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I have a situation where I recently set PIN, activated Secure boot and booted up my phone and entered the PIN incorrectly 28 times. Now I have two times to enter the PIN correctly else the phone will be reset to factory defaults (images, all data deleted) which I want to avoid.

Do you think it's possible to reset the number of tries again to 30 for secure boot if I already used 28 times? The phone which I am using is Samsung S9+.

Merkys
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secure startup means android is not booted therefore FindMyMobile not available. counter can be reset in crypto footer but that requires raw access via chip-off method (or samsung signed firehose programmer if your device is qualcomm usa model)

alecxs
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  • Thank you so much for the answer. Do you think that it's possible to disable secure startup in such a situation? If the phone would bootup, I could use finger print or face ID. – Merkys Jun 12 '21 at 11:29
  • DEK is re-encrypted with new KEK and PIN. the only way back is factory reset – alecxs Jun 12 '21 at 11:55
  • Thank you! I just have few more question: I desperately trying because I have some vacation photos inside my phone and I am very afraid to lose it.
    1. Do You think if I flash custom recovery such as TWRP would I be able to BACKUP everything to an external SD card and use two PIN guesses, then if I fail and the device is the factory reset - restore from SD card using TWRP and try again two more times until success?
     – Merkys Jun 12 '21 at 14:29
  • Do you think such a solution would work? to Install TWRP and using in-built File Manager and deleting following files inside /data/system folder:

    • Gatekeeper.password.key gatekeeper.pattern.key locksettings.db locksettings.db-shm locksettings.db-wal

    1. In such a situation, would you bring such a device to Samsung support? I doubt if they could help

    2. Do you think I am completely screwed and I should reset to the factory and forget the photos?

    – Merkys Jun 12 '21 at 14:29
  • no. there is some cheat to by-pass gatekeeper via emergency call menu but requires android. /data/system is encrypted and TWRP not flashable on locked bootloader – alecxs Jun 12 '21 at 16:03
  • Do you think it's possible to mount my Samsung to try PIN guesses without counting towards 30 PIN guess limit (like on Secure Startup)? I thought maybe if I guess over my pc, perhaps it wouldn't be counted but I never managed to mount my Samsung partitions on PC – Merkys Jun 12 '21 at 16:12
  • there is absolutely nothing you can do besides backup/altering crypto footer via chip-off method or EDL mode – alecxs Jun 12 '21 at 16:40
  • Thank you so much, I am very thankful. All the best for you – Merkys Jun 12 '21 at 17:37