When a password is changed before a factory reset, many people are finding themselves locked out.
There is an Android mobile security feature that has been making technology news headlines over the last few days, because it has taken some users by surprise – and not in the way that people like to be surprised.
As it turns out, if a password is changed in an Android based device, it is best not to do a factory reset right away.
The reason is that this mobile security feature may trigger a 72 hour lockout of the device if the password is changed and a factory reset is made too soon afterward. What’s even more unpleasant about that lockout is that there isn’t anything that can be done about it aside from waiting it out. For the majority of people, that could represent the longest three days that they have ever had to wait.
Fortunately, the problems associated with that mobile security measure are not difficult to avoid.
As long as the factory reset is not started too soon after the password was changed, the odds are that it will never create a problem for the device user. The reasons that it happens in the first place is actually to try to protect device owners
This was a part of the new mobile Device Protection feature that was released as a part of the Android upgrade to 5.1 Lollipop. One component of this suite of tools for enhancing the device security was called the Factory Reset Protection. The three day lockout is directly linked to that specific component.
Tripping that feature is done by changing the Google account password and then performing an Android factory reset shortly afterward on a device that runs on 5.1 Lollipop or higher. Its purpose is to provide you with enough time to regain control of your Google account if your phone is ever stolen and the account compromised. In this way, if someone steals your phone, if your first move is to change your password to protect your Google account and the thief’s first move is to factory reset the device, it will stop the thief from being able to do anything at all for three days.
