What you need to know
- Some Samsung Galaxy S10 users in the One UI 2.0 beta have reported they cannot unlock their phones using their PIN, password, or pattern after rebooting.
- If you are having the issue, you'll need to remove your secure lock information using Remote unlock via Samsung's Find My Service or use Smart Switch to factory reset and revert back to Android 9 Pie, erasing all your data in the process.
- A fix is currently rolling out, but it may not be helpful unless you've already restored access to your phone.
Some Samsung Galaxy S10 users just experienced the risk of beta testing unfinished software after they got locked out of their phones. A bug in the Android 10 / One UI 2.0 beta is responsible for this and is refusing to accept your PIN, password, or pattern to unlock your phone after restarting.
Fortunately, it is not affecting all users, but those who have been affected have very few options. One option is to erase your PIN, password, pattern, and biometric data via Remote unlock using Samsung's Find My Mobile service.
If you haven't enabled Remote unlock previously, then you're going to have to factory reset your phone using Smart Switch and revert back to Android Pie. By doing this, it will wipe your phone and erase all of your data, so it's not exactly a good solution to the problem.
To make matters worse, even after getting back into your phone or reverting back to Android 9 Pie and losing all of your data, users are reporting that you still cannot use a PIN, pattern, password, or biometrics to securely lock your phone.
Such are the dangers of beta testing unstable software, but the good news is that Samsung has just released a patch to fix this issue. Unfortunately, if you are currently locked out of your phone, that's not going to be much help to you. In order to install the update, you would have to unlock your phone to begin with. However, at least you will be able to securely lock your phone again once you use Remote unlock or reset your phone.
To make matters worse, this isn't the only trouble Samsung has experienced recently with unlocking your phone. On October 17, we reported about the flaw where Samsung's ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor was allowing anyone's fingerprint to unlock your phone. A fix for that flaw has since begun rolling out on October 23 in South Korea and is expected to hit other countries soon.
