Mobile Tracking - Big Problem

[Anonymous]

I purchased a new Samsung Galaxy S111 a couple of months ago, all going well.  I am in the process of trying to pass my old Samsung Galaxy GT19000 to my husband (this will be his first smartphone!).  Before I could do this we needed to wipe the old data from the phone, and before we could do this, we were alerted to the fact that I had put a  mobile tracker on the phone when I purchased it two years ago.  You had to go through this step to do a factory reset.  I had carefully written down the number, eight digits.  No, it is not letters or a combination, only the numerical keyboard available for this.

The system will simply not recognise the numbers.  I have a feeling that this is now going to cause us big problems.  I have proof of purchase, etc. and apparently my options are: to pay a lot of money and get Samsung to flash the phone or a bit less to ask my more convenient phone shop to do the job.  Is flashing the last resort? 

Is there anything else that I could try? Cannot believe these numbers do not work to take us to the next stage, I am convinced these are the correct numbers and recorded in appropriate part of my manual.  My D is now receiving text messages to say that her father has the phone and it has been located.  Yes, its in our house, currently useless.

Any ideas would be very welcome.  Thanks for reading my tale of woe.  Very reluctant to install the mobile tracker onto my new phone after this.

[Anonymous]

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@Bambino wrote:

@Anonymous luck @Anonymous. Hope you get this sorted. Let us know how you get on.

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Ditto.

[aldaweb]

If you find Kies painful you could try Odin instead.

see the guide here http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Android-Devices-Samsung-HTC-Sony/HOW-TO-A-Guide-to-using-Odin/m-p/46346...

[MI5]

Right - first of all Kies will not help you, nor, I doubt will installing any more firmware as Odin does not wipe the phone. We need to understand what this tracker app is and how we can get round it so I need to know what exactly you did to set it up in the first place please.

You also said you've tried to do a factory reset, can you tell me the process you followed for this please?

[Anonymous]

No factory reset was enabled.  Before we got to that screen we were supposed to put in an 8 digit code, to get us to the factory reset process. I could not perform factory reset because the  process indicated to me that the tracker box was ticked and that system was live and ongoing.   I did write the 8 digit code down.  I must have done this as I created it, two years ago, in the page of the guide, which refers to "find/track, your mobile if its lost or stolen".  I wish I had never bothered.  So, the 8 digit code which I inputted was returned as "incorrect password" - no options or letters, just digits.  I knew exactly what I had created because it means something to me and I had written it down.

The mobile tracker option for lost or stolen devices, was an option which was inbuilt by Samsung, the phone came with it pre-installed.  I did not install an app.  It resides in the security and privacy section of the settings options.  The tracker system defo works as my daughter kept receiving texts to say that her father had inputted a different sim card - yes, he did, he was standing next to me and the phone was in our house. We had to remove his sim to stop the texts.  I really do not want to have the phone flashed but am fearing that we actually have no option.  We are not the kind of people who can crack the Enigma code.  Logically, I can see that any Kies type of programme would not really solve the problem.  It may wipe the data but as soon as a fresh sim was inserted the "lost and found" texts would start up again.  I will sleep on it for a couple of days before flashing the phone as a last resort.  There may be some very clever people out there who know how to solve this and I do admire them, they have created a great system to retrieve phones but I don't think I will risk this again.  I can also appreciate that there are security issues - but it is just a teency bit irritating just now.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Well at least this security protocol is doing its job as its supposed to be.

As ive touched on earlier contact the maker of the software which it seems is Samsung.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/main/supportMain.do

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

You need to just answer the questions I ask please... I am assuming you are trying to reset through the menu options....?
Can you try this for me.
1 - Turn off phone
2 - Hold Vol Up + Home together
3 - Keep holding the buttons and also press the power key.
4 - Hold all three for about 3 secs until you see a green android logo appear on screen, then let go.
This should take you into the bootloader. (hopefully).
You will see a menu on screen, one choice of which is "Factory reset/delete all user data".
Use the vol up/down key to highlight this option and press the power key.
Phone should reset.
Next choose the first line of the menu "reboot" and press power again.
Phone should restart in factory mode and you can set it up again as new.....

[Anonymous]

Thankyou - to everyone who tried to solve this.  We have just tried the latest suggestion from MI5.  We followed the steps religously and when we turned on the phone again, it went straight to the screen asking us to put in the tracker code nos.  It would not let us circumvent this screen to do a factory reset.  My husband took it to our local phone shop, explained the issue (with purchase of proof, etc) and husband said that the process took about 10 seconds and he was almost sure that it was the procedure we had just performed, suggested by MI5, without the blocking screen this time though.

So, there was a solution, it probably was the same as MI5 suggested but performed by an expert.  The procedure was so simple, there was no charge, however my husband put something into their charity box.

Thank you all for having a go, it probably was the suggestion given by MI5, but done by the expert, which worked.

Result: I am happy, husband happy and so is the phone.  I am  not even going to look if the tracker is still on - it should have disappeared.  I still do not know why the tracker code numbers did not work, I know they were correct.  Beware.

[MI5]

The main thing is you are sorted