Android tablet password recovery

[TenOC]

I have recently purchased a tablet for my granddaughter. The model number is Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 GT-P5210. My granddaughter is 7 years old. This is my first experience with an android operating system. The problem is she is old enough to know how to change the password on the tablet. However, since she only spends every other weekend with me, she forgets her new password (That she changed 2 weeks ago) from time to time.

Is there way to prevent her from changing the password? Or can I make a master password so that I can see what her password is? I cannot find a way to store a password hint like I do on Windows 10 operating system. I have searched the Internet for how to recover a password on android, but the solution is a factory reset which will wipe out all of the stored personal information that she has on the tablet.

Suggestions are welcome.

[Gdetrailer]

MrWizard wrote:
"To keep Android as light as possible old hardware support is cast aside making a expensive tablet a doorstop in just one or two version releases."

Its not a door stop just because the newest apps wont be accepted, turn off auto update and select " notiy me if updates "
Update on apps usually bring more bloat and advertising, i dont update apps that im satisfied with the way they are working and that includes Kindle, there are other ebook ereader apps that will open kindle book format, ive never had Amazon pull/uninstall kindle from my tablet or phones, so i cant explain that

Tell that to my DW..

She was devastated when she discovered that her Kindle for Android removed it's self.. She did not uninstall it, it was working the night before, turned off the Tablet, turned on the Tablet and the next morning Kindle App was no longer on her Tablet. We spent days trying everything we could to reinstall Kindle for Android to her Tablet with only a message of "this App is not compatible with your version of Android".

The only thing we could do was we found a third party website which stores older legacy Apps.. Found almost the same version she had before the whole mess happened.. While that App sort of worked (it was able to retrieve the books she had purchased), the version was not able to open the Kindle store so she could look for new books to purchase.

Reset Android to factory, installed the newest last version of Android that supported her Tablet and yet, no dice.. The only Kindle version offered from Google play just kept giving the message that the App was not compatible with her Android version.

Newer versions of Kindle for Android (and a lot of newer Apps) do not have any way to disable or turn off auto updates.

Our Android phones have zero way to stop or prevent Android from auto updating, even the "developers" trick that worked on older Android versions no longer works (oh, the disable feature button is present but switching to disable does nothing).

So, I have a nice looking 10" Leveno Tablet sitting on the coffee table that is now only useful as a doorstop or perhaps as a shim under a chair or table leg that isn't even.. All because the tablet hardware is not supported in Android 10,11 or 12..

Google is not supporting more than 2 major releases back, Android 12 is out, that means Android 9 or older is no longer supported or developed.. App writers follow suit..

[MrWizard]

"To keep Android as light as possible old hardware support is cast aside making a expensive tablet a doorstop in just one or two version releases."

Its not a door stop just because the newest apps wont be accepted, turn off auto update and select " notiy me if updates "
Update on apps usually bring more bloat and advertising, i dont update apps that im satisfied with the way they are working and that includes Kindle, there are other ebook ereader apps that will open kindle book format, ive never had Amazon pull/uninstall kindle from my tablet or phones, so i cant explain that

On this phone is
version 8.49.1.0(1.3.253484.0)
App size is 233 Megabytes
i have 31 kindle ebooks in my library, while they are all on my tablet, only a couple are downloaded onto this phone

[MrWizard]

Take a picture of her face, print it on non glossy mat photo paper 8x10 portrait, point the tablet at that when you want unlock it snd check it

[Gdetrailer]

:S

Once you do get in, remove the password requirement.

At home, there is no need to have passwords set on personal devices, it isn't like you are keeping company sensitive information and data and passwording the device will not prevent outside badguys from breaching your devices.

Heck I have at least a dozen different PCs around the home from Win98 to Win10 plus Android phones and tablets.. I don't keep sensitive personal data on any device which can walk out of my home and even those are not passworded.

[TenOC]

update: She put a face recognize "password" so she and not me can get in the tablet now.

[fj12ryder]

wa8yxm wrote:
You can set up an adminstrator's (owner or master) account as I recall and set up a 2nd account for a child or "guest"... Not sure since I'm the only user of my 'droids how to do that... Samsung can talk you through what on a Chromebook is called a "power wash" Restoring the unit to "out of the box" as I recall once you log back into your account (if you can that is. not sure if you can without the password) all applications will re-load but data will be lost .

We have an older Android tablet that I did this on with our great-granddaughter. It works okay.

[Gdetrailer]

TenOC wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Looking up Galaxy Tab 3 GT-P5210 reveals that the device shipped with Android 4.2.2 (Jelly bean) which is insanely out of date and quite shocked that anyone can find Apps that work with that version..

Can I upgrade Android 4.4.2 to current version? How? I know how to upgrade Windows 7 to 10 by purchasing a windows 10 version. Do I do the same with Android?

No, most likely not to the newest most "current version" which is something like Ver 12, there may be some incremental versions that may be slightly above 4.4.2. You can find generic instructions on checking for updates on Android HERE

Android and tablets do not work the same way as PCs and Windows.

Android versions are built and locked into very narrow and specific hardware at the time of the OS version build. Drivers for old hardware may not exist in newer versions of Android from Google. It then becomes the job of the hardware manufacturer of your tablet to decide if they want to further support your tablet hardware. If they choose to do so, it is up to them to build a customized build for your old hardware and then distribute it. More often than not, most hardware manufacturers simply abandon the older hardware platforms.

