How to unlock a locked smartphone
You are exactly in the situation that I pointed out to you in the opening bars of this guide of mine: your smartphone is completely blocked because the memory is now saturated by the apps and, alas, it just doesn't seem to want to show signs of life! Know that you can get out of this situation and also do it quite simply: below I am going to explain how to proceed both up Android that of iPhone.
Android
As for the devices Android, the quickest way to try to unlock the phone is to do a forced restart of the same: in other words, through a combination of keys, it is possible to restart the device without carrying out the procedure provided by Android or physically removing the battery.
Usually, you can force the device to reboot by simply pressing and holding the key for about ten seconds Power of the phone, i.e. the power on: in this way, the device turns off completely and you should be able to turn it back on as you usually would.
In case the above instructions don't work, you can try pressing and holding the key combinations Power+Volume – or Power+Home, always for about ten seconds, or at least until the device re-ignition procedure is started.
In case of problems
If, for some reason, such key combinations lead you to the download mode or to recovery screen of Android (you can recognize them by the presence of a robot with an "open belly" and / or with the symbol /! inside), press and hold the button Power until the device turns off and turn it back on as usual. Anyway, for more restart options, I urge you to consult my guide dedicated to the topic.
How do you say? Doesn't the problem go away and your device keeps crashing or worse yet goes into an endless boot sequence? Then I suggest you immediately think about an operating system recovery: in this regard, I have a guide for you on how to reset Android, in which I have shown you all the steps necessary to proceed.
iPhone
For iPhone, the situation does not change much: the continuous updates of iOS and / or the opening of an extremely large number of apps, especially on an older device, can cause complete paralysis of the system which, even in this case, can be solved. with a forced restart of the same or with a forced cleaning of its memory.
Forced restart
Force restarting an iPhone is not difficult at all: all you have to do is follow the instructions that I am going to give you below, which differ according to the version of the "iPhone by" in your possession.
- iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and earlier - press and hold the buttons for about ten seconds Power (the ignition one) e Home (the middle one) of the device, until the display turns black.
- iPhone 7 e 7 iPhone Plus - perform the same previous operation using the keys instead Power e Volume -until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
- iPhone 8, 8 Plus e iPhone X - press and quickly release the button Volume +, repeat the operation with the key Volume - and hold the right side button until the display turns off and, immediately after, the apple logo appears on the phone.
If everything went well, the phone will load the iOS operating system from scratch and ask, if necessary, for the SIM PIN or the device unlock code. To find out about the other reboot systems available for iPhone, check out my guide on how to reboot iPhone.
Memory cleaning
Another efficient method to remedy blocks and slowdowns of various kinds, especially if the iPhone in use is not exactly recent, involves manual cleaning of the memory: although iOS is able to carry out this operation independently, it is it is a way to (temporarily) restore life to the "iPhone by" without necessarily having to restart it.
Doing so is really simple: First, press and hold the button Power of the device, until the "switch" appears Swipe to turn off. At this point, release the key Power, then press and hold the button Home until you are returned to the home screen of the device: the RAM, at this point, has been freed.
If you own a iPhone X, the procedure is slightly different since the device does not have a Home button: what you have to do is go to SettingsI will knock General, Accessibility e AssistiveTouch, then move to ON the switch located in the next screen.
Once this is done, go back to Settings> General, do tap su Switch off, presses the icon of AssistiveTouch (The light ball with dark circle around it), then press and hold the button for a few seconds virtual Home button that appears on the screen, until you are returned to the Home screen of the device: the RAM memory has been emptied.
If you do not get the desired result or you need more advice on what to do, I urge you to read my article on how to free up RAM on iPhone, in which I have given you all the details of the case.
Block on startup
After turning on the iPhone, it remained on the screen with the Apple logo and you don't have the faintest idea how to unlock it? You can get out of the way by using iTunes, the official Apple program for connecting iPhone, iPad and iPod with the computer.
Unless you have a Mac (and therefore iTunes is already installed in your operating system), download and install iTunes following the instructions I gave you in my dedicated in-depth study and, once the procedure is finished, connect the iPhone to the computer using the cable lightning Supplied. While the iPhone is connected to your computer and iTunes is open, start it in recovery mode using one of the methods listed below.
- iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6s and earlier - press and hold the button simultaneously Power and the button Home for a few seconds, until the logo on iTunes.
- iPhone 7 e iPhone 7 Plus - press the keys simultaneously Power and Volume - of the device, until the above logo appears.
- iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus e iPhone X - press and quickly release the button Volume +, repeat the operation with the key Volume - and hold the button lateral for a few seconds.
Simultaneously with the appearance of the iTunes logo and a Lightning cable on a black background on the iPhone display, an iTunes alert will appear on the computer screen that notifies the appearance of a problem with the device: at this point, press the button Update to attempt to reinstall iOS without erasing the data.
