How to reset a Lumia 640 without the Microsoft account password?

[HoosierDaddy]

I inherited a Lumia 640 that had been inherited from a 3rd person. Actually one I had given them years ago as a gift that they soon retired for an Android.

I have no use for it but may want to donate it or use it as a trade-in (T-Mobile for example let you trade in ANY working phone for a new 5G phone).

So I intended to reset it and set it aside. I clicked on the device reset button in settings and got a message saying can't be done without internet. I though that was strange but entered my Wi-Fi credentials and tried again. This time, it insisted I enter the password for the deceased person's Microsoft account.

Unsurprisingly, I don't have it. There was an offer to reset the password via a code sent to a phone number long retired.

At this point I can't even throw the thing away without smashing it to pieces.

Any way to reset the phone without the MS account password?

I can only speculate this was some anti-theft feature to prevent thieves from using a phone they stole. Although all it apparently would do is keep a thief from linking it to some other MS account.

 

[TechFreak1]

I inherited a Lumia 640 that had been inherited from a 3rd person. Actually one I had given them years ago as a gift that they soon retired for an Android.

I have no use for it but may want to donate it or use it as a trade-in (T-Mobile for example let you trade in ANY working phone for a new 5G phone).

So I intended to reset it and set it aside. I clicked on the device reset button in settings and got a message saying can't be done without internet. I though that was strange but entered my Wi-Fi credentials and tried again. This time, it insisted I enter the password for the deceased person's Microsoft account.

Unsurprisingly, I don't have it. There was an offer to reset the password via a code sent to a phone number long retired.

At this point I can't even throw the thing away without smashing it to pieces.

Any way to reset the phone without the MS account password?

I can only speculate this was some anti-theft feature to prevent thieves from using a phone they stole. Although all it apparently would do is keep a thief from linking it to some other MS account.

Hmm, try the following:

1)Windows Recovery Tool / Lumia Recovery Tool.

2)The hard reset key combo - volume down, power + camera button. Release power button on vibrate and release rest of keys on reboot / reset start.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Recovery tools had no effect.

What's annoying is I guessed the MS account password and logged onto it on a PC. I went to devices and sure enough, there was the 640. But no apparent option to turn off the lock.

More research found a Microsoft web pages saying just remove the device from the account and a page will be displayed with an unlock key for the device. In addition, the code would be emailed to the MS account email address. So I did. but no code displayed or emailed.

If I had figured out the MS account password before resetting the phone, I'd be home free.

Apparently, there is some PC based hack with unintelligible instructions but not worth the risk to a PC.

Its not likely it will matter. Just keep fingers crossed nobody on my phone family plan needs a zero value phone as a trade in.

 

[nate0]

Recovery tools had no effect.

What's annoying is I guessed the MS account password and logged onto it on a PC. I went to devices and sure enough, there was the 640. But no apparent option to turn off the lock.

More research found a Microsoft web pages saying just remove the device from the account and a page will be displayed with an unlock key for the device. In addition, the code would be emailed to the MS account email address. So I did. but no code displayed or emailed.

If I had figured out the MS account password before resetting the phone, I'd be home free.

Apparently, there is some PC based hack with unintelligible instructions but not worth the risk to a PC.

Its not likely it will matter. Just keep fingers crossed nobody on my phone family plan needs a zero value phone as a trade in.

If you have access to the account that managed this device you just need to make sure it syncs... Could be a day could be two. Check the account frequently. I owned dozens of windows phones at one point and had them all in my account some synced and some not. The ones that I had most recently that I had on the internet were synced and if Reset protection was active I could remove it and were give a key even if the device was not physically present.

 

[nate0]

I inherited a Lumia 640 that had been inherited from a 3rd person. Actually one I had given them years ago as a gift that they soon retired for an Android.

I have no use for it but may want to donate it or use it as a trade-in (T-Mobile for example let you trade in ANY working phone for a new 5G phone).

So I intended to reset it and set it aside. I clicked on the device reset button in settings and got a message saying can't be done without internet. I though that was strange but entered my Wi-Fi credentials and tried again. This time, it insisted I enter the password for the deceased person's Microsoft account.

Unsurprisingly, I don't have it. There was an offer to reset the password via a code sent to a phone number long retired.

At this point I can't even throw the thing away without smashing it to pieces.

Any way to reset the phone without the MS account password?

I can only speculate this was some anti-theft feature to prevent thieves from using a phone they stole. Although all it apparently would do is keep a thief from linking it to some other MS account.

Whoa! Trade in any phone for some kind of incentive on a 5G phone? I'm looking into this one... It. Most likely forces you to switch your account to their new holding for the 5G network. I have an older no credit check account ... Wonder how long they will let me use that before I'm forced to migrate

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Whoa! Trade in any phone for some kind of incentive on a 5G phone? I'm looking into this one... It. Most likely forces you to switch your account to their new holding for the 5G network. I have an older no credit check account ... Wonder how long they will let me use that before I'm forced to migrate

No. Not even a new line. I traded in another L640 just to get a Galaxy A21 5G as a backup for my Galaxy S20 FE 5G that I also got for free but in that case I did add a line for my sister to my family account. Likewise my other sister got a free A21 5G turning in an old LG Stylo. All phones were "free" via matching credits to the 24 month payments. The A21 5Gs had no strings other than to send in any working phone. And of course, you need to keep the line that received the free phone for 2 years to keep the matching credits. There is a 5 free 5G phones per account (one per line) IIRC. The "5G for everyone" promotion runs for a calendar year but the free 5G phone might change. I believe they are now giving less desirable (in my mind) 5G phones now than the A21s.

