Galaxy J3 Phone... need to bypass Google setup...

[EarthDog]

So, my mother gave one of my kids a Galaxy J3 phone. She couldn't remember the pattern and bought another sly and gave this one to me. Sadly, I didn't remove the google account on the phone prior to restarting it. I have the two possible accounts (email and PW) she used for the phone and for some reason both kick me back to entering the email and PW again.... it does not say the ID or PW is wrong.

I took this to a ubreak/fix store and they needed the receipt with the SN on it or they wouldn't do it. I cannot provide this to them or it would be a $20 20 minute fix with their software.

That out of the way, I am looking for a way to do this legally. Is it possible or would only nefarious methods be in play here (which I think are some of the YT videos I saw with downloading an APK or something which is well over my head........).

Just trying to get this kiddo a phone (without sim card/network service) to use......

THanks in advance!

 

[Zuzzz]

ED,

You could simply hard reset the phone. This will clear all previous data and you can just set up a fresh gmail account for your kids. I do this even with phones that havve the SIM cards removed.

Z

 

[EarthDog]

Describe a hard reset, please.

I've already factory reset it and cleared the cache.. upon boot it still asks for the google info.

What is a hard reset which gets around that?

 

[Zuzzz]

What I mean is a hardware reset. Holding the power plus volume up or down depending on your phone.

Z

 

[wagex]

What I mean is a hardware reset. Holding the power plus volume up or down depending on your phone.

Z

he already tried that, it still asks him for the old google account information.

 

[Janus67]

Googling around doesn't look like there's a way without signing into the account that was used. At least on the Samsung account page, then removing the account from the device before resetting it

 

[EarthDog]

What I mean is a hardware reset. Holding the power plus volume up or down depending on your phone.

Z

That is a factory reset, right? To access that menu I hold down power/home/vol up... then reset (and I reset the cache). Is there something different?

Googling around doesn't look like there's a way without signing into the account that was used. At least on the Samsung account page, then removing the account from the device before resetting it

The odd part is that I have the right ID and PW. I can use it to sign into google on a PC (into my Mom's account) without issue... the phone is listed in the find my phone section. This tells me that ID and PW are good. So when I use it on the phone, it asks about a safety feature and a phone number with an option to skip or opt in. Either method yields it going immediately back to signing in with that same ID and password like a loop.

 

[habbajabba]

Sounds like Googles FRP full reset protection. Google is not your friend.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=remove+FRP+on+galaxy+j3&ia=web

 

[Janus67]

That is a factory reset, right? To access that menu I hold down power/home/vol up... then reset (and I reset the cache). Is there something different?

The odd part is that I have the right ID and PW. I can use it to sign into google on a PC (into my Mom's account) without issue... the phone is listed in the find my phone section. This tells me that ID and PW are good. So when I use it on the phone, it asks about a safety feature and a phone number with an option to skip or opt in. Either method yields it going immediately back to signing in with that same ID and password like a loop.

Is the device on the internet? WiFi/cellular? Maybe the password changed since when it was created and is using cached creds?

 

[EarthDog]

It is.. but I've tried without as well.

I deleted the cache along with the factory reset just in case.

 

[knoober]

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-j3-2016/how-to/guide-how-to-flash-stock-rom-j3-2016-t3765677

It is infrequent with Android but sometimes a re-install is just necessary. I have never had a J3 or any other kind of galaxy so make certain that your device matches the link. There are lots of variants for the Galaxy (more than kind of J3 also I believe). Those galaxy devices usually have a pretty active development community with knowledgeable folks as well. While no one will make any guarantees for your device safety, xda curates and moderates their threads very well and is generally one of the most reliable sources for Android.

Once you are certain of which variant you have however a custom rom might be a direction you want to pursue. Especially for your purposes (no Sim so service), because you have more options for slimming the OS as well as running a firewall/parental control apps. Most of the time they just work faster/better/make better use of the resources as well.

Good luck

 

[hokiealumnus]

I'm not sure about the J3, but on Galaxy S models you can download Samsung's software called "Odin" and a factory image for the phone, which will completely restore it to Samsung stock. It has been many years since I've done it myself, but I know Odin is still around and in use.

EDIT - Lulz, just clicked the link in knoober's post and saw it said to do just that. As you were.