Too many pattern attempts. (Solved!)

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derekb77

Member
Feb 8, 2009
19
2
This is the second time I've had this issue so i thought i'd post it.

Basically what happened was my phone was in my pocket and it locked itself out. I had pattern lock enabled so i was getting "Too many pattern attempts. please login" No matter how i put my information in username (by itself), username@gmail.com, username@googlemail.com it wouldn't authenticate me. The first time it happened to me i posted the following thread:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=485903

No matter what i did i was not able to get in so i just reflashed the phone. After a reflash the authentication worked fine. At that time I was using one of JFs ROMS so i figured that may have been the issue. Recently the problem happened again. This time i was using one of Cyanogens ROMS. This time instead of flashing the phone i followed haykuro's thread to defeat pattern lock:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=485988

once i did those adb commands and rebooted the phone it asked to authenticate again but this time it worked! After it authenticates it will ask you for a new unlock pattern. And you're all set! hopefully it works for you. This is a really annoying problem and im surprised more people aren't having it.
 

cjayl

Member
Feb 28, 2006
6
0
Figured it out without hard reset!!! htc hero " too many pattern attempts"

I figured out a way to get past the screen lock "too many attempts" problem without doing a hard reset on my phone.

I called my Phone (from my Skype account :) so I could get to the notifications pull down. (couldn't get to home screen or setting from the call) But, I could pull down my notifications. I had a "new email" notification so I clicked on it so that my gmail would open. I then opened an email that had a URL link in it and I clicked on the link. This then opened my browser, which tried to open the link but, it couldn't because, I was still on my Skype call. This prompted the browser to give me an error message that had a Settings button. I clicked on the settings button and was able to turn on my wi-fi and connect to my home network ( I couldn't get to any other settings). At this point I pulled down my notifications again and clicked on the sign in failure notification and this time my phone was able to authenticate my gmail password, through the wi-fi connection.

FYI, I had to go to gmail and change my password as I'd forgotten it. If you don't remember your password you'll have to go through the gmail, I forgot my password/reset process.

If you have email notifications turned off, I think you can send a URL link through with a text message but, I've never done that. Maybe someone else can chime in on how to do that. It's probably pretty simple.

Lemme know if this works for you.
 

Binary100100

Retired Forum Moderator
Apr 6, 2008
6,470
1,649
Detroit, Mi
I figured out a way to get past the screen lock "too many attempts" problem without doing a hard reset on my phone.

I called my Phone (from my Skype account :) so I could get to the notifications pull down. (couldn't get to home screen or setting from the call) But, I could pull down my notifications. I had a "new email" notification so I clicked on it so that my gmail would open. I then opened an email that had a URL link in it and I clicked on the link. This then opened my browser, which tried to open the link but, it couldn't because, I was still on my Skype call. This prompted the browser to give me an error message that had a Settings button. I clicked on the settings button and was able to turn on my wi-fi and connect to my home network ( I couldn't get to any other settings). At this point I pulled down my notifications again and clicked on the sign in failure notification and this time my phone was able to authenticate my gmail password, through the wi-fi connection.

FYI, I had to go to gmail and change my password as I'd forgotten it. If you don't remember your password you'll have to go through the gmail, I forgot my password/reset process.

If you have email notifications turned off, I think you can send a URL link through with a text message but, I've never done that. Maybe someone else can chime in on how to do that. It's probably pretty simple.

Lemme know if this works for you.

Sounds like one hell of a flaw in the security to me. I actually hope that this gets fixed sometime in the near future.
 

teknopaul

New member
Sep 19, 2010
2
0
I had this problem on a HTC Hero I could not run sqlite3 ont he command line for permissions so the second thread did not work for me. But did not want to flash my phone, this is how I solved it.

Take out the battery, OFF button does not work.
Take out the SD card.
Plugin the USB cable to the phone and turn the phone back on.

Download the Android SDK
untar to a new directory
run
./tools/adb -d shell
To get a shell open, you do not need to be root.
You should get a $ prompt, indicating you are not root

Make a call from another phone to the blocked phone and answer the call.
Then run the following command.

$ am start -a android.settings.SETTINGS -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.Settings

This will bring the Settings window to the front so you can then disable the screen lock, thus proving that the screen lock facility not a security feature.

Screen lock is still useful so you don't make unintentional phone calls.
 

teknopaul

New member
Sep 19, 2010
2
0
easier method

You can also enter your username, and in the password field just enter the string "null"

:D