Major Flaw with Pattern Lock or How to Brick your Droid

[nastybynature]

If you try to enter the pattern incorrectly too many times it will take you to a screen that says you have too many pattern attemps and it asks for your Google username and Password. No big deal right. WRONG!!

Apparentlythis has been an issue since the G1.

It WILL NOT accept your correct username and password. I tried to use username@gmail.com. I tried username@googlemail.com as some suggested on an older G1 post on google mobile help. Nothing works. They talk of doing a wipe or factory reset of your phone in one post but that is not the way to reset the Moto droid.

I talked to phone support at VZW and they put me through to tier 2 support and they told me to go to a store and see if they could help me. They replaced my 2 day old Droid at the store and now I am afraid to use the pattern lock feature.

 

[kabbie_mcfeely]

If you try to enter the pattern incorrectly too many times it will take you to a screen that says you have too many pattern attemps and it asks for your Google username and Password. No big deal right. WRONG!!

Apparentlythis has been an issue since the G1.

It WILL NOT accept your correct username and password. I tried to use username@gmail.com. I tried username@googlemail.com as some suggested on an older G1 post on google mobile help. Nothing works. They talk of doing a wipe or factory reset of your phone in one post but that is not the way to reset the Moto droid.

I talked to phone support at VZW and they put me through to tier 2 support and they told me to go to a store and see if they could help me. They replaced my 2 day old Droid at the store and now I am afraid to use the pattern lock feature.

Have you tried removing the battery ?

 

[nastybynature]

Have you tried removing the battery ?

Coming from a BB Storm that was the first thing I tried. But in case I wasn't clear in my post..... I worked with VZW support on this for a couple of hours and when i took it to the store, they worked on it for an hour before they said they COULD NOT fix it and they would have to replace it.

 

[athflying]

Coming from a BB Storm that was the first thing I tried. But in case I wasn't clear in my post..... I worked with VZW support on this for a couple of hours and when i took it to the store, they worked on it for an hour before they said they COULD NOT fix it and they would have to replace it.

Sorry but that wasn't the case with a G1. If you made the wrong pattern to many times, it would lock you out for a cerain period of time. I am not sure what happened after that, but I had my phone G1 for over a year and never heard of this being an issue.

 

[Robobandit]

The droid will lock you out temporarily as well.. not sure what happened in your case.

 

[nastybynature]

Sorry but that wasn't the case with a G1. If you made the wrong pattern to many times, it would lock you out for a cerain period of time. I am not sure what happened after that, but I had my phone G1 for over a year and never heard of this being an issue.

Sorry...? I am sorry. I guess I should of posted proof of my statement being complety true. What I am talking about is talked about in the below links. Also if you click the "Forgot Pattern?" on the moto droid button during the temporary lock out the same will occur.

BUG: Inable to login after "too many pattern attempts" with CORRECT username/password - Google Mobile Help

Issue 3795 - android - Couldn't unlock phone after "too many pattern attempts" - Project Hosting on Google Code

T-Mobile G1 Forum - Too many pattern attempts, now I can't login


I have since found out how to do the Hard Reset that should fix the problem but I am not going to try on my phone.

This is how you do a Hard Reset:

You can hard reset your Motorola Droid phone if you want clear all of the data off of the device and start fresh. Here

 

[sly]

My girlfriend decided to play what I assumed was a harmless "guess my pattern" game. Needless to say, I appreciate the hard reset information greatly. I am EXTREMELY disappointed that such a serious bug exists.

Google, WTH?

 

[nastybynature]

My girlfriend decided to play what I assumed was a harmless "guess my pattern" game. Needless to say, I appreciate the hard reset information greatly. I am EXTREMELY disappointed that such a serious bug exists.

Google, WTH?

Actually after doing a hard reset the bug disappeared on my droid. Now when I do 20 misses on the pattern lock and it asks for my google info it gives you a reset pattern screen.

 

[Watashi]

When I first got my phone, I made a rediculously hard unlock pattern and I forgot it (it might not have been that hard, but I was probably high). All it did was lock me out for 30 seconds and I tried again (took me the whole 30 seconds to figure it out and remember it.

So I don't think this bug is on all the phones, maybe look at your manufacture date (mine is 40/09...I think) if yours is older maybe a bad software batch??

 

[nastybynature]

When I first got my phone, I made a rediculously hard unlock pattern and I forgot it (it might not have been that hard, but I was probably high). All it did was lock me out for 30 seconds and I tried again (took me the whole 30 seconds to figure it out and remember it.

So I don't think this bug is on all the phones, maybe look at your manufacture date (mine is 40/09...I think) if yours is older maybe a bad software batch??

After 5 missed tries it locks you out for 30sec. After the 15th it warns you that after 5 more missed tries you will have to enter google info. After the 20th missed try it takes you to a screen that says you have to enter google info to unlock it. Now when this first happened Sunday after they went on sale, it WOULD NOT take the correct google info. Just said invalid username or password. No one was able to fix it and my phone was replaced at a VZW store.

