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App Lock In Settings

I

Itsnotthatsimple

Lurker
The other day, I was experimenting in Settings, and i found a way to lock important apps. I simply unlock it with my fingerprints or a pin. Couldn't remember the pin, and I turned off fingerprint recognition by accident, and I need the pin to turn it back on. I've gone through Settings(not locked, thank god), but I couldn't find a way to turn App Lock off, any ideas?
 
How did you turn it on?
BTW, I have 'hacked' some applocks just by clearing their data. But that won't work probably for system apps, just those 3rd party applocks you find on Play Store...
There is also a way to temporarily bypass them by force stopping them using ADB. But again, only downloaded apps, not sure about system applocks....
But, first I want to know, how did you turn it on? Because if you know how to turn it on, then you can probably turn it off too?
 
Daniel Fernandes said:
How did you turn it on?
BTW, I have 'hacked' some applocks just by clearing their data. But that won't work probably for system apps, just those 3rd party applocks you find on Play Store...
There is also a way to temporarily bypass them by force stopping them using ADB. But again, only downloaded apps, not sure about system applocks....
But, first I want to know, how did you turn it on? Because if you know how to turn it on, then you can probably turn it off too?
Click to expand...
I turned it on in Settings, but I can't remember where. I looked under Security, and I can't find anything about it. I even looked up 'App Lock' in Settings, but zilch.
 
Itsnotthatsimple said:
Any ideas where it might be?
Click to expand...
I can't say much because I don't have the kind of device you own.

Do you have a forgot password option in the app lock-screen?

EDIT: Where did you turn off fingerprint recognition? Did you turn it off only for that applock or for everything? I think if you turned it off for everything, you can enable it again and get it unlocked.
 
Daniel Fernandes said:
EDIT: Where did you turn off fingerprint recognition? Did you turn it off only for that applock or for everything? I think if you turned it off for everything, you can enable it again and get it unlocked.
Click to expand...
This is worth a try. Any app I've used that uses fingerprint recognition uses the system service, rather than its own fingerprint authentication, so there's a decent chance that re-enabling that would work.

Do you remember whether you set a PIN separately when doing this, or whether it's using the system PIN? If this is a third-party app I'd expect it to have to set it's own PIN, but if it's a system feature it might not.

Locking apps in the way I think you are describing is not a standard Android feature, so it's either something Huawei added to the system or an app that you have installed. Since you can't find it in your settings, which is where I'd expect any system feature to be, have you installed any separate security apps? Some of these offer such things as a feature, so I'm wondering, since you can't remember where it was, whether it was part of an app like that rather than a system setting (maybe a feature you weren't aware of when you installed it but later discovered, then forgot where)?
 
Hadron said:
This is worth a try. Any app I've used that uses fingerprint recognition uses the system service, rather than its own fingerprint authentication, so there's a decent chance that re-enabling that would work.

Do you remember whether you set a PIN separately when doing this, or whether it's using the system PIN? If this is a third-party app I'd expect it to have to set it's own PIN, but if it's a system feature it might not.

Locking apps in the way I think you are describing is not a standard Android feature, so it's either something Huawei added to the system or an app that you have installed. Since you can't find it in your settings, which is where I'd expect any system feature to be, have you installed any separate security apps? Some of these offer such things as a feature, so I'm wondering, since you can't remember where it was, whether it was part of an app like that rather than a system setting (maybe a feature you weren't aware of when you installed it but later discovered, then forgot where)?
Click to expand...
I checked my apps, but none of them are security based, and none download an App Lock to my phone. I really think it's in Settings, I just don't know where.

I turned fingerprint recognition off only in app lock. It was in Settings, so I think app lock is too.
 

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And the lock-screen PIN presumably doesn't work. Hmm...

(Generally Android requires you to have a PIN or password to back-up the fingerprint, and my Pixel requires you to enter it afte a reboot and every now and then as a cross-check - it regards the FP as less secure. This does mean that you cannot forget it, so I guess your phone behaves differently in this respect).
 
Itsnotthatsimple said:
It asks me for the pin.
Click to expand...
Woops... That's no good....

But we can find which system app it is and then clear it's data if it is a system app...

First you will need to setup ADB:

To use ADB you will need:

Hardware:
  • An Android Device
  • A computer (I am using Windows 10)
  • A USB cable
Software:
  • Minimal ADB and Fastboot
  • ADB driver for your device
Step 1: Download the softwares
Download Minimal ADB and Fastboot

Download the ADB driver Installer

Step 2: Enable USB Debugging
  • Goto Settongs >> About Phone >> Software Version (Serial Number on some devices) >> Tap it several times and you will get a toast message “You are now a developer”
  • Goto to Settings >> you will see a new options there called “Developer Options”, open that
  • Enable Developer Options
  • Enable USB Debugging
Step 3: Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable
No explanation needed…

Step 4: Install the ADB Driver
Launch that Universal ADB Driver software and install the driver for your device. You will need an internet connection. Sometimes, Windows Update automatically downloads the ADB driver for your device, but that didn’t work for me and that’s why I recommend you to use this software.

Step 5: Test if ADB works
Install the Minimal ADB and Fastboot setup and launch it (double click “CMD-here”), then run this command:
adb devices
Your device should be recognized which indicates that you successfully installed ADB.

Once this is done, you need to find the package name of the app:

First, make sure that the app lock screen (technically called an “Activity”) where it asks you for a password to enter an app is being displayed. then on ADB (which you learned to setup earlier) type the following command:
adb shell dumpsys activity
After this, you will get get a long list. In that list look for “Running activities (most recent first)”. Right below that line, you can find the package name of the app that is currently on the screen. The first ‘TaskRecord’ has the package name of my applock and the second ‘TaskRecord’ has the package name of the locked app (but we don’t really need it). Here is a screenshot:

untitled.png


The part that I’ve highlighted is the package name of my applock.

I think somewhere in this screen the applocks name might also be available.

Source: https://danielfernandzz.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/how-to-hack-applocks/
 
D
Hadron said:
And the lock-screen PIN presumably doesn't work. Hmm...

(Generally Android requires you to have a PIN or password to back-up the fingerprint, and my Pixel requires you to enter it afte a reboot and every now and then as a cross-check - it regards the FP as less secure. This does mean that you cannot forget it, so I guess your phone behaves differently in this respect).
Click to expand...
Do you have any idea where in Settings I could turn it off? It might require the pin, but I think it's worth a shot.
 
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