: When the phone detects that you are carrying it, it immediately unlocks and remains unlocked while in your hands or pocket.
- Trusted locations: Uses your location to unlock your phone when you’re close to an address you’ve specified.
- Trusted devices: Keeps your smartphone unlocked when connected to a trusted Bluetooth device, such as your fitness tracker or automobile.
- Trusted face: Unlocks your phone using facial recognition.
- Voice match: It unlocks your phone when it recognizes your trusted voice. Unfortunately, this feature is no longer available in Android 8 Oreo and beyond, albeit it still works on older devices.
If you have previously set up one or more of these choices before forgetting your password, you can use them to regain access to your phone.
You cannot, however, alter Smart Lock or password settings without first inputting your existing password. As a result, you may still need to factory reset your Android phone, but you may back up everything beforehand.
OPTIONS FOR SAMSUNG DEVICES – Do you own a Samsung device? If you forget your lock code, the firm provides a few options for resetting it.
USING BACKUP PIN (OLDER ANDROID VERSIONS ONLY)
You may have established a backup PIN on an outdated Samsung phone running Android 4.4 KitKat or earlier. If you input your password or pattern incorrectly, take the following steps:
- If you remember your PIN, choose Backup PIN.
- Enter your PIN code and then hit Done.
- To reset the lock screen pattern, navigate to the Screen Unlock settings.
FIND MY MOBILE (ALL ANDROID VERSIONS)
If you have forgotten your device’s screen lock code, you need not be alarmed (e.g., PIN, password, or pattern).
Samsung has a function on all of its phones that allows you to remotely manage the device if it is lost. You must have a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection and be signed in to your Samsung Account on your phone.
Follow these steps to reset your phone’s passcode via Find My Mobile:
- Navigate to findmymobile.samsung.com on your computer.
- Sign in to your Samsung account now.
- After that, choose to Unlock my Device and follow the instructions.
USE THE FORGOT PIN PROMPT – You may reset your passcode through the lock screen if you have an older phone running Android 4.4 KitKat or earlier. This involves the usage of your Google account and the following steps:
- Input the incorrect pattern onto the lock screen until you get the message You have made multiple unsuccessful attempts. The message “Try again after 30 seconds.”
- When you tap Forgot Pattern, you’ll be prompted to input your Google account credentials.
- Enter your email address and password here.
- You can now choose to reset your lock screen pattern. Simply go to the Screen Unlock settings and set a new lock screen pattern after tapping on the Sign-in tab.
Sadly, Google eliminated this choice from the most recent iterations of Android.
TRY SOME WORKAROUND HACKS – The aforementioned ways will not work if you haven’t enabled Smart Lock, don’t have an old phone, or don’t use a Samsung smartphone. You’ll have to employ a workaround hack in those circumstances.
Delete the PIN File Using ADB
To save all of your user credentials, such as your fingerprint, pattern, or other passwords, Android creates a KEY file. This is done to guarantee that when you enter the proper password, the system unlocks the phone promptly and that when the erroneous password is entered, the phone is denied access.
You may access your phone’s files from your computer by using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) software. You may use this to erase the file that controls the lock screen security on your phone.
This strategy, however, will only work if:
- Your phone has USB debugging enabled. You don’t have it enabled if you’ve never visited the Developer Options window.
- You’ve given your computer permission to connect to your phone using ADB. If you’re not familiar with ADB, we have a guide for you.
- Your phone is not secure. Google requires all Android phones to ship encrypted beginning with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. As a result, this will not function with newer devices.
This approach is not guaranteed to work, and it may harm your phone if you are not careful. As a result, we strongly advise you to back up everything on your Android smartphone before proceeding.
If your phone fits these conditions, you can unlock it using the instructions below:
- Use a USB cord to connect your phone to your computer.
- Navigate to your ADB installation location using a Command Prompt or Terminal window.
- Enter the command ADB shell rm /data/system/gesture.key.
- Restart your phone. The secure lock screen should now be gone.
- Because this is a transitory issue, you should reset your PIN or pattern lock before restarting.
CRASH THE LOCK SCREEN
This approach is compatible with encrypted smartphones running Android 5.0 to 5.1.1. As a result, it is only suited for a tiny subset of phones, but it is worth a go if you chance to fall into this category.
To bypass the lock screen and obtain access to your phone, do the following:
- On your lock screen, select the Emergency Call option.
- Enter 10 asterisks into the dialer.
- Select Copy after double-tapping to highlight this content.
- Copy the selected characters and paste them next to the original copied characters.
- Continue to add more characters to the password area until double-tapping no longer illuminates the characters.
- Pull down the notification shade and open the camera shortcut.
- When you tap the settings icon, you will be requested to enter your password.
- Long-press the input area and select Paste from the menu. Then, repeat the process to copy and paste more characters.
- The lock screen will eventually crash, allowing you to access your smartphone.
PERFORM AN ANDROID FACTORY RESET
If none of the above work, you’ll have to perform a factory reset. Of course, this also erases all data on your phone. If you signed into your Google account and backed it up, you may sign back in and restore a lot of your data after the reset.
You’ll need to utilize another technique to reset because you’re locked out. The most straightforward method is to utilize Google’s Find My Device page. If you’ve enabled this function on your phone, you may reset it by clicking the Erase device option on this page.
If you are unable to utilize this procedure, you must do a manual factory reset. To accomplish this:
- Turn off your device.
- After the screen turns totally black, tap and hold the volume down and power buttons at the same time to access Android’s bootloader menu. Depending on your phone, this button combination may alter.
- Press the volume down button twice to highlight the Recovery Mode option, then choose it with the power button.
- To enter recovery mode, hold down the power button and push the volume up button once.
- To access the Wipe data/Factory Reset option, use the volume buttons. Follow the instructions below to execute a factory reset.
- Restart the device and go through the setup process again. You’ll be requested to re-enter your Google account, which will restore any previously backed-up data.
We recommend that you enable the Smart Lock function as soon as your phone is set up. In this manner, you can easily unlock your Android phone on your home Wi-Fi without having to manually unlock it every time.
PREVENTING FUTURE LOCKOUTS ON ANDROID – These solutions will allow you to regain access to your Android phone, but they will not assist you in remembering your password for future logins. You don’t want to go through these processes again, so take safeguards now to avoid forgetting your passcode in the future.
Here are some pointers to help you remember your Android password in the future.
- Keep a hard duplicate of your password somewhere only you can access it, such as a safe or password manager.
- Instead of choosing something apparently, always choose a strong password that you can remember.
- Check that you’re signed in to your Google (and, if relevant, Samsung) accounts and that you’ve activated at least one Smart Lock option.
- Back up your Android data to cushion the impact if you have to perform another factory reset.
REMEMBERING YOUR PASSCODES – Nowadays, we’re required to have a password for virtually everything, and remembering them all might be difficult. Password managers can help you keep track of all of your passwords, but they’re useless if you’ve forgotten your Android phone’s PIN.
To avoid having to read this post again in the future, keep your Android phone passcode written down somewhere secure at home.
