I did a factory reset on my old Galaxy s7 to give to my wife who had an issue with her phone. I did the whole process as I should and now when it comes back up it wants me to log into my Google account. It accepts my gmail address and password but always quits with an error saying "something went wrong". I also get a pop up that disappears saying something about using an owner device etc. If I go to my Google account the S7 is there, greyed out and even says there was a log in but also says it's been logged out of. It's like its aware of the log in, tracks it but never lets me actually get logged in. I thought I could just remove from my account and then set up my wife but I can't get logged in on it to finish any set up and I can't remove it. The greyed out icon in Manage Devices has the 3 little dots but the only options are 1. Find Phone 2. Recognise Device ? And it says it's "Signed Out". Its a vicious circle. I power up the phone, go through logging into my Google account, it accepts my email and password but instead of logging me in it throws an error about something going wrong. I really need to either get logged in so I can get this set up for my wife or get this device unattached from my account but I don't seem to be able to do either. Or find some app to wipe the phone but none seem to work unless the phone is set up and I can't complete set up. Not having fun so far. Please advise.
Cheers,
Bruce
Just to clarify, after doing that Factory Reset were trying to use the same Google account/password as the Google account that was used the first time the phone was setup with? If you are trying to enter your current Google account info and the phone is tied to a different Google account, that won't work out.
-- Don't get caught up on misconceptions -- i.e. a Hard Reset is a Factory Reset, it's just a vernacular matter about terminology; nor is a SIM card required to do a Factory Reset (a SIM card only pertains to a user account with a cellular service, it's not anything that a smartphone has to have present all the time). Focus on your actual problem and ignore the fluff.
-- The internal storage inside your S7 is divided into several different partitions. Most are dedicated solely to the operating system so you don't have easy access to any of them, nor their contents (the installed Android operating system). The largest partition is set aside as the user data partition, that's where all your personal files and apps you install get stored. The system partitions are protected and restricted by system-level permissions, the user data partition has open and loosely protected user-level permissions.
All of this are important aspects that will help you understand the fundamental differences that differentiate a Factory Reset from flashing the ROM.
-- When you do a Factory Reset, all that does is wipe the user data partition clean. Despite touts that this 'wipes the phone', a Factory Reset does nothing to any of those system-level partitions. The installed Android OS will be the same before a Factory Reset as after a Factory Reset.
A Factory Reset is a bit of a misnomer because it does have a name that can be interpreted in different ways.
-- In order to actually replace the installed Android OS on your phone with a 'clean' copy, that requires the installed firmware with a different firmware. Be prepared for a lot of interchangeable terminology, it's essentially the same as using a Restore disc/media to rewrite a Windows PC. To rewrite an Android OS is a process colloquially as 'flashing a ROM' Flashing is the rewriting process, a ROM equates to the firmware.
-- The first time you power up an Android smartphone it will prompt you to enter a Google account (and its password). This intrinsically ties the phone to that Google account. System services like Play Store access get linked to that Google account and that same account is used as a default for some other basic services. But you are still a free to use a different Google account for things like email, calendar, contacts, or even use other services like MS Outlook, or Yahoo Mail, or AOL Mail, or whatever. Anyway, a Factory Reset won't do anything to solve this particular matter, that first initial Google account relates to the installed operating system so this pertains to those system-level partitions.
-- When you need to restore your S7 back to its original state (it will prompt you to enter a Google account/password again when you power it up), you need to flash your phone with its appropriate ROM. This isn't a necessarily difficult process but it does require you to pay close attention to each step. It's not hard to do, just very involved. Go here to obtain the appropriate ROM (a.k.a. firmware)
Download the latest Samsung firmware for Galaxy S7 with model code SM-G930F. Check out our free download or super fast premium options.
www.sammobile.com
It's vital that you choose to get the ROM that exactly matches your particular S7 model. There are several variants of your S7 so don't just use a ROM that's for a different S7. Use only the ROM that corresponds with your phone, and the carrier your phone is by design made for. Each different ROM contains only the required software, drivers, firmware that works with each phone's hardware configuration. Simply because a S7 phone looks similar to a different S7 phone on the outside, internally some of the actual hardware components soldered onto the logic board might be quite different. So again, be careful about which ROM you choose.
When you make choice, the resulting download page will also have a Flashing instructions link. Read through them, they are important. You'll need to install the Odin utility onto a Win PC to do the flashing process, and when you use it, follow those instructions closely. Don't experiment or skip anything, those instructions are a result of countless ROM flashing instances. Pay close attention to the message window in the Odin utility, if you don't actually see a Success message at the bottom, the flashing process failed at some point. Don't be surprised if you need to just start over a second time to do this, it's a multi-step endeavor that's dependent on a lot of variables.
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