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Smartphones are a pretty hot commodity as far as stolen goods are concerned. This is because a phone can fetch a few hundred dollars and it takes almost no effort to steal one. This creates a problem for companies and their customers, which is why Google has introduced protection features like Account Verification on Android phones.
Basically what this does is that when a phone is stolen, the thief would obviously want to wipe the device to sell it off, but with Account Verification and Factory Reset Protection, it means that you will need to verify it is you, the owner, who is trying to wipe the phone and not an unauthorized user.
Generally speaking, this is great, but it can also backfire. For example, we imagine that there might be some of you out there who might forget their Google account credentials, or have a different set of credentials that they want to use. This then becomes problematic, but not to worry, there are several ways around it that we will explore below.
In case the method above does not work, the next alternative would be to reset your phone. However, be warned that this method essentially wipes your phone and all of its contents entirely, so you’ll want to make sure that you have everything backed up just in case. This method is also recommended if you plan to sell or give away your old Android device.
- Go to your device’s Settings and factory reset the phone (this will vary from device to device)
- Once your device has been factory reset and rebooted, follow the steps of the setup process
- Once you get to the option to Connect to WiFi, tap the text box but don’t enter the WiFi password yet
- When the keyboard comes up, press and hold the spacebar and choose “English (US) Google Keyboard”
- Enter the password to the WiFi next and connect
- Follow the steps until you get to the page that prompts you to enter your Google Account information
- Tap the text box and enter your email address
- Tap and hold the @ symbol
- When the menu appears, choose Google Keyboard Settings
- Tap the three-dot menu and select Help & Feedback
- Tap any of the help articles which should open a web page. Press and hold on any of the words to highlight it, and then from the menu select Web Search and select Google App
- Search for Settings, which should bring up the gear icon. Select it and choose Backup and Reset
- Tap Factory Data Reset
- Follow the steps to go through the setup process again, but when you research the Google account verification page, you will now have the option to Skip the step completely
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