Ask HN: Google bricked my dead brother's phone
Dear HN,

I am at wit's end, and decided to post here to see if someone can offer some guidance. I am grateful to any feedback or suggestions on how to solve this issue.

In June of last year, my brother passed away unexpectedly. I wound up "inheriting" his phone, a Google Pixel 6. My intention was to take the phone, do a factory reset on it, and use it in my own way to help honor his memory.

When I did the factory reset, everything went fine until it prompted me for the password most recently used on the phone. Apparently Google has a thing called "Factory Reset Protection" or FRP, which is a theft deterrent. The idea is that if a bad guy steals your phone, they cannot do a factory reset and proceed to sell it on the black market. While it might result in a small number of stolen phones becoming landfill bricks, if it reduces the amount of total theft, then it's probably a good thing in the end.

But in my case, the person who owned this phone previous is dead, and none of my family knows what his password was. Google offers a service on their support page[1] where you can submit documentation like a death certificate, but the options are limited to closing an account, getting the data, or money transfer. In my case, I want to have the phone disconnected from my dead brother's Google account so I can bring new life to it. I submitted the appropriate documents to these forms. I did get replies, but they looked almost machine generated, and advised that they could not act outside of their roles as stated on the form. In one case, they included the following:

"If we are able to move forward based on our preliminary review, we will send further instructions about the remainder of the process, which will include obtaining a U.S. court order."

I cannot express how much this upset me. To be dealing with the emotional tragedy of the unexpected death of a loved one, only to be told that I must go to court to unlock his phone to make it into something positive... seemed heartless. I asked them for a phone number of someone at Google so I could call and explain my situation, and I have not heard back. The last message from them is from Jan 17th, 2024.

I reached out to two friends who are lawyers to see if they could help, but apparently Google's legal process is pretty opaque unless you know someone who works in the legal department, or you threaten with a lawsuit.

I also tried using various tricks to bypass the FRP, including purchasing software which wound up not working. There is a lot of snake oil and deception out there and software which claims to be able to unlock phones, but only works in certain ways, and did not work for me. I also tried sideloading new firmware, which didn't work. His phone was pretty secure.

So in the end, rather than turning my dead brother's phone into a cool project that I could use to honor his memory, I am forced into a Kafkaesque quagmire with no end in sight, and left with a very expensive brick locked by a key that Google refuses to give me. I have tried every technical and legal recourse I know to fix this, and it seems like posting this story here is the only option left. I have no desire for fame, for money, or for anything else. I just want this phone to work again.

[1] https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590