RootJunky: How to Bypass Factory Reset Protection on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

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We here at XDA are big fans of esteemed flashaholic RootJunky who specializes in teaching you how to hack your Android device. If you’re the owner of a flagship Samsung or Motorola Droid device, then you might have seen him on our forums at one point.

If you don’t own any of those devices, then you might remember RootJunky from his instructional video on how to bypass Factory Reset Protection on Samsung devices that made the rounds in the Android tech world. Don’t remember that one? What about his video on bypassing Factory Reset Protection on the LG G4 and LG V10? Or maybe his video on bypassing Factory Reset Protection on the Android N developer previews?

Today, RootJunky is bringing us a new video showcasing how to … you guessed it, bypass Factory Reset Protection. This time, it’s for the newly released Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.

Factory Reset Protection this, Factory Reset Protection that … just what is FRP? In case you’ve forgotten, it’s the nifty security feature introduced in Android 5.1 Lollipop that requires you to enter the account details of the last Google account used on any device after it has been factory reset. This is a quick way to prevent people from getting to use your device if they steal it, since without your Google account details they’ll have a locked device no matter how many times they factory reset it. Just remember to never change your Google account password prior to factory resetting your phone or you’ll be locked out of your phone for 72 hours!

Why would you want to bypass it? Well, we hope you’re not up to something nefarious here. It’s possible that you need to bypass it for some legitimate reason (maybe you bought someone else’s phone and they forgot to remove FRP before handing it over to you), though. Whatever the case may be, the bypass itself is interesting to note because of the security implications behind the bypass. We hope that by drawing attention to this discovery by RootJunky that OEMs will provide updates to patch this loophole and ensure that our devices can’t be accessed after they’ve been reset.

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