After purchasing a brand new Samsung Galaxy S Captivate from a Rogers Plus! store today, the customer service rep and I were both puzzled at the existence of a pattern lock screen on first boot. After trying random patterns five times an option appeared to reset the pattern using my account credentials, but entering my Google account information also failed to gain me access.
Taking the phone back to the office with me, I got on the line with Rogers technical support who provided me with the steps used to initiate a hard reset of the phone:
- Power off the phone. At the pattern lock screen this can be accomplished by holding down the power button, or by popping out the battery.
- Press and hold down both volume buttons on the left side of the phone.
- Now also press and hold the power button on the right side of the phone.
- When the phone turns on, a black screen with only the text “I896” and “Samsung” on it will appear. At this point, let go of the volume buttons, but continue to hold down the power button.
- A few more seconds will elapse and you will find yourself on the debug menu. Four items will appear in the menu: “reboot system now”, “reinstall packages”, “delete all user data”, and “delete cache data”.
- To remove the pattern lock, we need to select the third option, “delete all user data”, by pressing the volume down button twice and selecting it by pressing the power button.
- A new screen will appear prompting you to confirm your choice. Do so by pressing the volume down button until you reach the “yes” option. Press the power button to select it.
- The phone will now wipe all user information from its memory and return you to the debug menu. Select “reboot system now” to restart your phone and the phone will behave as if it was being started up for the first time.
References: Hard reset not working (among other things) on samsung captivate – please help!
i spent 4 hours trying to unlock this phone, this helped so much! thank you!
WOW!!! I have been trying everything for 3 days…sucks that I couldn’t save y pictures but thank god I have my phone back!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you
Just got this phone given to me with a pattern lock, the unlock worked great, thank you.
thanks, that worked first try
I got to the reboot option however when I hit the power button to select its not working…. not for any of the options!! Please help!
WOW you are amazing thank you so much This was so fast and easy after I spend my whole day trying to figure this out. Thank Again
good info way better than all other thanks
Thanks, this was a big help!!!
Thank you thank you thank you thank you
thank you so much..this is why i love google so much
hey that worked… thanks so much
Ing thank u so much I love this thanks
Thank You so much..I looked everywhere to get my phone back to normal..Hours on top of hours..Your a life saver!!!!
i want to remove my upgrade fray 2.2 on my samsumg galasy,please help me to got my phone to de original sister.
please help me to remove froyo from my samsung galasy i want to be on the old version.
sometimes the power button will not work to select “OK” instead the home screen will work in that case.
Ohhh myy goddd!! TY SOOO MUCH!!:)
Wooooord!!!
Thanks It works for my phone!
when i hold down the buttons, i’ll get at a certain time a whit box with an arrow in it, and an android next to itt, but ik won’t get the options??? plase help me
Terrific! After wasting 3 or 4 hours following others’ advice, this worked immediately – Many grateful thanks!
It was a great help. Can’t thank you enough
Wow… Very Helpful! Fortunately, I only needed to do steps #1 and #2. All is now well… THANKS AGAIN!
HOLLY COW! i have spent three days with AT&T, and GOOGLE themselves trying to get the stupid phone fixed!!! eVERYTHING is working great now because of this fix! I wish i would have just used simple google search and found this website! how stupid of at&t and google support group! Thanks a bunch
Thanks worked perfect!!!!
OMG! Been without my phone for a month. could get no help from AT&T. Thank you soooo much!!!!!!
Thanks, Worked Great!
sir its realy help thnx 4 help take care
ya 1 try
thank you it worked 1st try and my phone is back to normal again
If i select delete user data, will it erase my pictures and texts?
Thank you so much
You are a genius
Thanks for the great tip! every other site had useless info…this worked perfectly!
you may have posted it 5 years ago, but it really me a lot today, thanks for the tip!!!
!!helped me!!