One of the most common questions on this forum is of course, "Help, I forgot my password! How do I get into my phone?" If you're like most human beings, you keep a lot of sensitive information on your phone, and so therefore it's important to keep it secure. The best way to do so is with a good screen lock. However, remember that a screen lock can almost never be bypassed -- that's intentional, because what good is a security measure that can be easily skipped?
So what happens if you forget the password, PIN, or pattern you created? Unfortunately, not a whole lot in most cases. If you have a Samsung phone and had the foresight to create a Samsung account and register your phone, you could use Samsung's Find My Mobile to remotely unlock the phone and/or change the password: https://findmymobile.samsung.com/.
If you have a really old phone, it might prompt you to enter your Google account and password if you fail the unlock process enough times (but be careful -- sometimes a phone will also completely wipe the phone after a certain number of incorrect unlock attempts).
But for pretty much any other recent phone, you're stuck -- and no, you can't use Google's Find My Device to remotely unlock a phone or change your password. Find My Device will only remotely lock your phone, and will prompt you to create a password only if you didn't have one set up to begin with. All you can do is a hardware key factory reset (do a web search on how to do that for your particular device), which of course will wipe your local data (so hopefully you were keeping things backed up or synced on a regular basis -- see belodion's post: https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/967867-lose-all-your-data-one-second.html#post6682856). And it will also trigger Factory Reset Protection since it will be considered an "unauthorized reset," which will prompt you for the Google account and password associated with the device -- so hopefully you remember that crucial bit of information.
So how can you avoid this kind of mishap? You could always use a password manager service, but that still requires you to remember a master password, and if you're reading this, then we've already kind of established that remembering a complicated password might not be 100% reliable for you. My suggestion is to go old school and write it down on a piece of paper, and keep it safe somewhere at home (or in a safety deposit box).
Mooncatt's excellent guide here can give you more guidance on how to manage your passwords effectively: https://forums.androidcentral.com/a...-importance-why-you-should-remember-them.html
So what happens if you forget the password, PIN, or pattern you created? Unfortunately, not a whole lot in most cases. If you have a Samsung phone and had the foresight to create a Samsung account and register your phone, you could use Samsung's Find My Mobile to remotely unlock the phone and/or change the password: https://findmymobile.samsung.com/.
If you have a really old phone, it might prompt you to enter your Google account and password if you fail the unlock process enough times (but be careful -- sometimes a phone will also completely wipe the phone after a certain number of incorrect unlock attempts).
But for pretty much any other recent phone, you're stuck -- and no, you can't use Google's Find My Device to remotely unlock a phone or change your password. Find My Device will only remotely lock your phone, and will prompt you to create a password only if you didn't have one set up to begin with. All you can do is a hardware key factory reset (do a web search on how to do that for your particular device), which of course will wipe your local data (so hopefully you were keeping things backed up or synced on a regular basis -- see belodion's post: https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/967867-lose-all-your-data-one-second.html#post6682856). And it will also trigger Factory Reset Protection since it will be considered an "unauthorized reset," which will prompt you for the Google account and password associated with the device -- so hopefully you remember that crucial bit of information.
So how can you avoid this kind of mishap? You could always use a password manager service, but that still requires you to remember a master password, and if you're reading this, then we've already kind of established that remembering a complicated password might not be 100% reliable for you. My suggestion is to go old school and write it down on a piece of paper, and keep it safe somewhere at home (or in a safety deposit box).
Mooncatt's excellent guide here can give you more guidance on how to manage your passwords effectively: https://forums.androidcentral.com/a...-importance-why-you-should-remember-them.html
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram