Replacing a phone battery. What do people do about the Google accounts attached to the phone?

Forums › Android › Replacing a phone battery. What do people do about the Google accounts attached to the phone?

lchiu7

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#259976 4-Nov-2019 11:55

I need to send my phone in to have a new battery installed. The repairer in this case is Fonefix in Auckland who are probably going to want to turn the phone on and test it. Of course that means I will need to provide access to the phone and that means all my Google accounts. I don't really want to have to change all the Google passwords so what do other people do when faced with the situation. Things like bank accounts etcetera I am less worried about because they require individual authentication or fingerprint.

Thanks

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lxsw20

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#2348046 4-Nov-2019 11:56

Remove them from the phone before you send it in?

dfnt

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#2348047 4-Nov-2019 11:57

Just factory reset the phone and don't bother setting it up after its finished

Gurezaemon

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#2348056 4-Nov-2019 12:11

Would Android's 'Guest Account' function be useful here?

jonathan18

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#2348057 4-Nov-2019 12:15

For all previous assessments/repairs I've gone to the hassle of resetting the phone, but this most recent time I decided I'd wasted more than enough time re-setting up my phone when it got returned so tried a different approach. (My last phone was sent away three times before they finally agreed to replace it; also, there's the time and hassle of setting up a temporary phone while the repair is underway.)

I installed an app called 'Applock', and put any app worth protecting behind that wall; no doubt there are relatively easy ways to circumvent this (potentially as easy as uninstalling the app itself), but to do so would require an active effort on behalf of the repairer, as opposed to a casual press of an icon. I get that for many of those frequenting Geekzone this may be close to heresy, but I personally was comfortable with the risk.

Jase2985

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#2348068 4-Nov-2019 12:41

doesnt andorid have an app lock? my Huawei does, just add the app to the list and when someone select the app and it prompts for a password

jonathan18

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#2348093 4-Nov-2019 13:51

I couldn't find any such built-in feature on my S10+.

The closest was 'Secure Folder', but that appears to create new copies of apps that it puts behind a password, as opposed to simply securing apps already in use.

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lchiu7

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#2348133 4-Nov-2019 15:01

I looked at App Lock but I have too many apps. I then looked at guest mode and I thought it might work. The problem is while you can choose a guest account from the lock screen, that only works once the phone has been restarted with the admin account which sort of defeats the purpose of the guest account.

I don't really want to reset the phone.

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jonathan18

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#2348181 4-Nov-2019 16:20

lchiu7: I looked at App Lock but I have too many apps.

I also have many, many apps and this was no barrier when using AppLock - I wonder if we're talking of the same app?

The one I'm talking about is AppLock by DoMobile Lab.

It was just a matter of going through a list of all apps on the phone, making a determination as to whether each app should be protected or not (if so, just clicking on the lock icon next to that app) ; one can establish and save 'profiles', so have it all set up, and then enable that particular profile just before sending it off.

Not the most user-friendly app maybe, but it certainly did the job (noting that the initial default protection is a pattern, but that can be changed!). 10-15 minutes of sorting this out was certainly nothing on setting a phone up from scratch.

lchiu7

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#2348330 4-Nov-2019 21:50

jonathan18:

lchiu7: I looked at App Lock but I have too many apps.

I also have many, many apps and this was no barrier when using AppLock - I wonder if we're talking of the same app?

The one I'm talking about is AppLock by DoMobile Lab.

It was just a matter of going through a list of all apps on the phone, making a determination as to whether each app should be protected or not (if so, just clicking on the lock icon next to that app) ; one can establish and save 'profiles', so have it all set up, and then enable that particular profile just before sending it off.

Not the most user-friendly app maybe, but it certainly did the job (noting that the initial default protection is a pattern, but that can be changed!). 10-15 minutes of sorting this out was certainly nothing on setting a phone up from scratch.

I tried that app and while it locked the apps I wanted, I was able to delete it without permissions and then all protection was gone. I had protected Settings but in Android you can just drag the app icon up to the top and uninstall it. I must have missed some setting.

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landcruiserguy

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#2348598 5-Nov-2019 19:45

I think giving anyone anywhere access to your device is very bad practise. When I got the wifes phone fixed by a budget repairer they wanted the pin so that they could "test it". While I am confident that there are no pictures of her boobs on that phone it still seemed very dodge so I said I would test it when I picked it up.

Now my standard practise is just to back everything up and wipe it before sending it to be serviced. Everything is in the cloud so there is not much to back up. The only real thing is re-configuring all the settings the way you want them. If that concerns you then use the samsung backup feature to back up all your settings and app data as well.

lchiu7

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#2348635 5-Nov-2019 20:48

I think I am going to not provide the unlock code. When the phone boots up it shows a lock screen. If that works, then I am happy the battery is installed okay. Or if they really want they can boot to the bootloader and see battery life but they won't gain access to my phone.

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