If the previous steps do not have the desired effect, you will be forced to perform a complete reset of your iPhone to restore it to its factory state: keep in mind that, if you have never created a backup, the reset procedure will completely erase the data on the device.
To perform a complete reset of the device, however, you will need to bypass Find my iPhone (which you cannot deactivate, since the device is locked), so you will have to do this after accessing the DFU mode (or device firmware upgrade), a particular "state" of the iPhone that allows to intervene in a profound way on the operating system, overcoming the bootloader and some restrictions.
After connecting your iPhone to your computer and opening iTunes, you can enter DFU mode using one of the modes listed below.
- iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6s and earlier - turn off the phone completely, press and hold the button simultaneously Power and the button Home for 10 seconds, release the button Power and continue to hold the key Home until iTunes reports an iPhone in recovery mode. The iPhone screen remains off.
- iPhone 7 e iPhone 7 Plus - repeat the instructions indicated above, replacing the Home button with the button Volume -.
- iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus e iPhone X - with the phone on, press quickly Volume +, Volume - e Power (the right side key). The latter must be held down until the screen turns black, at which time you have to release all the keys. Immediately after that, press the combination Power+Volume – for 5 seconds, release the button Power, continue to hold the key Volume - for another 5 seconds (or a little more) and wait for iTunes to show the message about the presence of a device in recovery mode.
In any case, the procedure for accessing the DFU mode, as I explained to you in my dedicated in-depth analysis, is to be considered correctly performed only if the iPhone screen remains black. If the screen turns on, it means that the iPhone is in recovery mode and not in DFU mode, so you have to repeat everything.
Once you have successfully entered DFU mode, press the button OK that appears on the iTunes screen and finalizes the procedure by clicking on the buttons Restore iPhone e Reset / Restore and Update. If all goes well, at the end of the procedure, you can choose whether to reconfigure the phone as a new iPhone or restore a previous backup: I have given you more information on this in my guide on how to reset iPhone.
How to unlock a password locked phone
You have not turned on your smartphone for a long time and, unfortunately, you realized that you have forgotten the keyword to enter to use it, so now you are looking for a method that allows you to overcome this problem?
Before going into the matter and providing you with all the necessary instructions, I feel the need to make you an important premise: unlock a locked phone by password is by no means an impossible operation, however it almost always requires the operating system recovery.
As said and repeated several times, the reset procedure involves the complete deletion of data and settings stored on the device: therefore, unless you have previously created a backup using the method most suitable for the type of terminal in your possession, you may have to give up the information already present on it. If the data is saved on a microSD, be sure to remove it before starting any of the procedures described below.
Finally, I want to specify that the instructions provided below allow you to reset, as well as the password, even any PIN o pattern unlock (ie the sequence to "draw" by joining the dots on the screen).
Android
To “delete” the password on Android and unlock the phone, you can proceed in two different ways: the first involves the use of Manage Android devices, the tool made available by Google for the recovery or restoration of lost / stolen devices, while the second involves the use of a Recovery, a software external to Android that allows you to perform some advanced operations. Keep in mind that, in both cases, you will need to remember the Google account password possibly configured on the device.
Manage Android devices
Manage Android devices is the simplest method for unlock a locked phone by password, as it requires only a browser and an Internet connection for its implementation.
Furthermore, for the procedure to be successful, the Android device in question must be turned on and connected to the Internet and administrative permissions must have been previously granted to the Google Find My Device app.
For your information, exactly as I explained to you in my guide on how to find my Android, this operation can be completed by first accessing the section Settings> Google> Security> Find mine device and moving on ON the relative lever, to then actually grant the permissions by entering Settings> Security> Device administrators of Android and placing the check mark next to the item Find my device.
Having said that, the time has come to take action: to reset the phone through the Android Device Manager, first connect to the main page of the service and log in using the credentials of theGoogle account configured on the phone. Once this is done, select the icon of the terminal you want to reset using the icon shown in the top bar, press the button > at the item Reset device and, always remembering that this operation will erase all data on the device, confirms the will to proceed by pressing the button Reset device.
Once the reset procedure is complete (which starts as soon as the phone is online), you may be asked to enter your Google password to proceed with the initial setup.
Recovery
Did the steps above not have the desired effect, because no Google account is configured on the device or you have not been able to activate the Android Device Manager? Don't despair, you can perform the restore operation using one Recovery.
To be clear, it is a program external to Android that allows you to make profound changes to the system, including the reset of permissions, the complete deletion of certain folders and, of course, thehard reset (i.e. the factory reset procedure).
Some manufacturers install Recovery by default: Samsung, for example, provides this possibility. So, if you have a terminal from this manufacturer, you can enter Recovery mode by simultaneously pressing and holding the keys Volume Up, Home and Power from phone off.
