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Activation Lock Android / Google

Android / Google
Activation Lock

Activation Lock is a security feature on Android / Google devices which prevents someone from gaining access to it. We require you to remove the Activation Lock / FRP from your device before sending it to us.

How do I remove the Android Activation Lock
or Samsung Factory Reset Protection (FRP)
from my device?

Should you lose your phone, or have it stolen, an activation lock will prevent someone from gaining access to it. For this reason, if you are returning your device for repair or replacement, or simply selling it on, you must disable the activation lock beforehand. A device that has been activation locked is unusable to anyone other than yourself.

Both Google and Samsung have their own activation lock setup, and as such have different methods of removal. For Samsung phones it is possible to enable both types of activation locks (Activation Lock and Factory Reset Protection), in which case you would need to remove both.

In most cases, a factory reset does not remove the activation lock from the device. For example, if a phone is factory reset with the Google account logged in, the phone will still ask for those credentials once switched back on. Therefore it is recommended that the account is removed before the factory reset takes place to ensure the account is fully removed.

Please Note: If a Google account password is changed before performing the reset instead of being fully removed the message "Please sign in using one of the owners accounts for this device" will appear. This indicates the Google account on the phone is now locked for 72 hours and you must wait for it to reset.

Select removal type then follow the simple steps below.

Activation Lock

Samsung FRP

Removing your Google activation lock from device settings on your phone

Depending on the specific model of the Android phone, the following steps to remove your Google account may differ slightly. The general steps listed below should allow you to remove your Google account from your phone, but some phones may skip some of the steps.

  1. Switch the device ON
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Tap Accounts or Users & Accounts.
  4. Select the account type, which in this case would be Google.
  5. You will now see a list of Google emails that are linked to your device. Select the first account.
  6. You will now see Sync Settings for the selected account. Tap the menu icon (three vertical dots) on the top right-hand corner.
  7. Tap Remove account.
  8. Confirm by tapping Remove account again.
  9. Repeat steps 5 to 8 until all Google Accounts have been removed from your device. Please note: removing an account does not delete any data from your Google Account, your device will simply stop syncing data.

If you are unable to complete the steps above, you would also be able to remove the Google Account from the phone by accessing your Google account online.

Removing Samsung factory reset protection from your device

These steps are applicable to most Samsung devices.

  1. On the phone's home screen, tap Apps.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Tap on Accounts.
  4. Tap on the account you wish to remove.
  5. Select More in the top right corner of the screen.
  6. Tap on Remove Account.

Your Samsung factory reset protection has now been removed.

Removing your Google activation lock
online

  1. Log into your Google account.
  2. Once logged in, go to Device activity & notifications (located under Sign-in & security).
  3. Next click on Review devices (under recently used devices).
  4. Select the device you wish to remove from your Google account and click the red Remove button beside account access.
  5. There will be a confirmation window, select Remove.
  6. A confirmation window will show that the access has been removed from your device.
  7. To confirm, you can check the list of recent phones. The selected phone will show Access removed.

Please Note: After removing the Google account access online you will need to perform the reset from the settings of the phone. On some model phones, a hardware reset will request the Google account information during setup.

72 Hour Google Lock: If a Google password is changed and the device is immediately factory reset, a message will appear after a restart which says: "please sign in using one of the owners accounts for this device" This indicates the google account on the phone is now locked for 72 hours and you must wait for it to reset. This mostly commonly affects Samsung devices.

For more information, see the following support article:

• Factory Reset Protection (FRP) Feature