My Galaxy S3 screen lock keyboard changed and I am locked out of my phone.

A

AC Question

My screen lock password is alphanumeric and recently I went to unlock my phone and noticed that the keyboard changed to the phone style keyboard accepting numbers only. I have tried quite a number of techniques to gain access back into my phone with no avail. Every "expert" I have spoken with, first state that they have never seen anything like this and then the only way around it is a factory reset.

I am desperately trying to avoid that because there are items on it that I do not want to lose. I have seen youtube videos with techniques using ADB shell and would like a pro to help me out. Android device manager left me hanging by saying since a password exists the temp one will not be used. That's real helpful....not. I have pulled the battery...etc.

Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions.

Greg.