Pattern Locks Are Unsafe: Secure Your HTC U23 Pro Phone Now with These Tips

Pattern locks have been available for about as long as people can remember, and they have been hugely popular with people thanks to how easy it is to simply swipe your screen and unlock your smartphone, as against, say, keying in the 4-digit PIN/ 6-digit PIN. However, pattern locks are easy to crack, and today, we bring you all you want to know about pattern locks and how to create a hard pattern lock. Further to this, we also tell you how to move beyond pattern locks and what to do in case you forgot the hard pattern lock you just set and are unable to unlock your smartphone.

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Part 1: What You Need to Know About Pattern Locks

Pattern lock is an Android-only feature that makes it easy for users to have a modicum of security on their smartphones. Most users do not prefer using and remembering a PIN to unlock the smartphone. Creating a pattern makes it easier, somehow.

There is a 9-point grid on which you swipe your finger from point to point, in any direction, and when you take your finger off, that pattern you swiped becomes the key to unlock your smartphone.

Pattern locks were exceedingly common only a few years ago, and they are not recommended for use any longer due to concerns (mentioned later in the article).

1.1: Popularity and Usage

Old habits die hard, or so they say, right? That’s because it is true. We are creatures of habit, and pattern locks have been around for a long, long time. We are accustomed to pattern locks. So, even with even easier technologies such as fingerprint recognition and face recognition, we tend to gravitate towards the familiar old pattern lock.

The only thing is, there is a reason why pattern locks are no longer the preferred option to use for unlocking your smartphones. As it happens, that reason is security, and it can be very easy for humans to take a swipe (pardon the pun) at your pattern lock. And guess what? The research conducted suggests that they would get it right with an unsettling accuracy.

1.2: Advantages and Drawbacks

With on-the-go lifestyles, our smartphones have become indispensable and contain some of the most sensitive aspects of our lives – IDs, credit and debit cards in digital wallets, photo and video memories, business documents – you name it, the smartphones have it, on the go. This has opened our lives up to the public at large, and if someone steals our smartphone or, best case, finds it, the only barrier preventing them from being privy to all that wealth of our sensitive information is that screen lock – the pattern lock that we set on our smartphones. That’s it – the single pattern lock stands between malicious actors and our data. You might be beginning to realize just how crazy this is.

Advantages of Pattern Locks

There are two advantages to using pattern locks. One, they are better than nothing. Two, they are easy to use. And that’s about it. There is no third advantage to pattern locks. We might think we set a hard pattern lock that nobody could guess, but, as research proves, we might be thinking too low of human prowess.

Disadvantages of Pattern Locks

Security, or rather, the lack of it, is the lone disadvantage of using a pattern lock. What good is a pattern lock that can be easily deciphered? Sure, they are easy to use, and they are better than not having anything, but would you really want to protect your life’s data with something that could be, as researchers found out, breached in under 5 attempts? We don’t think you do!

The research found that 64% of test subjects who were shown videos of people unlocking their phones could correctly guess a 6-point pattern lock, that too after viewing the video only once! That number shot up to 80% if they were allowed to see the video again. That is simply astounding and a nightmare for security. When it comes to PINs, only 11% could guess a 6-digit PIN after viewing the unlocking video once, and that number shot up to 27% when they could see the video two times.

Part 2: How To Create a Hard Pattern Lock (Including Remembering Complex Patterns)

Now, if you must continue using a pattern lock, let’s help you know how to create a hard pattern lock that would not be as easy to decipher as easy pattern locks. For that, you should know how people use pattern locks, the kind of pattern locks they create, and the ones that are the most commonly used pattern locks. That way, you can avoid those fallacies and create a hard pattern lock for your smartphone.

2.1: The Pattern Locks People Use Most Commonly

Marte Loge, an M.Sc. Computer Science student, gave a presentation on pattern locks at DEFCON 23 and made a bold claim. She said, “Tell me who you are, and I will tell you your lock pattern.”

