Forgot your Android password? You could brick your phone

Android 8.1 Oreo brought a slew of new features and functionality, but as they say “applause doesn’t come without caveats,” it also has some limitations. Forgetting your PIN, pattern or password will leave you with a bricked device.

With Android 8.1, users will not be able to bypass the protection of their phones if they don’t know or forgot the PIN, password, or pattern. The new feature adds a layer to the security of the phone and makes it worthless if someone steals it.

This isn’t something new to the market; Apple has been doing this with its iPhones for a long time now. It might sound like an unconventional, but it’s actually very useful. However, the users who tend to forget their password or PIN might not support this new security measure, but it also makes sure that someone stealing your phone won’t be able to do anything with it.   

A Reddit user found out that Android 8.1 comes with this modification. Unfortunately, Google didn’t mention anything about this new security feature and users are finding about it themselves.  Also the factory reset doesn’t go through the same steps as before. Users will still have to know the password to reset the phone or tablet.

Flashing the device with an older version of Android won’t work either, so there absolutely no chance a person can access the device without knowing the password.