Cell Phone Locked
Cell phones often can have a security password enabled to prevent anyone from viewing your information. These passwords can be a number sequence or pattern drawn on a touch screen, but when you forget the password, you can lock yourself from obtaining your information or using your phone. A majority of phones have resets available, but they will delete any personal information saved directly to the phone itself.
Instructions
1. Try as many guesses as possible of passwords you might have set up. Security passwords, if entered incorrectly too many times, will not lock the phone completely. On some phones, this is the only option, such as more basic Nokias. Some newer Odel Nokias can have the code *#7370# entered on the keypad to initiate a master reset.
2. Enter the backup email login. Many PDA-style phones have a backup email address that can be signed in to to recover the password or reset it. This is the case for Motorblur phones and Android phones.
3. Perform a master reset on the phone using the hardware keys. Most commonly available on PDA-style phones, a series of buttons can be pressed to reset the phone. Your cell phone carrier should be able to tell you if this is an option.
4. Turn the phone off. Press the volume keys down and continue holding them while quickly pressing the power key. When the boot-up menu populates, select the factory reset option. Some phones will have you press and hold the camera key or will even have a reset hole to place a straight pin in.
5. Call your cell phone carrier or manufacturer if the phone will still not unlock. Often a code can be entered to reset the phone, or they can give you the directions to do the reset with the hardware keys.
Tags: reset phone, backup email, cell phone carrier, hardware keys, master reset, PDA-style phones