Help URGENT! Is this hopeless?

[MoodyBlues]

How do you like the big 'URGENT' in my subject?!

This isn't actually a matter of life or death, but it involves death--the death of my helper's father last year. He left a Samsung tablet (sorry, I don't know its model or name right now) but no one knows his login credentials. I told her she may be SOL, but I'd check since I'm very much out of the loop.

Is there some way to do the equivalent of a factory reset without knowing its account credentials? It's here in my house, so I can do it for her. If knowing its model would be helpful, let me know.

 

[The_Chief]

No. Google has something called FRP (Factory Reset Protection) that serves to prevent theft of an Android device and resetting it for resale or personal use. The owner must log out of, and remove, their credentials from a device before resetting it - otherwise, that account is still the valid user account.

You might contact Google and declare the device abandoned to see if there is a remedy. Good luck

 

[Milo Williamson]

I tried to do a FDR on my tablet, as The_Chief said. "No google has something called, to prevent theft of an android device" I personally thought I somehow reboot it a bit ago though.. I think what I did was log out of the p.w. Do not ask me how I did it

 

[Hadron]

I guess this means she wants to use the tablet rather than recover data from it?

If it is really old, like Note 10.1 old (released before Android 5 - I think 5.1 might have been the actual cut-off) then it won't have factory reset protection. Otherwise you're into the weeds of "is there a FRP workaround for this particular device with this software version that hasn't been patched yet?" - and most likely the answer is "no".

 

[The_Chief]

As @Hadron indicated, it would be very helpful if we knew the model number of the tablet. We could advise you far better with that information.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Thanks for the input so far. I knew I could count on my AF family.

I'm waiting to find out what model it is. The only thing I know is that he was actively using it, so I don't think it or its OS are terribly old. He died [unexpectedly] last summer, but my helper just now got the tablet. And, yes, she wants to use it, not retrieve its data.

 

[Unforgiven]

Moody,
Looks like you may be able to bring it to a dealer with a death certificate and they can bypass the FRP legally, which makes sense. I know I've seen workarounds for death, but never really looked into it. I found this below.
https://forums.redflagdeals.com/wiping-deceased-persons-phone-edited-solution-2480957/