She presented the following statistics to support her claim:

• - In her research, she found that 77% of people started with one of the 4 corners when creating a pattern lock.
• - 44% of people started with the top-left dot and 15% with the top-right, while the bottom-left was preferred by 14% of her test subjects.
• - People set 5-point pattern locks on average, and most users were content with a 4-point pattern.

These are some of the most common pattern locks people create:

• - patterns in the shapes of alphabets,
• - patterns in the shapes of numerals,
• - patterns in any other simple shape, such as square, triangle, star, etc.

To understand how this is a security nightmare, the possible combinations for a 4-point pattern are a measly 1624, whereas by adding just 1 more point to the pattern and creating a 5-point pattern, the number of possible combinations becomes 7152, an increase of 5528 combinations. In stark contrast, creating a 9-point pattern would give you over 140,000 possible combinations!

2.2: How to Create a Hard Pattern Lock

Knowing what most people do when creating a pattern lock, it becomes easy to avoid those mistakes and instead create a hard pattern lock for oneself.

• - Do not start creating a pattern lock from any of the 4 corners of the grid.
• - Never use your first initial as your pattern lock.
• - Never use the shape of a numeral as your pattern lock.
• - Use all 9 points on the grid to create your pattern lock, and contrary to popular belief, you can go over the connecting lines several times, creating a hard pattern lock that would not be as easy for people to decipher!

Part 3: Going Beyond Pattern Locks

You might think that now that you have set a hard pattern lock, you are good to go. Hardly. Technology has evolved, so have methods to break into your device.

Step 1: Set a 6-digit PIN

The minimum you should do today is set a 6-digit PIN to unlock your phone. Consider this a necessary investment into the safety of your data residing on your smartphone.

Step 2: Use Fingerprint Recognition (or Face Recognition on Apple Devices)

All modern smartphones released over the last decade have come with fingerprint recognition. Using fingerprint recognition requires you to set a 6-digit PIN and then set a fingerprint to unlock your device. You can set additional fingerprints, too.

This way, your device is the most secure it can be today. In case your fingerprint is not recognized for any reason, the phone falls back on the 6-digit PIN that you can enter and unlock your phone.

While face recognition is available on both Android and Apple devices, it is truly secure only on Apple devices. This is why Apple iPhones released after the iPhone X in 2017 have come only with Face ID. They fall back on a minimum 6-digit PIN (called Passcode in Apple world) to unlock in case the face does not get recognized in the first attempt.

Part 4: How To Unlock Phone If Hard Pattern Lock Forgotten

Just in case you set a hard pattern lock and promptly forgot that abstruse pattern you just set, we have a tool for you to quickly unlock your phone in case of a forgotten hard pattern lock: Wondershare Dr.Fone - Screen Unlock.

Dr.Fone - Screen Unlock (Android)

Remove the Hard Pattern Lock on Your HTC U23 Pro If You Forgot!

• Remove all Android screen locks (PIN/pattern/fingerprints/face ID) in minutes.
• Bypass the FRP lock of Samsung without a PIN or Google account.
• Everyone can handle the lock screen without any tech knowledge.
• Provide specific removal solutions to promise good success rate.

4,008,671 people have downloaded it

Download the latest version of Dr.Fone from the Wondershare website and launch the app.

Step 1: Click Android under Toolbox > Screen Unlock.

Step 2: Click Unlock Android Screen.

Step 3: Select your device manufacturer.

Step 4: Prepare your device to unlock the screen.

When the greyed Next button becomes available, click it and wait for your device to be unlocked.

All data on the HTC U23 Pro device is wiped under this method. Select Samsung phones may be unlocked without data loss. Check this list for devices that may be unlocked without data loss.

