Do I Have To Let My Service Provider Know I Did A Factory Reset

Phone Security (Epitome credit: Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central)

Factory Reset Protection (FRP) is a security method that was designed to make sure someone tin't just wipe and manufactory reset your phone if you've lost it or it was stolen. Starting with Android Lollipop, FRP is "standard" in vanilla Android, and virtually of the companies making our phones have implemented information technology in their own models. It's a good thing — it makes a stolen phone harder to utilize, which makes it less appealing to thieves, and anything that tin can protect our data on a phone nosotros've lost is welcome.

How information technology works

It tin can become a problem if you lot sell, merchandise, or fifty-fifty give away a phone without factory resetting information technology, though. How it works explains why.

You have to be signed in with the "owner" account of the phone (the one you used to prepare it upward) in club to factory reset it. That means if yous give me your phone, I can't reset it without you being signed in. There are random workarounds on the Internet, simply they tend to get patched almost as soon as they are discovered. Y'all'll pretty much need to know the login details for the concluding business relationship to use the phone before you tin reset it and create a new owner account.

Factory Reset Protection — Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Central)

We've been bitten by this ourselves. Nosotros send phones all over North America and the U.Yard., and sometimes it's like shooting fish in a barrel to forget you're even so signed in when you stick a telephone in a box. And yes, nosotros end upward having to share a password to get past the initial setup considering of other policies Google has in place to protect your business relationship.

This is a fleck of an inconvenience, but unremarkably, we remember the 1 critical dominion: If you lot modify or reset your Google account password, you can't use it to wipe a telephone that's using information technology for 72 hours.

Disable it the correct fashion

Disabling FRP (Manufactory Reset Protection) is simple. On well-nigh phones, it will exist automatically done whenever y'all cull to reset the data through the phone'due south settings. If your phone has an actress layer of reset protection from the company who built it or has a "find my phone" app from the company who built it, you'll want to disable that manually first.

There may be a few devices all the same in utilise that require a bit more hands-on piece of work. If your telephone is really old, yous might demand to remove the accounts that are signed in manually:

Open your device settings and remove any security you lot take for the lock screen. This isn't a required step for all phones, only some want yous to do this, then we're including it here.
Once that's done, you demand to remove any and all Google Accounts from the telephone or tablet. That's besides done in the settings — wait for a section labeled Accounts. With an account selected, look for a delete or remove pick, ordinarily hidden behind the 3 little dots in the summit corner of the screen.
When you've fabricated sure all of the Google accounts have been erased, yous tin then factory reset your telephone or tablet through the device settings.

On modern Android phones, there shouldn't be any problems equally long as y'all cull to factory reset your telephone through its settings. This will automatically remove all the associated accounts in a way that "frees" the telephone from FRP. If you try to reset a phone through the bootloader, FRP will kick in, and it can't exist set support without the previous account'south password.

Y'all can make sure any reset protection has been removed from a phone you want to find a new owner for. But try to sign back into it later on yous've reset it. If it asks for the previous username and countersign, FRP is still enabled. If it doesn't, you're skillful to become: ability it off and box it up!

Oops! Too late, I already sent it.

If y'all've forgotten to turn off FRP and transport a phone to someone else, you'll likely need to help them get it prepare. This ways giving them access to your Google business relationship countersign. The only other reasonable pick is to have it returned so you tin can practise it yourself.

If yous choose to let someone know your Google credentials, practise it while yous are on the phone with them. Give them the password to your account and have them verify that it worked, and they can continue the setup process. Then immediately modify your Google account countersign, as well every bit any other accounts that might have been using the same password.

Recall to not erase or delete the Google account from some other phone for 72 hours after y'all've washed this! If you endeavour, you may exist locked out of your business relationship and need to speak with someone at Google to resolve everything.

While we haven't seen headlines telling us mobile telephone theft is downward by any measurable percentage since FRP was enabled, it'due south still a good way to keep your data condom. And information technology's pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to disable when you want someone else to be able to use your sometime phone.

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't accept autonomously, just many things he can't reassemble. You'll detect him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Fundamental and occasionally on Twitter.