I’m too old for this sh*t – part II

Yesterday my daughter’s phone was permanently stuck in fastboot. She tried a couple of remedies from YouTube videos and managed to boot it, but still on every reboot the fastboot logo was there and she had to press Volume Up and Power to boot it. On top of that, the Volume Down button was not responsive and the Volume Up was working, however after setting it, volume was immediately reset to zero.

No worries kid, you have device backup, so let’s try to factory reset the phone and restore from the latest backup. Oh, but the phone is on Family Link and it cannot be factory reset. Family Link should be able to reset it, however "if the option is not there you need to add an account to the phone". OK, let’s add the account to the phone. Only I cannot add my account to the phone, only a school account. Well, there are no Greek Public School accounts in Google. Still no option to reset.

Out of "random acts of panic" (an expression coined by a good friend of mine), I did random pressings of Volume Up, Volume Down and the Power button. I was either greeted by the fastboot logo, or the OS with the erratic button behavior.

Random googling directed me to install the Android Platform Tools. Really? I have to be a developer just to unlock the phone. So be it. Well neither adb devices nor fastboot devices showed any connected device. Of course the phone needs to have the Developer Options enabled. And of course this is prohibited by Family Link. Thankfully it allowed for it to be enabled. Now interestingly adb devices listed the phone but fastboot devices did not. I reboot the phone. adb devices does not list it, fastboot devices does. Random googling says fastboot reboot should clear the issue. It does not. I’m also told fastboot wipe data will wipe the phone (which is what I want). It does not because the phone is locked and you need to download Mi unlock for which you need a Mi account. Oh but we do not remember yet another password (The Mi account was created with Google auth). And right now the phone refuses to boot and accept SMS to reset the password, and I’m really bored / torn down to move the SIM to an older phone (I do not even think I have a SIM adapter for the older phones around).

I’m kind of angry and after a couple of fastboot reboot with no result (remember the definition of insanity?) I just press Volume Up (or Down, I can’t remember) and the Power button. And I am greeted with the holy menu that allows me to wipe the phone. The Volume Down button still does not navigate but thankfully the Volume Up circles through and I reach the treasure.

The phone is wiped out, restored and operational again.

I’m really, really tired.