How to Bypass Factory Reset Protection on Nexus Devices

Security is a major concern on every Android device. To make your device more secure Google introduced a new security measure in Android 5.0 A.K.A. Android Lollipop called Factory Reset Protection (FRP). If you are already familiar with the term factory reset, you may have figured out what FRP is. Factory Reset protection keeps your data safe in case your device gets stolen. It does so by requiring authentication after a factory reset to make the device usable.

Imagine this scenario: You lost your device or your device got stolen. Now, the first thing that a thief will do is to factory reset your device so that he can use it by himself or sell it to someone else. But since you have already attached your Google account with your device and have set a security option (PIN, Password, etc.), the thief will not be able to factory reset it from the settings. He will have to do it via stock recovery option (which is pretty simple, BTW).

Once the factory reset is done and the process to setup the device begins, the device will ask to enter the Google account and password that was previously linked with the device. This is Factory Reset Protection. Now, the device is not useful to the thief. Thank you, Google!

What if, instead of losing your device, you forget your password and Google account details? You are stuck; you can’t even make it usable via factory resetting your device (thanks to FRP). You already know that in order to activate FRP you must attach a Google account to your device, set a security option, and factory reset your device via stock recovery menu. If you happen to have a Nexus device (probably a recent one like Nexus 6P, 5X, Nexus 6, and 5) than the Factory Reset Protection can be bypassed in just a few minutes. Here’s how to do it.

Requirement for Performing This Procedure:

• The device on which we performing this trick must have a SIM card in it.

Bypass Factory Reset Protection on Nexus Devices

Let’s begin!

1. Turn off your phone, enter into recovery menu, and factory reset your device.
2. Now you’ll see the setup wizard. Tap on any Wi-Fi connection to get the “enter password” field. But instead of entering the password hold down “,” button and go into settings.
3. Tap on language and then tap on the three vertical dots on the top right of the screen and then tap on “Help & feedback”.
4. Now you’ll get a search bar. Type anything there and hold the text and then select “Share” from the popup menu.
5. Choose the option to share it via Google messenger. Once the app opens, tap on “New message”.
6. Dial any number in the “To” input field and then tap on “Send to”.
7. You’ll see a contact’s like icon on the top right of the next screen. Tap on it and then tap on the “tick mark” icon. This will bring up phone icon that will let you make a call.
8. Once the call is placed hit the pause button and then hit add dialler button. This will bring up the dialler.
9. In the input field, type *#*#4636#*#*. Doing so will open up the test mode.
10. Tap on “Usage statistics” and then tap on the back option. Now you’ll be in device’s settings menu.
11. From the settings, you can factory reset your phone.

Now, the requirement for FRP to appear is that a Google account must be attached and your phone must have security option enabled. Since neither of these requirements is fulfilled while factory resetting the device for the second time, FRP will be bypassed.

Now follow the setup wizard, enter details of a new Google account, and you are good to go.

The credit for this trick goes to RootJunky. Thank you for this awesome trick.