To keep Android as light as possible old hardware support is cast aside making a expensive tablet a doorstop in just one or two version releases.

PCs and Windows, well while it is up to manufacturers to provide basic drivers to MS, MS will take those basic drivers and incorporate them into the OS. Hardware manufacturers will often build "families" of hardware based off of the basic driver set they gave MS. The Generic drivers MS creates often will work to get a PC with unsupported hardware up to some level of usable operation. I know that works, as I have loaded Win10 on a lot of older system boards which has unsupported hardware like video, sound and even networking cards.

(Long story) For instance, my DW loves her free books via Kindle app on a Android tablet.. Recently a $200 tablet she bought less than 4 yrs ago had Android 8 on it and a Kindle App that was very happy and then the unthinkable happened..

For whatever reason the Kindle App removed it's self because Amazon no longer was supporting that old version and they pulled the App right off of the tablet (she was using the tablet the night before and was reading, the next day when she turned on the tablet, the app was gone)..

We found that her Tablet was able to upgrade to Android 9.. Unfortunately, the newest version of Kindle offered by Amazon would not install on Android 9 (we could not figure out what Android version was required either).. We fished around and eventually found a website which had a repository of old apps and found a Kindle App that would install on her Tablet.. But, that App wasn't playing well with Amazon..

The end result to remedy the issue was to blow another now $350 for a brand new tablet with Android 11 and we now have a perfectly good older tablet with Android 9 laying around that is as useful as a doorstop..

So, now add in App developers which eventually stop developing and supporting old versions of Android, some allow existing installations to exist and some now are forcefully de installing unsupported old versions. I am shocked that you are finding Apps compatible with 4.4..

[TenOC]

Gdetrailer wrote:
Looking up Galaxy Tab 3 GT-P5210 reveals that the device shipped with Android 4.2.2 (Jelly bean) which is insanely out of date and quite shocked that anyone can find Apps that work with that version..

Can I upgrade Android 4.4.2 to current version? How? I know how to upgrade Windows 7 to 10 by purchasing a windows 10 version. Do I do the same with Android?

[Gdetrailer]

Looking up Galaxy Tab 3 GT-P5210 reveals that the device shipped with Android 4.2.2 (Jelly bean) which is insanely out of date and quite shocked that anyone can find Apps that work with that version..

So, armed with that information I found THIS website which offers information that may prove helpful to the OP..

Android 4.4 and lower did have a password recovery option..

Read Part 1 which is Forgot password/Forgot pattern feature.

The downside is you need the "backup PIN" or the google account login info that was used to setup the device.

Same website also has password tools that require a PC to unlock the device. NOTE.. I do not know if that software is safe or free of virus/malware, use at your own risk..

[Gdetrailer]

wa8yxm wrote:
You can set up an adminstrator's (owner or master) account as I recall and set up a 2nd account for a child or "guest"... Not sure since I'm the only user of my 'droids how to do that... Samsung can talk you through what on a Chromebook is called a "power wash" Restoring the unit to "out of the box" as I recall once you log back into your account (if you can that is. not sure if you can without the password) all applications will re-load but data will be lost .

"power wash" on Chromebook is the exact same thing as Android "System reset. There is no difference between those two other than the name it is called. Both completely wipe the OS and Apps and settings by overwriting the current OS with the factory backup image which is unchangeable since that image is in a non writeable ROM. "Power wash" is just a fancy name for "factory reset"..

Each time you powerwash or system reset, you must reinstall all updates which were not part of the backup image in ROM and you must find and reinstall all the lost Apps. One of the downsides to Powerwash and System reset is time wasted removing all of the unwanted factory bloatware that is included from factory..

Your Chromebook is the same OS base (Linux) as Android (also Linux) with the main difference of having a keyboard attached like a laptop PC where Android is used on Tablets and phones which use "soft keyboards" (IE no physical keyboard).

[wa8yxm]

You can set up an adminstrator's (owner or master) account as I recall and set up a 2nd account for a child or "guest"... Not sure since I'm the only user of my 'droids how to do that... Samsung can talk you through what on a Chromebook is called a "power wash" Restoring the unit to "out of the box" as I recall once you log back into your account (if you can that is. not sure if you can without the password) all applications will re-load but data will be lost .

[bucky]

I can't speak for your grand daughter but our 7 year grand son old is very tech smart. Our daughter left her phone unlocked and he bought all kinds of apps. If she doesn't need a password but she keeps changing it I would look a little deeper into what might be on that tablet.

[BobsYourUncle]

I have a Galaxy Tab 3 I use myself all the time when I want portability. Mines a SM-T820. Likely a very similar unit. I'm typing this on it.

Putting aside the fact she doesn't need a password on it to begin with, I'll try to help by looking at my own unit.

There appears to be no way to assign a master password that will override others. I checked on mine. Yes, a reset will wipe her data. Might be an encouragement to suggest she not use one. 😉

I do know that the device can be set up with a guest profile. I'm not sure how the password thing works with that. I'd have to try putting a guest profile on mine and see what it does.

See Settings > Accounts and Backup > Users.

From there you have options for other users, you being the administrator of the device.

Try going in there and setting up a guest profile, or "Add user or profile" The latter gives you a place to set up "User (Restricted Profile)

I havent done that to mine, but perhaps in there you can limit her ability to change stuff.

All this is assuming you can access it now without having to wipe it and start over.