How can I unlock my Samsung Galaxy S7 without deleting all data? I've forgotten my pattern.

[Android Central Question]

I'm posting this in a bunch of different places just in case someone has an answer for me:

I'm so frustrated. I set some stupid new pattern passcode on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S7) yesterday because I wanted to try it out and see how it worked. It was a method where you swipe on the screen in a series of directions to unlock it. Now I've either forgotten it or it's not working and I only have two attempts left before my phone automatically erases all data on itself. I cannot do a factory reset and lose all of my data, that's just not an option for me. I've tried unlocking it with "Ok Google" which I do have enabled on my phone, but it didn't work. I've tried going to device manager in my google account and locking the phone but it won't override the password I already have on my phone so that doesn't work. Apparently my device wasn't registered in my Samsung account so Samsung can't remotely unlock my device. Verizon (my service provider) won't help me. The link that people online say should appear after too many attempts that lets me sign into my phone using the Google Account that it's linked to won't appear. The information that I've found online about how to "hack" my phone doesn't make any sense to me and requires me to download or already have installed all sorts of suspicious looking files/programs that I'm not willing to install onto neither my phone nor my computer. I'm just at a loss and really frustrated. What could be wrong? How do I fix this? Who can help me?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I'm afraid you don't have many options. Your password/PIN/pattern is extremely important, and must be remembered. There are very few (if any) ways to reset a forgotten password, and no way to retrieve a password (since that would make it a pretty useless security feature). Google's Find My Device will only remotely set a password if the phone didn't have a screen lock set in the first place. Samsung's Find My Mobile would have been your best option, but as you already mentioned, that won't work since you didn't register the device.

In the future, make sure you have some foolproof way of remembering your passwords (like using an app like LastPass, or physically writing them down and keeping them somewhere secure like a safe). Also, I would strongly recommend making use of your Google cloud, where you can sync important data like your photos, contacts, and files. That way, if you lose or get locked out of your phone, your important data is still easily accessible anywhere you can log in with your Google account.

Sorry I can't be of more help!