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When I first got my Droid Bionic, if I pressed the lock button on the top it would lock the screen; pressing it again would display a lock screen with the time, requiring me to slide to unlock. Somehow I have managed to disable this! I believe it happened after I put my phone in sleep mode as this forum thread suggest.

I have searched through all the settings and do not see any way to disable or enable the lock screen. I am not asking about a pattern or pin lock. I have a pin lock also. As a workaround I have changed the pin lock from 15 minutes to two minutes, but I ant my system "swipe" unlock screen back so I don't accidentally unlock my phone when it's in my pocket.

I really don't want to wipe my phone. I do not want a third party lock screen app.

Is there any way to re-enable the system lock screen (the one where you swipe to unlock) on a Droid Bionic, Android version 2.3.4?

EDIT: I installed MyLock and I now get the keygoard (swipe to unlock) screen about 50% of the time. So I suspect some app I have installed is disabling the keyguard. Any idea how I could determine which one?

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Obviously something has disabled the key locking mechanism - do you know what app was it you installed prior to the key lock getting messed up? – t0mm13b Aug 23 '12 at 20:23
@t0mm13b No, sadly I don't! Maybe I just have to uninstall one by one. UG. – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 20:26
There must be an app that has the permission "android.permission.DISABLE_KEYGUARD" in their AndroidManifest.xml that you unwittingly installed somewhere. – t0mm13b Aug 23 '12 at 20:49
@t0mm13b If you know a way I can find that (I have SSH access but not rooted) please do answer! – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 20:56

6 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

This function is also referred to as the "keyguard." Most of the phones that I have had do not allow you to toggle this on and off in the settings. Clearly something, possibly another app, toggled this off. I use Tasker to manipulate this setting. You may need to be rooted to do this but you can enable or disable they keyguard manually or programatically. There are also third party apps for toggling the keyguard. They are usually advertised as ways to disable the keyguard but they slice both ways. Depending on what disabled your keyguard in the first place, you may only need to use this solution once.

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Hmmm... I'd prefer a solution which doesn't cost $6.50, but if there's nothing better I can ry this. – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 15:50
+1 for the proper term "keyguard" -- searching google for "android toggle keyguard" led me to MyLock which has intermittently resolved this issue... I suspect some app I have is activly trying to disable the keyguard... – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 15:59
up vote 2 down vote

Right, the best you can do is download this app called 'aSpotCat' from the Google play store.

This will iterate through your listing of apps installed on your device.

To carry out the task -

  • Tap on 'aSpotCat' that is the app that was downloaded from the Google Play store.
  • Tap on 'List apps by permission'
  • Tap on 'System tools', this will expand, and there will be a button called 'Details', tap that.
  • Scroll down to see 'Disable Keyguard', tap on the arrow beside it, and it will expand itself, in there, you will see apps that have the permission to do so.

This will help you track it down and there should be an app listed in there responsible for disabling the keyguard, uninstall it and fingers crossed it will resolve it!

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Awesome handy tool to have! Checking this out now... – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 21:12
OK, I had a number of apps capable of disabling screen lock. Simply uninstalling them didn't fix the issue, but let's see if a reboot will... – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 22:13
Sadly, not. Unless it's a built in app which I can't remove. I was really hopeful this would work. I guess I'll have to wait for the ICS update and see if that fixes it. +1 for aSpotCat though, that's awesome! – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 22:20
up vote 1 down vote

Same issue for me.

Solved removing last "Maps" app update. Found it using "aspotcat", like t0mm13b said.

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HA! That's one of the few apps I didn't remove! – Josh Aug 24 '12 at 20:43
Sadly this didn't work for me. Did the problem go away immediately after removing the maps update? Did you have other apps with the Disable Keyguard permission or was Maps the only one? – Josh Aug 25 '12 at 12:59
up vote 0 down vote

I'm not fully sure if this is what you want, but you might want to enable the setting "Power button instantly locks" setting in the security section of the preferences. (That's where it is in ICS, I assume name and location are similar in Gingerbread.)

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The problem is, I don't seem to have any setting like that :-( – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 15:51
up vote 0 down vote accepted

Unfortunately this answer probably won't help anyone else... but for completeness, I am adding it and accepting my own answer. Believe me, I wish I didn't have to do this!

While the answers on this page were helpful, ultimately none of them worked reliably.

Finally, the Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" update became available and updating my phone to Ice Cream Sandwich solved this issue.

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up vote -3 down vote

Its called "Set up screen lock".

You can find it under Settings -> Security -> Set Up Screen Lock

You'll want to change it to slide.

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1  
This is already set to "Numeric Pin" -- the issue is when I press the lock button on my phone, the swipe lock is not activated. I have tried changing it here and it does not take effect. – Josh Aug 23 '12 at 15:47

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