What if I can't unlock my phone? - Life hacker

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Dmitry Sazhko

The author of Lifehacker.

There are two ways to solve the problem.

Restoring access to your account

First of all, let's try to recover your Google account. To do this, open this one recovery form and enter your phone number or backup email address. Then click "Next" and follow the instructions.

If it works, then you can restore access to your account, even if you don't remember your Gmail address. If so, Google will remind you of your username and help you reset your password.

If nothing happened, it means that you did not enter your phone number or backup address in your Google account and it is lost to you. In this case, let's move on to the second option.

Resetting smartphone settings

You can reset your smartphone to factory settings and then simply create a new Google account and link your phone to it. Unfortunately, in this case, you can say goodbye to your data in the smartphone's memory. Unless, of course, you did not have autoload configured

Turn off your smartphone by holding down the power button. Then press and hold for 10-15 seconds one of the following combinations to open the boot menu:

• Volume down key + power button (the most common combination).
• Volume up key + power button.
• Volume down key + Power button + Home key.
• Volume down key + Volume up key + Power button.

If none of the combinations work, search the internet for reset instructions for your device model.

After pressing the keys, the service menu appears on the display. Select Recovery, and then Wipe data (or Factory reset). The phone will return to factory state and you can set it up again.

But modern smartphones often ask you for the data of the previously linked Google account even after the reset. You can also try to get around this limitation, but for this you need to know the specific model of the smartphone.