Community Chat

[CherryHugs]

A good family friend that her sister recently died has a brand new phone ( Samsung ) of her sisters.  It is locked. She cannot find the phone Passcode anywhere and cannot get into the phone.

Has anyone had this issue and got it unlocked?   She would so much like to use this new phone and her sister

would want her to!!

She had had no luck in anything they have tried.

[qvcfreak]

Has she tried taking it to the carrier, AT&T, Verizon and have them unlock it.  She may need the death certificate.

[CherryHugs]

She went into the Verizon store last week and they told her nothing they can do BUT they offered to buy it from her for $200..they say they can use for parts. Its brand new and cost like $1000!

[qvcfreak]

Wow it can be done @CherryHugs  I can’t believe they said that. 

Can she at least get the phone into settings and set it back to default factory settings, see if she can find a way in You Tube to access phone settings.

[ECBG]

You might be able to go to YouTube and put in the make and model of the phone for a tutorial. 

[CherryHugs]

Thank you and will sure tell her to check all this out!!!

[justashopper]

I was thinking, too, about reseting the phone.  She'll lose whatever the sister had, but I think it can be reset.  

Sometimes going to the store and talking to the people that work there is not the best solution.  Not everyone has the same job knowledge and it depends on who you talk to.  

She definitely could get more than 200 bucks for it through another trade in program.  If you live near a mall, you might even find one of those kiosks or vending type machines that take trade ins. 

I still think reseting to the default is the way to go.  However, if she can't, researching the trade in options is better than the store's advice.  

[gardenman]

There is software available that claims to be able to unlock any phone. It tends to be used by repair centers and thieves more than the average consumer, but it does exist and seems to work if you believe the claims. You install the software on your computer then connect the phone to the computer via a USB cable, the software will do whatever it does to bypass the lock and you end up with a functioning phone again. It's why people still steal smartphones. If they couldn't be unlocked there would be no reason to steal one. They become little more than a paperweight if they can't be unlocked.

The software is out there and readily available, but I can't make any promises as to which version works best or works at all for that matter. I've never used any of it. If you have a local repair center, they likely have the software already and could unlock the phone for you. They'll want some sort of proof that you're not a thief and that you have a legitimate reason to want the phone unlocked. There will be a charge to get it unlocked, but a competent repair center should be able to do it for you.

[patbz]

Thankfully its not an Apple; there have been some high profile cases ( married terrorists who died and FBI needed to unlock Apple phone) where it was nearly impossible to unlock.

[SeaMaiden]

this is why I asked my DH for his phone passcode.