So, I've had a s21 ultra that I bought second hand years ago and I love it. I don't use as primary because I don't trust google/samsung (I use graphene on a pixel5) but I keep it as stock for the amazing camera.
I made the mistake of making a google account to play games. I just used random letters as I have no interest on it and I'm just being forced for the game to run. Today the phone was stuck on "phone is starting". I tried reseting cache on recovery, but nothing. I figured only factory reset would work.
Now it forced me to login to my @#$@$#%ing google account that I never wanted. It won't let me use my @#$@#$ing phone if I don't know the @#@%@ing google garbage. Is my amazing phone now a piece of brick because google needs to sell my data for my "security"? Is it really gone?
It's recently updated. I don't remember if I unlocked the bootloader (I don't think there are custom roms for it so I didn't bother) but it seems to be locked. Is there really nothing to be done?
I bought it for 1/4 of the price, but it was still a lot of money for me. Totally worthy because the camera is amazing, but did google really destroy my phone for my "security"? I understand forcing to wipe out data, but bricking the phone? How on hell is that for my security?
Just complaining out loud. I know that the answer is the same as "protect from terrorism" or "protect the children" is just really "to give us more money". But anyway, is there something that can be done?
Apple is the same or even worse right? if not, as much as I hate them, I would move. But now... It looks to me that if I want a good camera, I buy a real bulky one. If I want a good processor, I buy a laptop. Nowadays phones need to be just cheap garbage that can be thrown away easily if you don't want to please google/apple....
Anyway, any help is appreciated, though with my knowledge of phones, I think there is none. It's a brick now, that I wish I could throw at some people on google...
something to try:
https://share.google/gefw0PBnuz6kb3E6D
I see several threads and even YouTube videos when i search for the problem "samsung s21 wont boot without Google login", I'd suggest working your way down the list.
best of luck.
this teaches you how to use droid kit to bypass the lockout, apparently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5uSMIY_zqY&t=36
How nice of them to automatically decide to brick my phone with no opt out inside a 500 pages agreement.
Now I know that google play is the nastiest virus on Android. I wish there was an alternative since apple is even worse.
And speaking of virus, most comments says droidkit is a scam. It does look like it is, but I'll research more to see if it's an option.
All other options assume I know my randomly generated account. I don't. Every time I made a google account it was just random letters that i never planned to log in to.
But thanks for the help.
Super cool of them.
I definitely wouldn't go over to apple, they're the same way in terms of a closed environment kind of thing.
Google is full of shit metoo; I had a pixel and it was the most infuriating phone I've ever had, I felt like I had been tricked into an apple (or apparently Samsung).
I got a Motorola g54 recently new for 150 bucks: almost no bloatware, easy to uninstall the few apps that there are, including Facebook, disable animations and the phones operations are fast, expandable storage, esim, there's all the features and way less bs for a much lower price.
Moto has pricier options with more stuff, but this phone cost... 25% of the pixel 6 at launch for more storage and ram, higher refresh rate, and I already like it a lot better after a couple days than I ever liked the pixel because of their closed hardware and software environment.
And the poor build quality, I had to replace my pixel and then the second one had something rattling around inside and I just figured it wasn't even worth waiting for them to send a third piece of shit out.
Sorry, since we're ranting, I'm so happy to have parted ways with the pixel.
I'll look into the Samsung thing a bit more when I have time.
I bricked htcs and an oppo and there's always some way around those startup loops, especially if the phone is otherwise functional and it's just one barrier to work your way around.
It looks like that FRP thing has a lot of videos and threads about it, I'd be shocked if somebody hasn't figured it out.
And droidkit I was thinking of a different route kit that I used to fix HTC, so I can't really speak to Droid kit.
Stick in there, a brick is worth a few attempts at alchemy if you like the camera that much.
On the pixel:
I have a love/hate thing with it. You say it's closed software, but it's the opposite and it's the only reason I got it; how easy it is to remove the google garbage and install something better. I don't like graphene and I'm planning to try other things, but it's soooo much better than the default google experience. If you don't want google software, ironically google phones are the best ones for that.
But the pixel5 is the last "small" phone. And no sd card, no headphone. The phone itself I hate. I liked my s10 (which I lost) much better. But not having any google software on it is worthy, and after this last experience, it's much more so now. That said I am planning on buying an s10 again and trying to put Lineage on it. It was perfect. Great hardware, acceptable size, sd card, headphone jack... There is nothing like it anymore...
On the g54:
Did you try installing another rom? Do you know if it's easy? It seems like an ok option, though the camera and cpu seems to be worse than the s10. It may not have bloat (it's funny because people are ok with all the google garbage, and to me that's bloat), but it still have the google play virus on it, so it's dangerous without a custom rom.
About the bricking:
Yeah, I thought I bricked many phones in the past, but there was always a way around. But never before it was by design, with a virus made by the manufacturer. Unless there is an unpatched hole (and unfortunately it is up to date), I doubt there's a software solution. I don't have a windows computer, but I'll try to get one to try that droidkit. I fear it's like those "kingroot" softwares to try to root phones, that only worked on old unpatched phones and installed a bunch of nasty stuff on the way.
I found stuff like this https://droidcrafts.com/bypassing-samsung-frp-using-ubuntu/
But none of that will work because adb debug is not enabled (the update must have disabled it) neither is the bootloader unlocked.
If they were, I could reinstall the rom, or do something with adb. Without those I doubt there is a way but I'll keep trying.
I agree on both points about graphene, but I don't think graphene makes Google open software; if you removed all of the pages of a trump biography and put in the pages of LOTR, you would probably enjoy the book immeasurably more, but that wouldn't make the removed pages any good.
You're right, it is funny how easy it is to remove Google from Google devices.
You can flash custom ROMs on the g54; I haven't done it yet because I like the moto system so far, basically how barebones and functional it is.
The annoyances will have to build up before I replace anything. So far the only one I found is in speech to text, the microphone dings when it turns on and I can't turn the sound off. Yet...
I can live with that though, this thing is so much faster, more responsive and customizable than my pixel that I haven't noticed any of the flaws yet.
I have written out a very long list of all my problems with the pixel I had and this thing basically has none of them so far that I've found.
Motorola was the last company I looked at while I was researching new phones, but they are certain to be near the front of the line next time I have to jump on the merry-go-round.
Ha, KingoRoot is what worked for my HTC One! I was shocked and after I got rid of all the bloat it was like a new phone.
Facebook is such a hog.
That Ubuntu guide looks promising. I use Ubuntu and am a huge fan of copying and pasting commands that improve my machine.