Galaxy J4+ stolen recoved, need pin to use phone again

[whitey82]

I have a elderly customer who's phone was stolen and recovered by police,  now they have it back it asks for a 4 digit pin? How do they get this?

Many thanks 

Dave

[CrazyTom2k2]

Hey there Whitey82!

In terms of getting back into the phone, do you/does your customer know if there was a Samsung Account logged into the handset? If yes, you should be able to use Samsung's Find my Phone to remove the PIN.

Failing that, if there was a Google Account signed in to that phone, you might be able to change the password by locking the device using Google's Find my Device.

Otherwise, sounds like you'll need to boot into recovery mode and wipe the phone/factory reset in order to get rid of that PIN.

Hope this helps!
Tom

[whitey82]

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[whitey82]

Hi Tom, thanks for your reply. they don't have a samsung account but we tried to login using their Google account but it kept bringing us back to this screen so we were just going round in circles. I did try a factory reset and reboot last night but still came up asking for the same info again. any other suggestions?

[CrazyTom2k2]

Hey again Whitey82, looks like Factory Reset Protection's kicked in.

Basically, you'll need to connect the phone to Wi-Fi or put a SIM in, and then you'll need to log in with your customer's Google Account. If the customer doesn't know their password for Google, they should be able to reset that and then login with the new password.

Apart from that, there's no way to bypass FRP - it's a feature designed to prevent phones being stolen, as if they're bricked, they're worthless. At which point you're probably best returning the phone/refunding the customer, or replacing the phone. Either way, give 'em an option. It's Christmas, they're gonna need their phone. Even though the phone's blocked through FRP, the screen and stuff can be used for parts - just not the main board. Swap the mainboard out and you've got a functional handset 🙂.

Tom 🙂

[whitey82]

thanks again for your help. we have reset their password, we can enter the email and it accepts the password but then everytime comes up with this message. I never provided the phone im just helping them out as they have other services with myself

[CrazyTom2k2]

@whitey82 no problem! If it pops up with Something Went Wrong, I'd give Samsung's Customer Services a call - almost sounds like activation's been blocked. Sorry I couldn't fix this one.

[Mitzzz999]

when I was working for one the telecoms and this happened we sent it to SBE as part of the network warranty after verifying the imei is owned by the customer, SBE are able to reset it or Samsung direct provided that the customer still has proof of purchase. this was a while ago, don't know if rules and regulations have changed.

[whitey82]

hi mitz, they bought the phone from tesco mobile a couple of years ago. is it worth phoning them?

[Mitzzz999]

I would... especially if its within the 24 months warranty. Even if outside the warranty they should be able to provide proof of purchase like for example insurance claims.

it looks like you've gone past the Factory Reset Protection part by resetting the Gmail password... so that was the main issue but this thing where it says "something went wrong" i don't understand why its doing that.

I'm bit concerned that if its outside the 24 month warranty they may have to pay Samsung to fix it.