How To Remove FRP Lock On Samsung Galaxy S9 Android 9

Samsung Frp Lock Screen
If you’ve reached this page, you are likely locked out of your phone and have realized that trying to do a factory reset doesn’t work because the phone keeps asking you for the Google email account that is locked to the phone (and you obviously don’t have access to that information).
This is because the phone has an FRP lock (Factory Reset Protection) which is a security feature meant to prevent someone else from resetting your phone for their own (unauthorized) use.
In our scenario, we purchased a used phone from a pawn shop on eBay.  Apparently the original owner had performed a factory reset without deleting their google account first.  When we tried to add our Google email account to the phone, we received the following message:
“This device was reset.  To continue, sign in with a Google Account that was previously synced on this device.”
At this point, we had an expensive paperweight (the phone was “bricked”).  We could have returned the phone, but wanted to try fixing the problem ourselves.  So our journey of googling (mis) information began.  We viewed dozens of webpage guides and watched a half dozen really long YouTube videos, then set off to give it a try.

The process is actually pretty straight forward.

  1. Load Samsung drivers on your computer.
  2. Download and install Odin on your computer.
  3. Download your phone’s firmware combination files and load the files into Odin software.
  4. Connect your phone to your computer using a USB, activate your phone’s download mode, and install the firmware using Odin.

Easy enough, right?  But there’s a catch.  You have to have the firmware combination that exactly matches what was installed on your phone (and which also contains the right CSC file (country or carrier specific configuration).  When these sites were directing us to specific firmware, it would have been nice if they explained to which phones and which Android versions those files were compatible.

Our first mistake was reading web pages and watching videos that weren’t specific to Samsung Galaxy S9 phones.  One would assume that if a solution only applies to Galaxy 8 phones in India, maybe the web page or the title should have specified that in the beginning.
In 2 different attempts, we kept getting a “Verification failed” message after attempting to install the downloaded files:
“Unable to restart your device.  The integrity verification has failed.  You need to reset your device to factory default settings.  This will erase all you data.”
This message meant the the firmware files that we were trying to install were not compatible.  The first time, the firmware was for a different Android version.  In the second attempt, we had the wrong CSC file.
Here’s an overview that will hopefully save someone else a little frustration.  Obviously, this information is provided purely as “At Your Own Risk”.

Step One

Gather the following information about your phone:
  1. The model number (i.e. Samsung Galaxy S9+ SM-G695U)
  2. The PDA (the 13 character code of the installed software version i.e. G965USQS7CSK4)
  3. The installed Android version (i.e. Android 9 – Pie)
  4. The network carrier (Sprint, Verizon, etc).  CSC is a country or network carrier specific setting.
    1. This is important if your phone is locked to a specific carrier.  You will need the correct CSC in order to activate the phone in their network.
    2. Common CSC Codes
      • ATT (AT&T branded)
      • BST (BST  unknown)
      • CCT (Comcast branded)
      • “SPR”, “Sprint (CDMA) branded”
      • “TFN”, “Tracfone branded “
      • “TMB”, “T-Mobile branded”
      • “USC”, “USA unbranded”
      • “VMU”, “Virgin Mobile USA branded”
      • “VZW”, “Verizon branded”
If your phone is locked or in setup mode and you can’t access the phones Settings screen, you will need to go to the factory reset screen to get this information.  To get to this screen on an S9 or S9+ Plus,  first power off your phone.  Then press the volume up button, the Bixby button, and finally the power button for 4-6 seconds.  All this information will be on the 2nd and 3rd rows at the top of the Android Recovery screen.  These long lines of code that are separated by slashes contain the firmware build number and the Android version.
Samsung Frp Lock How To Find Pda

Step Two

Install Odin and Samsung drivers on your computer

Get the latest Odin software version.  Odin is the primary flashing tool for Samsung smartphones (it was created by Samsung). Odin is only compatible with windows.
    • https://samsungodin.com/download/
    • Scroll to the very bottom of the page for the latest release (it was v3.13.1 in June 2020 https://samsungodin.com/download/Odin3_v3.13.1.zip)
Get Samsung USB Drivers – https://samsungodin.com/SamsungUSBDriver/USB_Drivers_1.5.27.0.rar   Install on your computer and then restart computer.

Step Three

Go to sammobile.com and get the correct firmware for your phone.

  1. Start your search by entering the model number of your phone.
  2. You’ll then be provided with a long list of firmware options.  Scroll through the list for your phone’s PDA software version (i.e. G965USQS7CSK4) and corresponding Android version (i.e. Android 9 – Pie).
  3. You’ll then be asked to refine the results by country, which is actually the CSC if your phone is locked to a specific carrier/network  like Sprint or Verizon (remember to use one of the three letter CSC codes from Step One).
    1. Samsung Frp Lock Csc Country

Once the list of firmware options has been refined to CSC/Country, select and download the one that matches your PDA and Android version. Samsung Frp Lock Firmware

Extract the files into a folder on your computer.  You’ll be receiving 6 files, but you only need four of them (you’ll be using the ones that start with BL, AP, CP, and CSC).Samsung Frp Lock Firmware Files

Step Four

Get your phone ready to download the firmware

Open Odin and connect your phone to your computer using a USB.  You’ll know the phone is properly connected when the box near the top left above ID:COM shows an active comm port.

Samsung Frp Lock Odin Com Port

To activate your phone so that it is download mode, press and hold the volume down button, the bixby button, and finally the power button for 4+ seconds.  Once your phone’s screen displays “downloading”, press the volume up button to continue.

Load the firmware into Odin

Samsung Frp Lock Odin

On the bottom right of Odin software, there will be 5 input boxes for you to add the firmware files you downloaded.  Remember, you will only be using 4 of them.  Ignore the Userdata section; you won’t be needing it.

Click on the BL button and add the firmware file that starts with BL.  Repeat this process for the AP and CP buttons. For the CSC button use the file that starts with CSC, do not use the HOME_CSC file.

The HOME_CSC… file keeps all your phone’s apps and data.  It’s like a soft reset.  If you use that file, you will be right back where you started…locked out of your phone.

Once all 4 files are loaded, click the Start button at the bottom.  It takes about 5 minutes or so for you to flash your phone’s firmware.

Once the firmware has been downloaded to your phone, it will reboot itself and you should be returned to the Welcome setup screen.  You will know you were successful once you reach the screen to add a Google account.  If you receive a “Integrity verification has failed” notice, this means the combination of firmware files you tried to use were not the correct version for your phone.

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