Lenovo Phone Unlock by Deep Methods
I somehow bought the Lenovo A706 - and I was very pleased with it, and very pleased. There was, however, a couple of glitches associated with the independence of the screen, although in general it was a completely suitable device. But one day, on one dark, dark night, a misfortune happened to him in the country. He lay to himself and charged. Before that, the light went out, and I specifically turned off the data transfer at night to save the battery if the light goes out again. And I left him lying face down ...
In the morning, someone called from a beautiful place far away, I didn’t have time to pick up the phone, I dialed the wrong pattern on the screen for myself fifteen times (the same bug!) And asked plaintively for Google to unlock ... Google’s account associated with the phone is there, but I can get I can’t reach her: the data transfer, as we recall, is turned off - both cellular and Wi-Fi. What to do? Resetting a smartphone to default is a pity, there are unsynchronized work contacts in the notebook and notes, and it’s unsportsmanlike. I decided to fight. Yes! USB debugging was also turned off, of course. And for some reason, Lenovo did not think that asking for an account with the Internet connection extinguished does not make sense ...
After a thoughtful search and a cursory study of thematic communities on the Internet, many unlocking methods were found - from a documented default reset to uploads of some wise programs in Recovery mode, either through ADB or directly. The methods led to the fact that as a result (as it turned out later) I damaged the device’s configuration a little, but I couldn’t unlock it, invariably getting a persistent, but completely impossible requirement to enter Google:
One of the unlocking methods suggested by the collective mind was to directly manage the phone database via ADB Shell using SQL instructions - I could not use it, because USB debugging was turned off and the database was not available in Recovery mode. I thought - why not fix the database files themselves? In the Recovery menu (Lenovo smartphones are entered into it by holding the Volume + and Volume- buttons during power-up), there are four actions necessary for this:
1. Backup. This is a copy of the phone. We must be patient, it will take time. After the process is completed, the copy will lie on the phone’s flash card in the / backup directory in the ZIP archive format.
2. Mount. You must enable the mounting of the flash card to the computer and connect the phone via USB. The computer will see the phone’s drive, and you can download the generated backup archive, as well as put the modified one in place.
3. Restore. Point to the archive with the modified database, wait for the phone to restore itself from the archive.
4. Reboot. Reboot the phone with Wi-Fi finally turned on, then enter the Google account information and no longer do such nonsense.
So, the archive is received and downloaded to the hard drive of the computer. We look at it carefully and make a backup just in case, as we will change the contents of the archive. It has the ZIP format and contains everything from the main memory of the phone, including databases that control the configuration of the device. The Android operating system has a built-in SQLite3 database, where it stores almost all of its information. Let's get down to it.
In the archive we see the directory and the file:
There is nothing interesting in the file - a full table of contents of the archive and access rights to the files. We go into the directory.
Here we see subdirectories with databases in XML and SQLite format, which store and use various applications and operating system activities. We are interested in a very specific subdirectory:
Change for entries
Oh miracle - we have Wi-Fi turned on! We cling to a well-known network telephone, enter Google account information and get the desired access to the device. Of course, this method will work with any Android device that can enter Recovery mode, create a backup archive and be able to recover from it. Those who want to indulge in nostalgia instead of SQLite Database Browser can use the good old HIEW , but here you need not to ruin the database file and understand its structure.
In the morning, someone called from a beautiful place far away, I didn’t have time to pick up the phone, I dialed the wrong pattern on the screen for myself fifteen times (the same bug!) And asked plaintively for Google to unlock ... Google’s account associated with the phone is there, but I can get I can’t reach her: the data transfer, as we recall, is turned off - both cellular and Wi-Fi. What to do? Resetting a smartphone to default is a pity, there are unsynchronized work contacts in the notebook and notes, and it’s unsportsmanlike. I decided to fight. Yes! USB debugging was also turned off, of course. And for some reason, Lenovo did not think that asking for an account with the Internet connection extinguished does not make sense ...
After a thoughtful search and a cursory study of thematic communities on the Internet, many unlocking methods were found - from a documented default reset to uploads of some wise programs in Recovery mode, either through ADB or directly. The methods led to the fact that as a result (as it turned out later) I damaged the device’s configuration a little, but I couldn’t unlock it, invariably getting a persistent, but completely impossible requirement to enter Google:
One of the unlocking methods suggested by the collective mind was to directly manage the phone database via ADB Shell using SQL instructions - I could not use it, because USB debugging was turned off and the database was not available in Recovery mode. I thought - why not fix the database files themselves? In the Recovery menu (Lenovo smartphones are entered into it by holding the Volume + and Volume- buttons during power-up), there are four actions necessary for this:
1. Backup. This is a copy of the phone. We must be patient, it will take time. After the process is completed, the copy will lie on the phone’s flash card in the / backup directory in the ZIP archive format.
2. Mount. You must enable the mounting of the flash card to the computer and connect the phone via USB. The computer will see the phone’s drive, and you can download the generated backup archive, as well as put the modified one in place.
3. Restore. Point to the archive with the modified database, wait for the phone to restore itself from the archive.
4. Reboot. Reboot the phone with Wi-Fi finally turned on, then enter the Google account information and no longer do such nonsense.
So, the archive is received and downloaded to the hard drive of the computer. We look at it carefully and make a backup just in case, as we will change the contents of the archive. It has the ZIP format and contains everything from the main memory of the phone, including databases that control the configuration of the device. The Android operating system has a built-in SQLite3 database, where it stores almost all of its information. Let's get down to it.
In the archive we see the directory and the file:
/backupbackup_info.txtThere is nothing interesting in the file - a full table of contents of the archive and access rights to the files. We go into the directory.
/data/data/Here we see subdirectories with databases in XML and SQLite format, which store and use various applications and operating system activities. We are interested in a very specific subdirectory:
/data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/where we find the file settings.dband in the company of its journal (files settings.db-*) carefully extract from the archive. Glory to the Almighty, here Google did not write anything of its own and uses the standard format! I used the SQLite Database Browser program, a link to which I was kindly provided by Yandex: sqlitebrowser.org, which was under foreign influence . Download the appropriate distribution kit and install the program, then open our file with it. In it we find several tables; we are interested in a table securewhere in the field there [name]will be values related to WiFi: Change for entries
wifi_onand wifi_saved_statevalues in the field[value]per unit and save changes. Moreover, since closing the database file was correct, SQLite Database Browser will erase the log files and leave only the bare file settings.db- this should not be scared. We pack this file into the archive at the old place, without forgetting to delete from the archive the log files of our database, worn by SQLite Database Browser! In the archive in the directory /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/should be one single file settings.db. We upload the archive to the phone, in Recovery mode we need Restore, we look forward to the end of the process and reboot the phone.Oh miracle - we have Wi-Fi turned on! We cling to a well-known network telephone, enter Google account information and get the desired access to the device. Of course, this method will work with any Android device that can enter Recovery mode, create a backup archive and be able to recover from it. Those who want to indulge in nostalgia instead of SQLite Database Browser can use the good old HIEW , but here you need not to ruin the database file and understand its structure.