Closing Words

Whether it is an easy pattern lock or a hard pattern lock, the fact is that pattern locks are antiquated and a security nightmare. A minimum 6-digit PIN must be used, and using fingerprint recognition is the preferred way to go for Android devices. Using fingerprint recognition will require that users create a 6-digit PIN. On Apple devices launched after 2017, there is Face ID, Apple’s marketing term for face recognition. If you did indeed still set a hard pattern lock, only to promptly forget it, use Wondershare Dr.Fone – Screen Unlock (Android) to seamlessly unlock your phone right now.

How to Show Wi-Fi Password on HTC U23 Pro

Since the invention of Android OS in 2008 by Andy Rubin, our world has faced a dramatic change. Android seems to be controlling a considerably high portion of our life. We have bought many gadgets that use this amazing OS and most of which are phones. But how much can you do with your Android phone? Developers are always making it more interesting to use this interface.

Most of the time, we use Android phones, we get faced with the need to access the internet. The Wi-Fi capability of these Android gadgets makes it super easy for us to surf the web. Throughout using Wi-Fi, we connect to a number of them. This could be at school, a sub-way café, the gym, buses, hospitals, hotels, towns, and the list is endless. A password secures most of this. Needless to say, our brain is weak to store all these passwords for future use, especially if you would want to connect with a different gadget you have recently bought or even your laptop. In this article, we will introduce you to how to find wifi password on rooted and also unrooted Android devices.

Part 1: Show Wifi Password on Rooted Android Device

What is Rooting?

First of all, what does rooting mean? You have probably used a Windows computer or even Linux. For the case of Windows, when installing a new program or software, it always prompts a dialog box saying, “Administrator permission required to run this program.” If you don’t have the administrator permission, you won’t install the program. In Android, this is called rooting. In simple terms, it means having the root permission to your phone. Some Android apps will require you the root permission, e.g., flashing your ROM. In this part, we will explain how you can show the Wi-Fi password on your Android with root.

To find the Wi-Fi passwords on your Android phone, you need to have an app to explore files which also supports a root user. In this case, ES FileExplorer or Root Explorer will come in handy. However, it turns out that the latter is offered at $3. Let’s use the free ES File Explorer.

Steps of getting Wi-Fi password on Android with root

In only four steps, we, at this moment, learn how we can find the password of a Wi-Fi on an Android phone.

Step 1: Install the ES File Explorer

Download the ES File Explorer from your play store, install it, and open it.

Step 2: Enable Root Explorer

The root explorer needs to be enabled so that you can reach the root folders of the Wi-Fi passwords you need. By default, the root feature in this ES explorer is not enabled. To enable it, just tap on the list menu on the top left corner.:

This will drop down a list of controls. Scroll down and find the Root Explorer option and enable it.

Step 3: Get the passwords’ file.

Go back to ES file explorer, and this time, find the folder named data.

When this folder opens, find another one named misc. Open it and find another one named wifi. Here, find a file named wpa_supplicant.conf.

Step 4: Retrieve the wifi password on Android

Make sure that you don’t edit anything in the file. You might mess up with important data and fail to access the Wi-Fi(s) in the future.

As you can see above, we have found the Wi-Fi passwords on the android device. On each network profile, we have the name of the network represented by name (ssid=”{the name}”), the network’s password represented by psk, the network’s access point represented by key_mgmt=WPA-PSK and its priority represented by priority.

Part 2: Show Wifi Password on Android without Root

What if I don’t have root access to my Android, can I still see Android Wi-Fi password? The short answer is yes. However, this is a bit involving but simple. You don’t need to be a computer guru to do it, but you need to have a computer and some internet access of course. The key thing is to find a way through which we can fetch the password file from the phone without using a root access protocol in the Android. This is made possible by some little programming insight using the Windows Command prompt.

Steps to show Wi-Fi password on Android without root

Step 1: Access the Developer authority

To access the files that Android uses to run passwords, you must first become a developer. This is very simple.

Get your Android phone and go to settings. Scroll down and find “About phone.” Tap on it and scroll down again to find Build number.

Tap on this “build number” 5 to 6 times until a message pops up, saying, “You are now a developer”.

