If you have forgotten the pattern, pin or password you chose to lock your phone, you might think that you can no longer unlock your phone, but that is not the case. There are many different methods to unlock Android smartphones or tablets, but not all of them work.
For most Android phones and tablets, an internal service called Find My Device is the best option. As long as you have a Google account, you can use any phone or computer to access this service. According to the tests, it is clear that this method does not work for Android 8.0 or higher, but if your phone is running Android 7.1.1 Nougat or lower, you can use this method.
In the Find My Device service, click on the Lock option. If the service has trouble finding the phone, tap on the Refresh sign next to the device name. If your phone is compatible with this service, the connection will probably be established by tapping Refresh 5 times. After clicking on Lock, you will be asked to enter a new password that will replace the pattern, pin or password you forgot. Type the new password twice to confirm, then click on the Lock option. From here on, it will take about 5 minutes to change the password, after which you can unlock your phone with the new password you have chosen.
If you have a Samsung phone, your first choice should be to use a similar service called Find My Device. Unfortunately, if you do not have a Samsung account, it is not possible to use this service. Also, some carriers like Sprint have banned this service. Once you are logged in to your Samsung account, click on the Lock My Screen option on the left. Then enter a new password in the first box you see and click on the Lock option at the bottom of the screen. Within a minute or two, the new PIN you entered will replace the password you forgot and you can use it to unlock the phone.
If your phone is running Android 4.4 or lower, use the Forgot Password feature. After you draw the screen unlock pattern five times and it doesn't unlock, a message to try again in 30 seconds will appear. When you see this message, tap on the Forgot Pattern option at the bottom of the screen. Then enter your original Gmail account and password. In this way, Google will email you the pattern of unlocking the phone, and you can also change the pattern as a whole.
If your main concern is unlocking your phone instead of losing your phone data, factory reset can be a very good option. But due to the new Factory Reset Protection anti-theft feature, if your phone was released in 2011 or later, you need to know your Google account password to use this method. Doing this method varies depending on the type of phone, but in most phones it starts with turning off the phone. When the phone is turned off, press and hold the volume down and power buttons at the same time, this will bring up the Android bootloader menu. Here, press the volume down button twice to highlight the Recovery Mode option and press the power button to select it. Then hold the power button and press the volume up button once. In this way, the phone will be in recovery mode. Here, use the volume buttons to highlight the wipe data/factory reset option and press the power button to select it. When this process is finished, select Reboot system now. If your phone model is newer, you will be asked to log in through the Google account and the password you used before resetting the device. As long as you know this information, just log in to your Google account to access your phone again.
This option can only be used if you have previously enabled USB debugging on your phone. Even in this situation, this option only works if you have allowed the computer you are using to connect to the phone through ADB. If these things are followed, this method is one of the most wonderful ways to unlock the phone. It should be noted that this method is not applicable in models where the phone is locked by default.
Connect your phone to the computer via a USB cable, then open a command window in the ADB installation directory and type adb shell rm/data/system/gesture.key and press the Enter button. Then reboot your phone to unlock the phone. But this is a temporary process. To be sure, create a new pattern, PIN or password before rebooting the phone.