 

[nate0]

No. Not even a new line. I traded in another L640 just to get a Galaxy A21 5G as a backup for my Galaxy S20 FE 5G that I also got for free but in that case I did add a line for my sister to my family account. Likewise my other sister got a free A21 5G turning in an old LG Stylo. All phones were "free" via matching credits to the 24 month payments. The A21 5Gs, had no strings other than to send in any working phone. And of course, you need to keep the line that received the free phone for 2 years to keep the matching credits. There is a 5 free 5G phones per account IIRC. The "5G for everyone" promotion runs for a calendar year but the free 5G phone might change. I believe they are now giving less desirable (in my mind) 5G phones now than the A21s.

Yes I just read up on it and have wheels turning now

 

[HoosierDaddy]

If you have access to the account that managed this device you just need to make sure it syncs... Could be a day could be two. Check the account frequently. I owned dozens of windows phones at one point and had them all in my account some synced and some not. The ones that I had most recently that I had on the internet were synced and if Reset protection was active I could remove it and were give a key even if the device was not physically present.

As I said, I have access to the account now that I guessed the password. But there was no option to unlock a linked device, only an option to remove it from the account. And separate MS web pages explaining that an unlock code would be displayed and emailed after you removed it from the account. None was displayed and so far none have come by email. And of course it is no longer listed as a device after removing it. I suspect, the promise to display/email an unlock code vanished at some point in time.

 

[nate0]

As I said, I have access to the account now that I guessed the password. But there was no option to unlock a linked device, only an option to remove it from the account. And separate MS web pages explaining that an unlock code would be displayed and emailed after you removed it from the account. None was displayed and so far none have come by email. And of course it is no longer listed as a device after removing it. I suspect, the promise to display/email an unlock code vanished at some point in time.

Oh if you removed it then it never synced activation lock probably. You can always hard reset the device in those cases let it reboot and try to sync it that way because then you are forced to use a key or Microsoft account pw. Was it running Windows Phone 8 or W10m?

 

[nate0]

What happens on a lot of these phones that actually had integrated reset protection but were originally running Windows Phone 8 is that this feature functions optimally only when running W10m especially if the device was upgraded to w10m at one point. You will cripple the device even more if it is rolled back to windows phone 8 though if it already has w10m...

 

[nate0]

As I said, I have access to the account now that I guessed the password. But there was no option to unlock a linked device, only an option to remove it from the account. And separate MS web pages explaining that an unlock code would be displayed and emailed after you removed it from the account. None was displayed and so far none have come by email. And of course it is no longer listed as a device after removing it. I suspect, the promise to display/email an unlock code vanished at some point in time.

Also there won't be an option to "unlock" a linked device or even remove the reset protection from web all that is done at the device level the web sync simply hashes the encryption linked to the device with its own recovery key and this then allows you to unlock the device if you hard reset it because when you hard reset it will want to by pass/unlock reset protection because it was enabled before you hard reset it. Only way to disable reset protection on phone is disable it setting use the Microsoft account pw or phone pin depending on OS version etc.

 

[nate0]

It's basically an early version of TPM but on mobile. Only the newer SoCs supported this from Windows Phone 8 but also upgraded to Win10m. Honestly any phone that supported this f reset protection feature from Win Phone 8 but was also upgradeable to win10m was a complete hot mess... Because you could enable it on both OS versions but end up down grading it to back to windows phone 8 and locking yourself out even if your own account is synced and you have your pw etc. There were lots of bugs and of course Microsoft wanted to wadh their hands of windows phones which kind of left us end users to figure all this out on our own

 

[HoosierDaddy]

What happens on a lot of these phones that actually had integrated reset protection but were originally running Windows Phone 8 is that this feature functions optimally only when running W10m especially if the device was upgraded to w10m at one point. You will cripple the device even more if it is rolled back to windows phone 8 though if it already has w10m...

Unfortunately, turning it on now goes no further than a screen to enter the unlock code. No possible way to sync it. Also, not understanding why it did not automatically sync when turned on for more than a day before resetting it. No SIM but it did have internet via Wi-Fi as evidenced by correct date/time, weather, news, etc..

But unlikely for it to matter. Mostly just the principal of it all at this point.

 

[nate0]

Unfortunately, turning it on now goes no further than a screen to enter the unlock code. No possible way to sync it. Also, not understanding why it did not automatically sync when turned on for more than a day before resetting it. No SIM but it did have internet via Wi-Fi as evidenced by correct date/time, weather, news, etc..

But unlikely for it to matter. Mostly just the principal of it all at this point.

I understand. It was perhaps a timing thing or maybe it never would have given you a code... It's also not your fault since this was probably the first time you had to experience this. I too locked myself out of a lumia 640 XL basically the same way and after that spent months doing many tests with reset protection on many different Lumias to understand what types of scenarios would occur and perhaps to learn why...

 

[nate0]

Unfortunately, turning it on now goes no further than a screen to enter the unlock code. No possible way to sync it. Also, not understanding why it did not automatically sync when turned on for more than a day before resetting it. No SIM but it did have internet via Wi-Fi as evidenced by correct date/time, weather, news, etc..

But unlikely for it to matter. Mostly just the principal of it all at this point.

I think if accounts lay dormant for some time or the device itself there are AI-like features for the sake of infosec that basically stall provisioning and or protocols like this. At least that is how it should be or even how I would do it... Basically it's waiting to make sure a human is actually using it and valid before letting it interface fully with Microsoft services...