Arrived in the screen of the Recovery, if you use Custom Recovery TWRP, you can try to remove the password request at power on by going to Advanced > File Manager, going in the path Data > System and delete all files whose name begins with the words gatekeeper e locksettings (Eg. gatekeeper.password.key, gatekeeper.pattern.key, locksettings.db, locksettings.db-shm e locksettings.db-wal): to delete them, select each of them and choose the item Delete, then confirm the deletion with a swipe from left to right on the bottom bar. The procedure does not involve deleting the data on the smartphone, but it is not feasible on all devices. I told you about it in more detail in my tutorial on how to unlock Wiko smartphones.
If the first procedure does not give the desired result, you can use the Recovery to delete all the data on the smartphone and restore the system to the factory state. Then select the item wipe data / factory reset helping you with the button Volume downpigia il tasto Power to select it and, remembering that the restore operation cannot be undone, move to the item Yes – delete all user data and presses the button again Power to start the automatic reset procedure.
Once this is complete, the phone will be unlocked and restarted to allow you to perform the initial configuration: at this stage, you may need to enter the password of the previously configured Google account, if present, for security purposes. I have given you more details on unlocking Samsung terminals in my guide on how to reset locked Samsung.
If, unfortunately, your phone does not have a pre-installed Recovery available, you will have to manually perform the setup operation: first, you will need to perform the unlocking the bootloader, and then proceed to root the device and, finally, install a custom recovery through a special computer program and finally proceed with the reset operation.
If you don't have the faintest idea how to proceed, I suggest you take a look at the section Hard reset Android of my guide on how to reset Android, or Google the phrase how to install recovery [phone brand and model].
iPhone
Forgot your iPhone unlock code? Have you tried to enter some incorrect ones and, after having made a mistake several times, a disturbing message warns you that your iPhone is disabled? In this case, I'm sorry, but the only way to get yourself out of this annoying situation is to carry out total reset device.
To proceed, all you have to do is follow the procedure of restore after entering DFU mode that I explained to you in the section on the resolution of freeze on startup iPhone: connect the device to iTunes and, after accessing the DFU mode as I explained above, press the buttons OK, restore iPhone e Reset / Restore and Update to start the reset and get rid of that password you no longer remember.
How to unlock a PIN locked phone
You can't unlock your phone because you can't remember the pin code? Then I think I have excellent news for you: the PIN code is a security measure strictly connected to the SIM contained in the device. In other words, unlock a locked phone only from the PIN is extremely simple: that's enough remove / replace the SIM contained inside to use it in all its features!
If you don't know how to extract the SIM installed in your device, I suggest you Google the phrase how to remove SIM [phone brand and model] to obtain precise instructions on the matter.
How do you say? Are you happy to have recovered your phone, but would you still like to trace the PIN of your SIM that, at the moment, just does not come back to you? Then consult, without hesitating further, my specific tutorial on how to recover SIM PIN: you will certainly find the most suitable solution for your case.
If the PIN you are referring to is not that of the SIM, but a numerical security code set to unlock the phone under certain conditions, you can remove it by following the instructions I gave you in the previous section.
How to unlock a phone locked by the carrier
Have you noticed that blocking your phone is not exactly about functionality but instead involves the availability of the cellular network, preventing you from making / receiving phone calls and using SMS? In most cases, excluding hardware damage, this behavior is the direct consequence of a block developed by the telephone operator who sold the terminal.
Typically, such a restriction is imposed through the IMEI code of the smartphone, which is added in a kind of shared blacklist which prevents normal operation of the telephone module. The reasons why an operator may decide to impose the IMEI block are many and range, for example, from theft of the terminal todefault by the user in case of subscription purchase.
In any case, to verify that the phone is locked via the IMEI code, first recover the latter by typing from dialer (i.e. from the screen that allows you to manually dial a telephone number) the numerical sequence * # # 06 and write down the code received.
Once this is done, connect to the International Numbering Plans site to verify that the phone is actually blocked via IMEI (you have to type the IMEI in the appropriate box and press the button analysis): if so, you will see the symbol appear > | in correspondence with the wording IMEI Validity Assessment.
At this point, if you suspect that you have purchased a stolen phone (in this case, the complaint and blocking were requested by the legitimate owner of the terminal, as I have already explained to you in my in-depth analysis on the subject), file a complaint immediately to the competent authorities: in addition to being a necessary gesture, failure to report possession of a stolen device could make you liable for receiving stolen goods.
If, on the other hand, you believe that you have a device for which the subscription installments have not been paid, Contact Customer Service of the operator who sold the terminal, provide the purchase documentation in your possession and carefully follow the instructions that will be provided to you. For more information on unlocking procedures, please read my guide on how to unlock phone locked by operator.
How to unlock a locked phone