• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

I'm a big idiot and chose to change my phones swipe pattern and now I can't remember it

Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
I'm an idiot and changed my swipe pattern for no apparent reason, seemingly forgot it, and now my phone is locked with no way to get it open. I'm trying to factory reset it with the Sony Xperia Companion on PC but it says I need to unlock my phone in order to factory wipe it. I hesitated posting because of how embarrassing it is, but decided a little hurt ego is better than being without a phone.
 

Deleted member 79058

Account closed at user request
Banned
Aug 25, 2020
2,912
Start drawing any patterns until the phone blocks the function. Mine allows to input a PIN code in these situations.
 
Plax

Plax

Member
Nov 23, 2019
2,826
Handicapped Duck said:
How is there not a button combination to press to reset the phone. I don't understand how there isn't a fail-safe option.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't have your model phone. But I have had Sony Xperia's previously. I believe there is way to hold a few buttons to force a hard reset. But I have no idea if that will fix your problem. May be worth calling Sony support.
 
Zip

Zip

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,036
I once suddenly completely blanked on the pattern for my unlock and it took a while before my vague muscle memory of it got close enough to get in.

I stopped using pattern unlock immediately after.

Keep at it OP.
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
O-Zips said:
I once suddenly completely blanked on the pattern for my unlock and it took a while before my vague muscle memory of it got close enough to get in.

I stopped using pattern unlock immediately after.

Keep at it OP.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I've been at it for five hours, it's all starting to jumble together as one now. I have to constantly restart my phone if I don't want to wait for the timer.
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
rpm said:
You can usually do a factory reset by turning off the phone and then holding either Power + Volume Down or Power + Volume Up for a few seconds

EDIT: Looks like it's Power + Volume Down until the Sony logo appears on your specific phone. I'd only do it as a last resort though

Hard Reset SONY Xperia 5 II, how to - HardReset.info

www.hardreset.info www.hardreset.info
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't care, I'm doing it, I have most things backed up, in case my messages and contacts are somehow unrecoverable, I'll hopefully be able to just recover them from my old iPhone.
 
Zip

Zip

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,036
Handicapped Duck said:
I've been at it for five hours, it's all starting to jumble together as one now. I have to constantly restart my phone if I don't want to wait for the timer.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I started tracking the patterns I had tried by drawing each pattern on some paper. That helped me narrow it down a bit at least since I could remember some steps of it. Took me maybe an hour I think.

Definitely look into resetting though. Especially if you're already up to five+ hours.
 
Stabi

Stabi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,619
France / san francisco
O-Zips said:
I once suddenly completely blanked on the pattern for my unlock and it took a while before my vague muscle memory of it got close enough to get in.

I stopped using pattern unlock immediately after.

Keep at it OP.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah. Same thing happened to me. I had the same pattern for many years, and one day, just like that I couldn't remember it. I spent the day trying to remember it.... I kinda gave up on it and then later on I picked the phone and machinally did the code right.


Now I'm back to using a pin code based on something concrete

Same thing with my visa. We dont pick the code here, and it also happened that I forgot it without reason even though I was using my card every other day
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,062
There should be some forgot pattern notification or something after a certain amount of fail d attempts
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
Alright, I factory-wiped it, and lol, it's asking me for my forgotten screen lock to recover everything from Google.
 

Deleted member 24079

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
3,287
I didn't think anyone used the pattern unlock anymore. Yeah googles going to want that pattern. I think once I figured out I messed up the pattern the first time, I would have angled the screen to look for finger smudges to see what pattern was used before. Sorry to hear this all but I think you are screwed. Google customer service for this stuff is horseshit.
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
GrandmaKnowsBest said:
I didn't think anyone used the pattern unlock anymore. Yeah googles going to want that pattern. I think once I figured out I messed up the pattern the first time, I would have angled the screen to look for finger smudges to see what pattern was used before. Sorry to hear this all but I think you are screwed. Google customer service for this stuff is horseshit.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well I absolutely can't lose my messages, so if there is a way to transfer them over again I'm fine with losing two weeks worth of them.
 
HardRojo

HardRojo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,231
Peru
Handicapped Duck said:
Alright, I factory-wiped it, and lol, it's asking me for my forgotten screen lock to recover everything from Google.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lol, reminds me of this one time I had an issue with my work email. My password had expired and I went to the self-service page to update it myself, I needed a registered phone number for that though, which I hadn't done, so I went to register a phone and it asked for my password to login... a password that had expired so I couldn't login... had to call the help desk to get through that lol.
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
HardRojo said:
Lol, reminds me of this one time I had an issue with my work email. My password had expired and I went to the self-service page to update it myself, I needed a registered phone number for that though, which I hadn't done, so I went to register a phone and it asked for my password to login... a password that had expired so I couldn't login... had to call the help desk to get through that lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's so dumb on my part, I don't know why I changed the lock screen, had no reason to, and then I make it some insane thing that I forgot seconds after. If I attempt it at the backup recovery screen from Google it says I only have 3 more attempts before it deletes the backup.

Annnnd I can't use the backup anymore. Yay.
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
Alright, so my iphone messages and everything are being transferred over, I'll see if it all works at the end, but fuck using the swipe pattern holy shit. I'll lose out on messages from the beginning of December, but none of those were important that I desperately needed. Only needed my messages in their entirety.
 

Deleted member 29691

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
1,883
This thread made me lock my phone and make sure I still knew my pattern. Really doubted myself for a second there too.
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
Alright I'm going to bed. I can't get the Xperia Transfer 2 tool to transfer my messages over from my old iPhone because it doesn't recognize them. I'll figure out how to get my messages tomorrow. Thanks everyone for putting up with my stupidity.
 
Keyser S

Keyser S

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
8,480
Odds are it is one of these...

arstechnica.com

New data uncovers the surprising predictability of Android lock patterns

Like "p@$$w0rd" and "1234567" many Android patterns are easy to guess.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

0fc025dc5e29b1cb13dbacc5603b8725.jpg
 
Sanka

Sanka

Banned
Feb 17, 2019
5,778
Happened to me too. I think I used find my phone or something. It has the ability to lock your phone and also open it irrc.
 
Randam

Randam

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,911
Germany
My phone doesn't even let me create a swipe pattern with out also setting up a code.


Did you try your old code?
 
OP
OP
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,677
Ponds
Senator Toadstool said:
because criminals would know it day one and the entire system would fail...

this is a risk you take when you lock your phone. you could have just turned it off locking
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dirt McGirt said:
Theft protection.

All newer phones (couple of years now actually)cannot be reset without a master password or pin or unlock from the owner, making them useless in the process.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I was referring to factory resetting, which I did, and probably made things worse because now I don't have my messages and likely can't retrieve them
 

Airegin

Member
Dec 10, 2017
3,908
Can't you at least remember the first and last swipe? It should be pretty easy to figure out then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.