HELP ! Locked out of my Samsung S7 and tried everything I could

[AnnieCP22]

Hi!

After 2 days without login into my S7 using the fingerprint it's been asking for the pattern. The problem is that this is my daughter's phone and because my S7 ON/OFF button was no longer working after 2 weeks of usage, I have been using her phone for certain apps and pictures and my old S3 has a backup until I receive my replacement phone.

So this being said, I realized that my daughter didn't set up her phone properly, didn't register it on samsun and didn't activate samsung backup. She has setup her phone with her Google account and I have tried to use the "Android Device Manager" and even if I enter a code to bypass the pattern lock it doesn't work. I have tried Dr.Fone, Phone Paw and Phone Lab and apparently Samsung S7 are not supported.

I don't know what to try next, do you have any other solutions ?

After having spend more then 2 days researching for a solution, I am totally discouraged :-X
And I have read all the posts here related to that issue and so far, I haven't found a liable solution.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[AnnieCP22]

Atfter posting this message I have come upon this website and possible solution, anyone has tried it ? I don't think my daughter has any kind of custom recovery installed. This is so frustrating, because when I purchased our 2 samsung S7, I had to spend more than 2 days transferring our data from previous phones and since had lost so much of my time doing this, I didn't setup my daughter's phone like I did for my own !!!!

What is this new fingerprint - lock pattern [language redacted by Mod]..on the S7.......Also how come we don't get the "enter your code" option after having tried several times to unlock it with the wrong pattern. Sorry if I am ventilating here, but hey ! you know how it is when you have valuable data on the phone and don't want to loose it ! grrrrrrrr.

Disable your lock screen using custom recovery and “Pattern Password Disable” (SD card needed)

This method is for more advanced Android users that know what the terms “rooting” and “custom recovery” mean. As the title says, for this to work you need any kind of custom recovery installed and your phone must have an SD card slot. Why the SD card? Well, we need to transfer a ZIP file to your phone and that’s usually not possible when it’s locked. The only way is to insert an SD card with the file.Unfortunately, card slots became kind of a rare thing in the smartphone world, so this will only work for some people.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Download the Pattern Password Disable ZIP file on your computer and put it on an SD card.
2. Insert the SD card into your phone.
3. Reboot your phone into recovery.
4. Flash the ZIP file on your SD card.
5. Reboot.

Your phone should boot up without a locked screen. Should there be a password or gesture lock screen, don’t panic. Just type in a random password or gesture and your phone should unlock.

 

[AnnieCP22]

Another thing, I went on her Google Drive and I can see that there was backup taken yesterday, but can't see any pictures or videos on her google drive !!!
Since she didn't activate the "picasa album" sync, does this mean that the Google backup, doesn't include pictures and videos ?

 

[Dooki]

OK. Let me see if I am getting this.

Right now you cannot get into the phone by way of fingerprint or password? And when you put the fingerprint in and it is not registered it doesn't does not give you the option to enter the password/pin to unlock?

On my stock S7 it asked to either enter fingerprint or swipe screen to enter password. Does yours not have the stock lockscreen?

Do you have files on the internal hard drive that are to important to lose? I ask because the only way I know of around this problem is to factory restore the phone. And that will cause you to lose all data.

Power off - hold power, volume up, home key until green lettering appears at the top. It will take a few seconds then use volume key to scroll to factory data reset. Power button for yes. It will ask to confirm.

As for getting around the password/fingerprint lockout you should not be able to as that is the whole point to this type of security.

As for backups, if you didn't backup properly you might just have to start over. It's annoying but it goes fast after you have done it a few times. I have found that Samsung backup is only good if you are using Samsung's apps and launcher. Smart switch works far better and only took about 20 minutes.

 

[AnnieCP22]

OK. Let me see if I am getting this.

Right now you cannot get into the phone by way of fingerprint or password? And when you put the fingerprint in and it is not registered it doesn't does not give you the option to enter the password/pin to unlock?

On my stock S7 it asked to either enter fingerprint or swipe screen to enter password. Does yours not have the stock lockscreen?

Do you have files on the internal hard drive that are to important to lose? I ask because the only way I know of around this problem is to factory restore the phone. And that will cause you to lose all data.

Power off - hold power, volume up, home key until green lettering appears at the top. It will take a few seconds then use volume key to scroll to factory data reset. Power button for yes. It will ask to confirm.

As for getting around the password/fingerprint lockout you should not be able to as that is the whole point to this type of security.

As for backups, if you didn't backup properly you might just have to start over. It's annoying but it goes fast after you have done it a few times. I have found that Samsung backup is only good if you are using Samsung's apps and launcher. Smart switch works far better and only took about 20 minutes.

You summed it up correctly apart from all the different options I have tried
Thank you so much for having taken the time to help us !

Actually it is my daughter's phone and she did not install any kinds of backups apart from the Google Drive backup (and I don't think it includes her pictures and videos - very important since it includes her drama class videos and paper due in 2 days). So I'm still waiting for an answer on this feature from Google or other members of adroid central.

