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LostInParadise's avatar

What are the rules for entering Android phone unlock key codes?

Asked by LostInParadise (31915points) September 6th, 2015

I don’t own an Android phone, but I was curious about the number of possible unlock codes and want to write a small program to compute the number of codes of each length. I have seen the rules, but there is one thing I am unsure of. I know that you can’t repeat a key. There is a second rule that says you can’t jump over a key unless the key jumped over has already been entered. For example, you can’t start by entering 1 and then 3 or 1 and then 7 or 1 and then 9, because you would be respectively jumping over 2, 4 and 5. Can you start by entering 1 and then 6? It seems that that should not be permitted, because you would be jumping over 2 and 5, or does the jumping rule only apply to rows, columns and diagonals?

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3 Answers

johnpowell's avatar

No fucking clue where you are getting these rules from.

I just used 1111 as a pin on 4.4.4 on a Moto E and it didn’t care.

Those rules are absurd and there is no possible way the average person could deal with them without getting massively annoyed.

LostInParadise's avatar

Here is a link with the rules http://beust.com/weblog/2008/09/17/androids-locking-pattern/ that, unlike previous links I came across, provides an answer to my question. The jump rule only applies to rows, columns and diagonals.

I wrote the program and for anyone who is interested, these are the number of possible codes, starting with the minimum requirement of four keys.

4 – 1624
5 – 7152
6 – 26016
7 – 72912
8 – 140704
9 – 140704

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