Used Tab A won't let me Reset.

[Lorie Bolden]

I bought a used tablet from a lady local to me. She bought it at Best Buy 2 Xmas' ago for her daughter. She NEVER registered it online or with Samsung. Her daughter locked it and couldn't remember the 4 digit passcode. When I got it home, I was able to get it to factory reset. But everytime I get to the Google screen a message pops up asking for the the owner of the account. Is this hopeless? Did I waste my money? No, of course she doesn't have a receipt for the tablet or anything. I feel dumb.
Thank you.

 

[Javier P]

Sorry to hear you are having those problems. That's an important security feature and unfortunately you need the Google credentials that were used originally in the tablet. You need to contact the seller and tell them to enter those credentials and perform a factory reset.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

This isn't from registering the account online or with Samsung. Simply signing in with a Google account to gain access to the play store for apps will tie the device to that account and it must be removed before a factory reset. This is a security measure implemented around 5 years ago to prevent theft of phones and some how most people are still clueless to this.

She or her daughter must of had a gmail account on there and unless they remove the device from that account it's essentially useless. It never should have been sold in the condition it was.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

If they put the credentials into the tablet it will unlock it and allow you to remove their account and then you can use it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Since the seller is local, when the pandemic restrictions lift, consider bringing the tablet to her and show her that screen, and ask her if she would kindly log in. Once she does, the next step would be to go to Setting>Accounts, select her Google account, then tap the Remove Account option. Then do a factory reset again. (Do that in her presence so that she knows you're not trying to steal anything from her account.) This should allow you to set the tablet up as if it were out of the box, and this time enter your Google account or your daughter's to associate with the tablet.