[Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra] Riggs909:
---Before reading my wall of text, it was a suggestion from the Samsung forum that sent me here that maybo you guys could help. The post is pretty much a copy paste from there. I looked for a search function before posting here. Please move the thread or direct me to the right one to post in if this isnt the right forum.---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ive had my S24 Ultra since release. The day before yesterday while driving, I glance down and see my phone is asking for my PIN-with a message saying something about when using biometrics if the phone has been out of use for 4 hours, for my protection, I need to enter a PIN. For my entire length of ownership, I have used the fingerprint scanner to unlock the phone. When I arrived home, I enter a PIN that I am positive would be the one that I created. Phone says its incorrect. Long story short, after the phone has conditioned me for 4 or 5 months that my fingerprint is good enough, I now am in forgot PIN **bleep** where I now have to wait 24 hours in between each attempt. Both my carrier and repair shops are telling me the only option is a factory reset. Which for all intents and purposes isn't an option for me since I dont want to lose the 4 months of my life Ive poured into the device in videos and photos- including a recent trip to Thailand.

I have tried using Smartthingsfind to reset the PIN but that doesn't seem to retroactively work since I never used it prior to having this issue. Now did I setup any kind of cloud because again- Ive never encountered this issue with the phone.

If that doesn't work, is there any way I can use a PC to simply download the photos and videos off of the phone? Losing all of my apps and having to manually key in login details again for 20-30 apps is bad enough but losing my data is a NO GO if I am pushed to factory reset the phone. I've asked on other forums and you always get that one moron accusing you of stealing the phone. It takes all of 30 seconds to search on youtube and find out how to factory reset the phone. If I wasn't worried about the hundreds of gigs worth of photos I've put on the phone over the course of ownership (which a thief wouldn't be), that is what Id do.

The other blowback I get is from people being absolutely positive that there is just no way on Earth that the phone would suddenly ask me for a PIN I can't remember. And to those types, I really dont know how to respond other than I hope they never have to go through the **bleep** I'm going through of a 1300$ device suddenly deciding it is going to be unusable. Even the timeline in which the phone decided to do this makes ZERO sense. There is no way that there had been four hours since I had last accessed the phone. It was during the day, not at night. Furthermore, I can't recall the phone ever demanding a PIN instead of a fingerprint any morning after I woke up which obviously would be EIGHT hours of inactivity. People act as if the device can't be flawed and condition you into a **bleep** where it feels like your data is being held for ransom making you despise the brand. It doesnt ask to scan my face- an option I set up, it doesnt ask for either fingerprint despite me registering two, it doesnt ask me for a security pattern which is what I use for my secured folder. It asks me for the one thing that I can't really recall it ever asking me for. If it did, it was very early on in my ownership.

Barring that, could an actual Samsung tech/rep be able to help me unlock the phone somehow? I can prove I'm the owner however they want. ID, Urine sample, blood sample, hair follicle, interrogation, hell go ahead and waterboard me for all I care. I just dont want to lose the data on my phone.

Or at the least, is there a way I can either reset the absurd amount of time it takes before I get to try another random PIN guess? Or again is there a way I can hook the phone up to a PC and get my photos and videos that way? I would consider a factory reset IF IF IF IF I could get my data off the phone and save it to a cloud or harddrive before resetting the phone.