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My cousin's kid has played with his Samsung A8 (2018) phone and has changed his unlock pattern. So, nobody knows the pattern the child has set.

  • The phone has no Google account set up
  • The USB debugging is not activated on device before

I have rebooted into recovery mode, and entered the option Apply update from ADB:

Recovery screen

There is a message on recovery screen saying:

Now send the package you want to apply to the device with adb sideload <filename> ...

I'm able to see the device by adb devices command:

Command line screenshot

According to another post, looks like it is possible to use TWRP for Samsung Galaxy A8 2018 to clear the screen lock. So, I have downloaded the following apk package:

TWRP for Samsung Galaxy A8 2018

Now I plan to install TWRP on phone by the following command and then follow the previous post:

adb sideload me.twrp.twrpapp-26.apk

Questions

Now, before doing so, I have these questions:

  • Is it possible to install *.apk packages by adb sideload? Is there any possibility that it would mess up the phone?
  • What else can I do with adb sideload to clear the screen lock?
  • What else can be done with adb sideload to back up the phone camera images and videos without wiping the data?

Thanks =)

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    1. What you got is the TWRP management app not the TWRP recovery, using this app you can install TWRP on a rooted device if you boot the device and start the app. 2. adb sideload is for sideloading firmware/ROM updates/full images. As far as I know you can't install APK files via sideloading at least not directly. What you should do: Perform a factory reset.
    – Robert
    Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 17:51
  • give the phone back to the childs and let keep some days, sometimes they just remember when not stressed and relaxed playing with things. in fact, that's the only option (much better chance than automatized bruteforce attack)
    – alecxs
    Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 21:51
  • you can do nothing to by-pass security with sideload android.stackexchange.com/q/222262
    – alecxs
    Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 22:29
  • read the TWRP support thread on xda. it's not even possible to decrypt, and hard enough to get a working TWRP flashed due some additional bootloader locks. furthermore it's a exynos chipset you can't use qualcomm EDL tools to dump or flash something on low level. that's a dead end
    – alecxs
    Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 22:35
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    Is the data on the flash memory plain or encrypted? If I were to do something crazy like this flashfixers.com/recover-data-dead-phone-chip-off-data-recovery, could the data be recovered? Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 6:18

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