Now that I know the hard wipe sequence I did it again on purpose on the 2nd droid that was given at exchange for the first one and it did the same thing. Now I found that after the hard wipe it no longer gave invalid username and password and would unlock the phone without having to do a hard wipe.

in other words you did not miss it 20 times on a row to get to this screen we are talking about. Try missing it 20 times in a row waiting for each 30sec lockout that occurs after 5 missed tries. Then see if your google info will get you back in.

 

[radikal]

i have nothing to hide, dunno why some do

 

[doomedromance]

That's odd. It worked fine when I did it. Now that I realized I can't remember a pattern worth shit I don't use it. But it didn't give me any trouble logging in to my gmail account. I did it on the launch day or day after I forgot.

 

[Space Mountain]

Guys chill out. The phone just came out and there are bound to be many many many bugs. There will be fixes eventually.

 

[martin515]

I just tried it and I was able to change the pattern, must be an isolated problem

 

[aaron19953]

i have nothing to hide, dunno why some do

Really ? Then why did you buy a smart phone ? hehe

I don't know about you, but if i lost my phone, i don't think i'd want anyone flipping through my contacts, files, emails, VPN connection, picasa and so on ..

You probably have data on there that you'd want to hide, you just don't realize it yet.. I lost a PDA once and it made me nervous for months.

-=<> Aaron <>=-

 

[zim2704]

Just read in another post that when you enter your username leave off the "@gmail.com" and that will allow you to reset the password.

 

[minyangmao]

Hi all,

It seems like only some phones may have this bug, but it is a significant number. See this thread:

Issue 3006 - android - Google credentials don't unlock phone after failing too many pattern attempts - Project Hosting on Google Code

FYI: entering the username without the @gmail will NOT work; I've played with this bug over and over again without success; luckily I know my lock pattern and was trying to figure this out just in case I do forget my lock pattern at some point in the future;

as to someone's question - why someone would want to lock their phone: some of us use our phones for business purposes, thus there is sensitive data in there that needs to be protected. Anyone that finds a solution gets a gold star from me. =)

 

[minyangmao]

Hi guys,

Let's try to get Google's attention about this issue; make some noise on this forum where Google monitors stuff:

Issue 4784 - android - Google credentials don't unlock phone after failing too many pattern attempts - Project Hosting on Google Code

Thanks!

 

[melmigs]

Same exact thing happened to me last Friday when I got the phone, I was locked out of the phone all day during a conference, couldn't do anything except stare at it and see the notification LED blink and read little parts of texts/e-mails I was getting (really frustrating ). Went to a Verizon store after the conference was over, they played with it for what seemed like forever, we changed my gmail password numerous times, and they finally gave me a new phone after 2 1/2 hours... needless to say, I haven't set a lock pattern for my new phone

 

[nastybynature]

i have nothing to hide, dunno why some do

Sensitive information related to my job.

 

[kyle.kline]

+1, ran into this issue, another individual tried to get into my phone and "bricked" it. I was able to use the workaround to get back in the phone. But I have to use the workaround everytime after my phone sleeps or I turn off the display myself, because it goes back to wanting my google password, which doesn't work.

Issue 4784 - android - Google credentials don't unlock phone after failing too many pattern attempts - Project Hosting on Google Code

At least I can get into it to back up anything that isn't stored on google's servers.

 

[boycan]

After 5 missed tries it locks you out for 30sec. After the 15th it warns you that after 5 more missed tries you will have to enter google info. After the 20th missed try it takes you to a screen that says you have to enter google info to unlock it. Now when this first happened Sunday after they went on sale, it WOULD NOT take the correct google info. Just said invalid username or password. No one was able to fix it and my phone was replaced at a VZW store.

Now that I know the hard wipe sequence I did it again on purpose on the 2nd droid that was given at exchange for the first one and it did the same thing. Now I found that after the hard wipe it no longer gave invalid username and password and would unlock the phone without having to do a hard wipe.

in other words you did not miss it 20 times on a row to get to this screen we are talking about. Try missing it 20 times in a row waiting for each 30sec lockout that occurs after 5 missed tries. Then see if your google info will get you back in.

If I cant remember my lock pattern in 20 tries the chances I will remember my google sign in is very unlikely

 

[JustROLLIN]

I set a different pattern last night and immediately forgot what it was... But, I had no issues with using my Google login info to reset it. Worked perfectly for me.

 

[TheOldFart]

Just out of curiosity, how many dots do you people use for your pattern lock? I only use 5, mainly so that it doesn't take too long to unlock.

 

[dave412_4]

My sister constantly try to guess my pattern to unlock my phone on my moto droid. She has tried so much to were i have to put the username and password. I only have had to do that once but it worked fine. I even used the same pattern when recreating the new one.