If you're like me who got locked out of your own Android smartphone and you're now being asked by your phone to enter a 'Privacy Protection Password' that as expected you cannot remember and now you're just desperate to find out what that password is before following the suggestions in Google to actually reinstall/flash your android with its stock firmware which is obviously tedious but definitely a surefire way to solve it and you just have this little hope that you might actually know the password and your brain just needs a little nudge so you can remember. Wow, that was long. Sorry!
Your Android phone will be locked and will ask for your Privacy Protection Password only if you have enabled it yourself. You might have done this during you and your phone's honeymoon period (usually 1-3 days from the day you first bought your phone when you're usually also discovering/setting everything up to every tiny little setting on your phone). That honeymoon period is just my estimate, by the way, it could be a month for you, or just 30 minutes for someone else, whatever.
In my case, it happened when I removed my primary sim card and changed it to another sim card. Once I turned the phone on, after it booted, it immediately asked for the password. And of course, I forgot that password. You're probably so frustrated right now like how I felt when this happened. I almost followed everyone else's recommendation to just flash my Android phone back to its stock firmware. I wasn't ready to let go of whatever it is that would be gone (files, photos, settings, etc) if I did that. So I tried my best to just remember or guess the password that I have set.
If you want to try and guess the password firstly before flashing your phone, you can try the following hints:
- Your birthdate (this is the one that worked for me)
You have to try different date formats because you may have set the password up in a certain date format. If your birthday is March 2, 2015, try the following formats:030215
3215
03022015
The format above follows the month first- March / 03. You can try and follow the EU date format where the day comes before the month, etc. But you should be familiar about how you personally write dates. In my case, what worked is 03022015. This isn't my birthday by the way, just my date format, lol! - Common default codes
I know that you have set the Privacy Protection Password yourself but believe it or not, some people actually use default codes as their own pin/password so they can easily guess or remember it if needed. The following are the most common default codes that you can try:111112340000111111234500000111111123456000000
- Lastly, try other significant dates (Anniversary, your kid's birthday, your partner's birthday, etc.)
I am genuinely hoping that you're able to enter a correct password following the hints above. If you've tried everything and you're still unable to unlock your phone, you can try following this video tutorial about how you can bypass this and flash your Android phone back to its stock firmware.
Thanks for reading! Bye po!
