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Fingerprint login

M

Michael David

Newbie
Or, more accurately, why is my phone no longer asking for my fingerprint?

I have a Samsung S10+ running the latest OS (I am not sure what that is because I can't get into my phone). I used to keep my phone locked with a password but turned that off when it became too much trouble to enter each time and there was never any really sensitive information on it in any case.

About 6 months later I decided to turn on fingerprint unlock as being easier but apparently when I turned on fingerprint unlock it also turned my password back on. Unfortunately I have forgotten what that password was and I guess I never put it into my password keeper because I can't find it. It did not seem to be of much importance since my fingerprint unlocked the phone properly.

Yes, I know how stupid not doing that was, and I have been smacking my face all morning, but what is most bothering me now is that the phone no longer is even asking for my fingerprint and the auto-unlock at home, which I had set, is also not working. All of this leaves me with some questions.

1) Why did the fingerprint login stop working?

2) Why is the at-home auto login not working? And, perhaps most important,

3) Is there any way for me to do a factory reset on the phone so I can rebuild it?

It is a nice looking phone, but a bit too expensive for a paperweight. Thanks for any help.
 
1)not sure why. i have the note 10+ and the pin code is the secondary security by default.....so i'm not sure why it is asking for a password.

2)i noticed after my update that my smart lock was not working. i checked and i had to confirm my address in order for smart lock to work again.....not sure if that was the issue or not for you.

3)yes you can do a "hard reset" by using the combination of power + voulum buttons. here follow this guide: https://www.technipages.com/reset-galaxy-s10
 
ocnbrze said:
1)not sure why. i have the note 10+ and the pin code is the secondary security by default.....so i'm not sure why it is asking for a password.

2)i noticed after my update that my smart lock was not working. i checked and i had to confirm my address in order for smart lock to work again.....not sure if that was the issue or not for you.

3)yes you can do a "hard reset" by using the combination of power + voulum buttons. here follow this guide: https://www.technipages.com/reset-galaxy-s10
Click to expand...

Thanks. I don't really want to start over but it would not be the first time and I did save my important files to my main computer when I changed to fingerprint security so it is just trouble, not a catastrophe.

UPDATE:

Nope. Doesn't work.

The instructions say to turn the phone off and press the buttons. In this case I can not turn the phone off without the password and holding those buttons with the phone on does not do anything.

I can get the phone to show me the restart and off buttons but they don't actually restart the phone or turn it off. I guess they expect the user to enter the password.
 
Last edited:
ocnbrze said:
i still do not understand the password. are you talking about the pin code?
Click to expand...

No. I says "password" and when I tried the PIN, which I do remember, it just shook its head at me.

I am going to search through all of the paperwork around me hoping that I wrote the password down, but I really have no one to blame but myself for not saving it. I suspect I will have to do a factory reset if I can figure out how to do it.
 
Michael David said:
Or, more accurately, why is my phone no longer asking for my fingerprint?

I have a Samsung S10+ running the latest OS (I am not sure what that is because I can't get into my phone). I used to keep my phone locked with a password but turned that off when it became too much trouble to enter each time and there was never any really sensitive information on it in any case.

About 6 months later I decided to turn on fingerprint unlock as being easier but apparently when I turned on fingerprint unlock it also turned my password back on. Unfortunately I have forgotten what that password was and I guess I never put it into my password keeper because I can't find it. It did not seem to be of much importance since my fingerprint unlocked the phone properly.

Yes, I know how stupid not doing that was, and I have been smacking my face all morning, but what is most bothering me now is that the phone no longer is even asking for my fingerprint and the auto-unlock at home, which I had set, is also not working. All of this leaves me with some questions.

1) Why did the fingerprint login stop working?

2) Why is the at-home auto login not working? And, perhaps most important,

3) Is there any way for me to do a factory reset on the phone so I can rebuild it?

It is a nice looking phone, but a bit too expensive for a paperweight. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

Have you tried a hard factory reset:

The phone is off, press up volume, home, and power until you get a blue screen, after several seconds of displaying "no command" you'll see a text menu, one of which is wipe data / factory reset maybe this helps.
 
Michael David said:
No. I says "password" and when I tried the PIN, which I do remember, it just shook its head at me.