Step 2: Enable the debugging.

Go back to Settings. Scroll down for developer options. Turn on the button for “Android/USB debugging”.

Step 3: Install ADB drivers.

Now, open your Windows desktop. Download and install ADB drivers. (Use this download link adbdriver.com ). You need to download and install platform tools (minimal ADB and fastboot) from http://forum.xda-developers.com/... Now open the folder where you’ve installed the above tools. By default, it is in the Local disc C\windows\system32\platform_tools location. However, you might want to locate them by searching on the windows search engine. You have to hold the Shift key and right-click inside the folder to click on”Open Command Window Here.”

Step 4: Test the ADB

Here, we would like to test whether the ABD is working properly. To do this, connect your phone to the PC using a USB. In the command prompt, type adb services and then press enter. If it’s working properly, you should see a device on this list.

Step 5: Find the Android wifi password.

Now, it is time to type the given command in the command prompt and type: adb pull /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf c:/wpa_supplicant.conf. This will fetch the file from your phone to the local disc C drive of the PC.

Step 6: Get the wifi passwords.

Lastly, open the file with a notepad, and there you go.

Now you learned how to show the wifi password on your Android device.

How to Unlock HTC U23 Pro Pattern Lock if Forgotten? 6 Ways

“How to unlock pattern lock on my Android phone? I have changed my pattern lock and can’t seem to remember it now!”

Lately, we have got lots of feedback and queries like this from our readers who like to perform a pattern unlock on their devices. It doesn’t matter if you have forgotten the password/pattern of your Android device or would like to access someone else’s phone, there are plenty of ways to know how to unlock the pattern on an Android phone. In this comprehensive guide, we will let you know about 6 different ways to perform pattern unlock without any trouble.

Part 1: How to Unlock Android Phone Pattern Lock with Dr.Fone - Screen Unlock (Android)?

If you want to unlock the pin, pattern, password, fingerprint, or any other kind of lock on an Android device, then simply take the assistance of Dr.Fone - Screen Unlock (Android) . It is a highly useful and advanced application that can let you move past the lock screen on your Android phone without losing data (if your phone model is not Samsung or LG devices in this list , it will erase the data after unlocking the screen).

Dr.Fone - Screen Unlock (Android)

Remove Pattern Locks on Android Screen at Ease

• Remove 4 screen lock types - pattern, PIN, password & fingerprints.
• Bypass Android FRP lock without a PIN or Google account.
• Unlock mainstream Android brands like Samsung, Huawei, LG, Xiaomi, etc.
• No tech knowledge is needed. Everybody can handle it.

4,008,669 people have downloaded it

To learn how to unlock pattern lock using Dr.Fone, follow these steps

• Step 1. Install Dr.Fone and launch it to perform pattern unlock. From the home screen, select the “Screen Unlock” option.

• Step 2. Connect your device to the system. Once it is detected, click on the “Unlock Android Screen” button.

• Step 3. Select your device brand to unlock and access reboot instructions, then follow them to complete the process.

• Step 4. You will be notified when the process is completed. Simply disconnect your HTC U23 Pro and access it without any pattern lock.

Part 2: How to Unlock Pattern Lock with Android Device Manager?

Besides Dr.Fone, there are also a few more options to learn how to unlock pattern locks on an Android device. Though, these options are not as secure or fast as Dr. Fone’s. For instance, you can take the assistance of Android Device Manager (also known as Find My Device) to do the same. It can be used to remotely ring a device, change its lock, locate it, or erase its content. To learn how to unlock pattern lock on Android, follow these steps:

• Step 1. Go to Android Device Manager (Find My Device) website https://www.google.com/android/find and log in using your credentials.
• Step 2. A list of all the connected devices to your Google account will be provided.
• Step 3. As you would select your device, you will get various options: erase, lock, and ring.

• Step 4. Click on the “Lock” option to change the lock pattern on your device.
• Step 5. Provide the new password for your device and write an optional recovery message.

