Factory resetting Sony Xperia T

[Lioko]

Hello,

I have a Sony Xperia T that used to be my phone years quite some years ago. My current phone is having some issues so I had the idea to use my Xperia T temporary.. However, since the Xperia wasn't used for years I don't know my screenlock pin...

- I have entered several wrong patterns and then I get the option 'forgot password', but entering my Google credentials isn't working. The Google username/password is 100% correct since I use it to acces s Gmail etc.., so it is very likely that I didn't connect a Google account on my Xperia at that time.

- Tried the Xperia™ Companion software, but there they mention you need to know the Google account....

- On the internet I've encountered multiple times to hold down the power button + volume down button and the phone should enter a mode where I can select the factory reset. This doesn't work for my phone... Done this multiple times, but nothing happens, phone just shows the Sony logo and then the Xperia logo followd by an animation and the start (password pattern) screen.

Any suggestion how to perform the factory reset to get the phone up and running again?

Thanks.

Leo

[Jonas]

Hi @Lioko, welcome to our forum!

This will be a bit tricky as the device has reached it's end of support, it's not possible to perform a reset using Xperia Companion and the button combination to reset a device back to the factory settings is not available in any Xperia device.

The only option you are left with that may work is to go to the link below, login with the same Google account that you have in the device (hopefully there is one) and then try and reset the password this way. All data will be deleted in the device though, so keep that in mind.

https://www.google.com/android/find

Let me know how it goes!

[Lioko]

Hi Jonas,

Thanks for your reply and suggestion. I have tried that tour, but Google only shows my current linked Android phone and not the Xperia. So I guess I didn't link my Google account to the Xperia years ago... And like I mentioned in my opening post, after entering multiple times a wrong pattern it does show an option to restore password by entering a Google login + password, but that doesn't work even though I'm entering the correct credentials of my only one Google account.

[Jonas]

Hi again @Lioko!

It could be that the service to restore the password is no longer available since that option is not available in our later models (not sure how it is with other manufacturers though) but in general Google removed the service to reset the screen lock, or set a new screen lock with their services a few years ago, so it might have been removed in the same process.

From here, there isn't that much else I can suggest I'm afraid as the device is no longer in Support.