I am going to search through all of the paperwork around me hoping that I wrote the password down, but I really have no one to blame but myself for not saving it. I suspect I will have to do a factory reset if I can figure out how to do it.
Click to expand...
sorry i just realized on my note 10+ i could use a password. i'm glad i used a pin instead. for me that is much easier to do. but you should still be able to do a hard reset using the power+vol buttons as @Trom suggested.
 
The instructions for a hard reset requires that the phone be off, but I can not shut down the phone without the password. However I did find out something interesting.

Pressing the volume-up, Bixby and on/off buttons simultaneously does nothing on my phone, but I did find out something interesting. If instead I press the volume-down, Bixby and on/off buttons simultaneously it reboots the phone and if, when the screen goes dark, I then quickly press the volume-up Bixby and on/off buttons it catches it right after the shutdown for reboot and comes up in the text screen. That has the factory reset option so I think I can do the factory reset.

I am going to wait until tomorrow just in case I can find some hint of my password written down somewhere, but I think that is more hope than reality.
 
Michael David said:
The instructions for a hard reset requires that the phone be off, but I can not shut down the phone without the password. However I did find out something interesting.

Pressing the volume-up, Bixby and on/off buttons simultaneously does nothing on my phone, but I did find out something interesting. If instead I press the volume-down, Bixby and on/off buttons simultaneously it reboots the phone and if, when the screen goes dark, I then quickly press the volume-up Bixby and on/off buttons it catches it right after the shutdown for reboot and comes up in the text screen. That has the factory reset option so I think I can do the factory reset.

I am going to wait until tomorrow just in case I can find some hint of my password written down somewhere, but I think that is more hope than reality.
Click to expand...

I knew the hard reboot option as I had to do that with a note 5 a couple of years ago, and my phone was already on, too, I got around that, though, I waited for it to run out of juice, took about a week!
 
Well, this business of forcing a reboot (or install a custom OS - volume-down button, Bixby button and on/off button) and then, very quickly, the volume-up button, Bixby button and on/off button got me to the text screen and selecting a factory reset worked. I now have a functioning phone again, although all of the information is gone.

That did require that I go through an additional Google verification before the factory reset took place by entering my Gmail credentials (possibly to make sure that I was notified that the phone had been reset in case it had been stolen?) and then it searched for a backup on Google Drive. Of course it did not find one because I never backed up to the Drive, but at least it is no longer a paperweight.

Thanks for the help. I guess I won't use a password again or, at the very least, if I do I will make note of it in my password protection software.
 
Michael David said:
Well, this business of forcing a reboot (or install a custom OS - volume-down button, Bixby button and on/off button) and then, very quickly, the volume-up button, Bixby button and on/off button got me to the text screen and selecting a factory reset worked. I now have a functioning phone again, although all of the information is gone.

That did require that I go through an additional Google verification before the factory reset took place by entering my Gmail credentials (possibly to make sure that I was notified that the phone had been reset in case it had been stolen?) and then it searched for a backup on Google Drive. Of course it did not find one because I never backed up to the Drive, but at least it is no longer a paperweight.

Thanks for the help. I guess I won't use a password again or, at the very least, if I do I will make note of it in my password protection software.
Click to expand...

I have a text file that contains all of my accounts and passwords / pins, whatever, and if I add to it, I encrypt the latest copy and send it to my cloud server, just a thought. That said, you should always have a password to your phone, whether you use it or not, passwords are completely static, and therefore safe when all else fails, and that actually reminds me, when I used my Note, it made me log in with password at startup, did Samsung get away from that?
 
Trom said:
and that actually reminds me, when I used my Note, it made me log in with password at startup, did Samsung get away from that?
Click to expand...

Apparently not.

I suspect that what happened is that the phone rebooted sometime between the last time I used my fingerprint login and the time I could not get the phone to ask for a fingerprint. I think I remember that Samsung requires a password login after a reboot, although I may be wrong about that. That is what I think got me into this mess (with apologies to Laurel and Hardy).
 
So it was just a matter of time. If the phone had not locked up on me now it would have at some point down the road as soon as it rebooted, so I guess now is as good as later considering that I had saved the important files a week ago.
 
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