• Step 6. Apply these changes and exit the window to change the lock on your device.

Part 3: How to Unlock Android Pattern Lock Using the ‘Forgot Pattern’ Feature?

If your device is running on Android 4.4 or older versions, then you can also take the assistance of the “Forgot Pattern” option to perform the pattern unlock. You won’t need a third-party tool or any other device to perform the desired operation. To learn how to unlock pattern lock on your device, follow these steps:

• Step 1. Simply provide any incorrect pattern on your device to get the following screen.
• Step 2. From the bottom of the screen, you can tap on the “Forgot Pattern” feature.

• Step 3. Select the option to unlock your device with your Google credentials.

• Step 4. Provide the correct Google credentials of the account that is linked to your device.
• Step 5. Later, you can set a new pattern for your device and confirm it. This will let you access your Android device with the new pattern lock.

Part 4: How to Unlock Samsung Phone Pattern Lock Using Samsung Find My Mobile?

Just like Android, Samsung has also developed a dedicated feature for finding a device remotely and performing various other operations on it. The Samsung Find My Mobile service can be used to locate your device, change its lock, wipe its data, and perform a few other tasks as well. Needless to say, the service only works for Samsung Android devices. You can learn how to unlock patterns with this tool by following these instructions:

• Step 1. Go to Samsung’s Find my Mobile official website https://findmymobile.samsung.com/ and log in using your Samsung account credentials.

• Step 2. You can select your device from the left panel. By default, it will provide its location on the map.

• Step 3. Additionally, you can access various other services from here as well. Click on the “Unlock My Device” option to proceed.

• Step 4. Now, all you need to do is click on the “Unlock” button to perform pattern unlock on your device.
• Step 5. After unlocking your Samsung device, you will be informed of an on-screen message.

Part 5: How to Unlock Android Pattern Lock in Safe Mode?

This is a simple and effective solution to knowing how to unlock patterns on an Android device. Nevertheless, this solution will only work for third-party lock screen apps. If you are using your phone’s native lock feature, then it might not work. After restarting your phone in Safe Mode, you can easily move past its pattern lock without any trouble. All you need to do is follow these steps:

• Step 1. Simply press the Power button on your device to get the Power menu on its screen.
• Step 2. Now, tap and hold the “Power off” option.

• Step 3. This will display the following pop-up message. Agree to it and restart your phone in Safe Mode.
• Step 4. Once the HTC U23 Pro device would be restarted in Safe Mode, the third-party lock screen would be disabled automatically.

• Step 5. Later, you can go to the HTC U23 Pro device’s Settings > Apps and remove the third-party app as well. In this way, you would be able to learn how to unlock pattern lock for any other app.

Part 6: How to Unlock Pattern Lock with the Factory Reset?

Consider this as your last resort, as it will wipe the data and saved settings on your device entirely. As the name suggests, your device would be restored to its factory setting by losing its data. Though, if you wish to learn how to unlock a pattern by performing a factory reset, then you can perform these steps:

• Step 1. To start with, enter the Recovery Mode on your device. This can be done by pressing the Home, Power, and Volume Up key at the same time.
• Step 2. Though, the correct key combination might differ from one version of the Android device to another.
• Step 3. Use the Volume Up and Down key to navigate and the Power/Home button to make a choice.

• Step 4. Select the wipe data/factory reset option to perform pattern unlock.
• Step 5. Confirm your choice to factory reset your device.

• Step 6. Wait for a while as your phone will perform the needed operations.
• Step 7. Later, you can choose to reboot your phone and access it without any lock screen.

Conclusion

By following this guide, you would certainly be able to learn how to unlock the pattern lock on your device without much trouble. We recommend using Dr.Fone - Screen Unlock (Android) to perform pattern unlock with no data loss. It has a user-friendly interface and is sure to yield the desired results. Now when you know how to unlock patterns on an Android device, you can share this information with others as well to help them!

safe & secure

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