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A little while back, I passed on my Samsung Galaxy S6 to my mom. She used the fingerprint scanner to get into the device. Today, her battery died for the first time and because you can't use her fingerprint the first time after a restart and she forgot the backup password, we cannot access the phone.

I thought there was an option to reset the device using her Google account after entering the wrong code a few times, but that option doesn't appear unfortunately. I read about Samsung's Find my Mobile, and while I was using the S6 I activated it and I can find it in my list of phones when I login with my Samsung Account, but I am unable to unlock the phone with it because it says it's offline at the moment (it's online, but I assume it says that because it isn't activated anymore, I reset the phone before I gave it to my mom).

I know that I can enter recovery mode to factory reset the device. The thing is that she really wants the pictures on it. Is there any way at all for me to get the pictures from the device? If I'm correct, it was fully stock.

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  • Could you provide more info, such as Android version and willingness to root?
    – Grimoire
    Apr 15, 2016 at 22:58
  • What is your carrier? If you are on T-mobile or International you'll be able to flash TWRP recovery.
    – Aaron Gillion
    Apr 16, 2016 at 1:19
  • I have the international version. I think it's on 6.0.1 and I am willing to root. How would I go about flashing TWRP?
    – YoungStarDC
    Apr 16, 2016 at 7:24

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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If it's actually safely built, then no. If the device isn't running the latest software, it's possible that you could use a security exploit to delete the lockscreen settings database, but otherwise you're SOL, I'm afraid.

If you backed the photos up via Google Photos, they might still be there. Also check any other cloud storage or backup services you may have used.

As a last ditch resort, I don't believe there's an option in a stock configuration of Android that locks you out of your phone after so many attempts, so really all you're limited by in getting into it, is your patience of trying every possible combination.

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  • I see, that's pretty bad news... Since when exactly was the option to use your Google Account to recover your code removed? I'm sure it was there not too long ago.
    – YoungStarDC
    Apr 15, 2016 at 21:56
  • @YoungStarDC I'm not entirely sure, but I haven't seen it in a while
    – RailPerson
    Apr 15, 2016 at 22:00
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Alright, I managed to get all the files of the device! Here's how to do it in this particular case:

  1. Like suggested by someone else in the comments, I flashed TWRP to my Galaxy S6 using ODIN.
  2. After flashing TWRP, I turned the Galaxy S6 off and I booted to recovery by holding the Volume Up + Home button + Power button simultaneously.
  3. I installed Google's Android SDK Manager and from within the SDK Manager, I installed the SDK Platform Tools. This allowed me to use ADB.
  4. From within the Platform Tools folder, I held shift and right-clicked an empty space to open a CMD window in that folder.
  5. I connected the Galaxy S6, which was still in TWRP, to my computer.
  6. In the CMD, I ussed the command adb devices to check if it was recognized. It was.
  7. Lastly, I used the command adb pull /sdcard to pull ALL DATA from the internal storage.

Hopefully this will help others with the same question!

PS: I didn't provide any download links because I'm not sure if it's allowed. But like always, Google is your friend.

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  • Wait here... Phone was locked and there would not be debugging mode enabled. So, explain how you passed that thing?
    – Vivek Ji
    Apr 17, 2016 at 20:41
  • Well, I just used the steps I provided. I used the comments from here along with the help I got from the XDA forums where they told me to install TWRP too. I then googled how to use Adb and I pulled the data and wiped the phone afterwards. What I wrote above is all I did.
    – YoungStarDC
    Apr 17, 2016 at 20:43
  • I mean here 1. How odin recognised your device. 2. If it was so then you were able to copy all the things without doing all these steps.
    – Vivek Ji
    Apr 18, 2016 at 5:14

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