What to do if you forget the Password or Pattern of Android phone

Setting patterns, pin codes or passwords on Android phones has become mandatory for security reasons. But if you forget this pattern, PIN or password, your life becomes difficult. In this post you will know the details about what to do if you forget to lock your Android phone.

Prevention is good

Before any kind of problem arises, one should take precaution first, so that the problem can be solved very easily. In most cases, if you forget your phone password or lock, you have no choice but to reset it. So it may be wise to keep a regular backup of your files and media.

Make regular backups of your photos, videos, contacts, apps, settings, etc. If your device is locked for any reason, you do not have to worry about losing important files.

You can find out more about the rules for backing up your Android phone in our dedicated post. You can also save files easily using free cloud storage. If you want, you can save the file in cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox, then you can keep the file backup in external storage or computer.

Also, after setting the pattern of your phone, you can take a screenshot of it and save it in a safe place. For example, you can put it in Google Drive or Google Photos. If you forget the pattern, you can see the pattern by logging in to Google Photos from another device or PC. You can also keep the PIN code of the phone hidden somewhere safe.

Smart lock

Many Android smartphones have a smart lock feature that allows you to unlock the phone using location, voice or other devices. If the primary lockscreen password or lock is forgotten or lost, this way of secondary access can come in handy.

Note that not all brands of phones have a smart lock feature. To set up smart lock:

• Enter the phone's settings
• Enter the Lock screen & security menu
• Enter the Smart Lock option

On phones running many Android operating systems, you will see an option called Secure lock settings, which will have the Smart Lock feature. You can also access the feature by searching directly from Settings. You can then set the voice, location or other device as a secondary access method.

In case of older Android devices

Older Android devices had the option to reset the password. This feature only worked on Android 4.4 and earlier. After entering the password incorrectly a few times in these devices, you will see the Forget Pattern option, then you can reset the password by tapping on that option by logging in to your Google account. However, you must already have that Google account signed in on your phone.

Reset device

If Google Smart Lock is not turned on or the phone company does not have a built-in password reset option, then if you forget the pattern or password of the Android phone, there is no other way but to do a factory reset. Android Phone Factory can be factory reset remotely if Google Find My Device is turned on. To know more about Find My Service, visit the dedicated post linked below.

To Reset Android Phone Locked by Find My Device Login to Google Account of phone locked from any other computer or mobile. Then select the device and select the Erase Device option to reset the device. After resetting the device, login with Google account again.

The phone can be reset manually if the Find My device is not turned on. If you press and hold the power button and volume down button of the phone, after a while you will see the Recovery Mode screen. In recovery mode, navigate with the volume button and select with the power button. Select the Wipe data / factory reset option from the recovery menu. Then the phone will be reset and you have to login again using Google account.

Resetting the phone deletes everything on the phone. But if you forget the password or pattern, there is often no way but to do a factory reset.

Samsung Find My Mobile

If your phone belongs to Samsung and the Find My Mobile feature is already turned on, you can unlock the locked Samsung phone using your Samsung account . Login to the Samsung account from any computer and select the device and select the Unlock my device option, the locked Samsung phone will be unlocked. Note that for this process to work, it is mandatory to have data or WiFi on the locked phone. You will get the same facility on Xiaomi phone with Mi account. Some other phones also have this feature offered by their manufacturer.

Advanced Method (ADB)

The locked Android phone can be unlocked using ADB (Android Debug Bridge). However, the process of opening the lock by ADB is somewhat advanced, it is better not to follow this process if you do not have enough technical knowledge. However, in order to unlock the phone by ADB on Android phone, you must have Developer Options turned on beforehand.

Find out the hidden features in the Android Developer Options

First you need to download ADB to the computer and then connect the device to the computer. Then open ADB and type:

adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key

After typing the specified command, press Enter. Then you can reset the lock and password of your Android phone. This process may not work on many phones as Google uses encryption on newer devices.

Have you ever forgotten to lock your phone? How did you solve the problem? Let me know in the comments!