Her screen got locked because she didn't open it using the fingerprint method for more than 2 days, so it asked for the "pattern" to unlock it. Unfortunatly she doesn't seem to remember it and we have tried several other ones since. I still don't get why it doesn't ask for the PIN as the alternate method !!!

Also, there is other options than to do a factory reset, but so far they don't support the SAMSUNG S7 for unknown reasons. This is very frustrating since I have tried many, many of them.

So, thanks for your reply and help and I am looking for other solutions than having to "factory reset" her phone, since the lost of all the pictures and videos would have quite a consequence on her school grades and also the fact that there is all the pictures and videos of the funeral of my best friend's dad, which I was in charge......."sniffff.....sniffff....snifff....that's why I am really determined to find another solution than resetting her phone !

I can't quite understand how come this NEW S7, doesn't give us the "NIP" option after having failed to enter the right pattern. It doesn't make sense since this is precisely an option they have to prevent that kind of problem !

Thanks again for all the help we can get since I am at the end of all possible solutions ! I cant' beleive that Dr. Fone doesn't support the S7 to unlock her phone, they support all other kinds of phones and samsung. So I am very interested in reading other member's comment on similar situation.

Also I am wondering if I do a "factory reset", if I can then recover her pictures and other files with Dr. Fone recovery tools. I have only used it on other models for friends that have either broken their screens or other problems, and since it was their last resort , I did it and it worked fine. But since it is my daugther's brand new phone and it has a lot of things that also matter to me....I am not as confident I was under other circumstances, if you understand what I mean "sigh" !

 

[Dooki]

The reason it doesn't ask for a pin is because it was not set up to use a pin for backup. When fingerprint was set up it asks what type of backup, pin, password, pattern, that is why you are being asked for a password.

Samsung uses Knox security and her phone is encrypted. That is why you can't get in. It is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

If it was found out that we can buy a program legally online that can crack the fingerprint, encryption, pin, there would be hell to pay.

Did she perhaps backup to Google photos? It's free and easy.

 

[AnnieCP22]

I actually used Dr. Fone for unlocking other phones that had the same issues. So it does exist and works fine. And so far I guess "hell hasn't break loose" since the company is still in business and selling their tools. I guess it's a question of what is the purpose and intention of the user using these apps and softwares. Also when someone installs Samsung tools and register their phone properly, they offer this option, so it's a bum that she didn't do it and I was too much exhausted from the 2 days I had to spend transferring the data and making sure she did install at least 2 different backup methods including pics, videos and other important stuff.

For Google, like I said there is a backup, but I can't see what was backed up apart from the date and time, I was also asking in my post if Google backups included pictures and videos or do you absolutely have to sync it using the "photo album" or picasa option ? Since I don't rely only on Google for my backups and that my pictures and videos are backed-up both in my Google Drive and other clouds....I didn't put time into learning all the different options for google backups.

I guess I will find out all theses answers tomorrow when I talk directly to a Google and Samsung expert.

 

[AxlMyk]

For all we know, you're trying to snoop on your daughter.
For all we know, it's a stolen phone and you made up the story.

 

[Dooki]

Samsung does not offer off the shelf tools for breaking into an encrypted phone. Your Samsung phone is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Yes your predicament sucks, but imagine if your phone was lost or stolen you would be a nervous wreck if you knew that someone could just download a program and steal your passwords and banking information.

Go to Google photos and see if the pictures have been uploaded. Dig through Google drive and see what was backed up.

What phones have you broken into with Dr phone? Dr phone is root only. Thereby removing any security.

 

[B. Diddy]

It is normal for the phone that is set for fingerprint unlock to ask for the backup PIN/password in certain situations. According to the Google support page:

For security, you'll need to use your backup PIN, pattern, or password:

• When your fingerprint isn't recognized after a few tries
• After restarting (rebooting) your device
• After switching to a different user on the device
• After more than 48 hours have passed since you last unlocked using your backup method

Android Device Manager doesn't help if the phone already has a screen lock set up. It can only remotely set a password for a phone that doesn't already have a screen lock.

 

[N4Newbie]

You summed it up correctly apart from all the different options I have tried
Thank you so much for having taken the time to help us !

Actually it is my daughter's phone and she did not install any kinds of backups apart from the Google Drive backup (and I don't think it includes her pictures and videos - very important since it includes her drama class videos and paper due in 2 days). ..

Log into her Google account on a PC and then go to https://photos.google.com/ and see if her photos/videos are there.

 

[ratsttam]

Generally speaking, if there is a password setup on the phone, especial when KNOX is involved, either you can ask the owner the password, or hope that you can sign into the samsung website and change the phone password if it's one you setup yourself and forgot it. Barring those, you can wipe the phone, with one caveat, IF the activation lock was set, you'll still need to know the samsung account password. Barring all those (and some illegal software that we won't discuss here) you're now sitting on a brick. This is all by design to make stealing phones a much less profitable business. But like all security nets, some legit people get stuck in the web.

 

[Biggmac419]

I know when I reboot my phone the first time I unlock it, it has to be unlocked by my pin before i can use my finger print.