I need G1 tech support.

Note: for anyone with a G1 with this same problem who found this entry by Googling, you don’t have to lose any data — we eventually found a workaround that doesn’t require a factory reset.  Details are at the bottom of this post.

I’ve hit the end of the flowchart, it’s 3 AM, and I’m turning to you all.

I’m at my cousin’s wedding and I’ve been locked out of my G1 phone.  I was idly playing with the screen unlock pattern (it’s fun to draw G1 unlock patterns) and it eventually said I’d made too many attempts and asked for my Google account email and password.  I typed them in.

They don’t work.  (Edit: and the username/password are correct — they work fine for logging in via the web, and they’ve worked recently in other parts of the phone.) I tried every variation on the email (it’s an @xkcd.com email, not @gmail.com) and every password I’ve ever used for anything Google-related.  It still says ‘incorrect username or password’.  It’s the middle of the night, I’m exhausted, and I was about to set my phone as an alarm clock to wake me up for the wedding.

I’ve googled around and found lots of other people with the same problem.  They seem to suggest it’s simply an Android bug, and the only solution is a factory reset of the phone.  This will lose all my app data.  Music, photos, and contact lists will be saved, but I’ll have to redownload all my apps, and I’ll lose my call history, Google Tracks, saved games, Shazam tagged songs, and a pile of text messages containing useful information and/or sentimental minimalist poems.

The phone is not a dev/rooted phone, so a few hacks I found with ADB won’t work.  Does anyone know anything else I can do, or is this an unfixable bug?  I just want my phone back.  I would really appreciate any help anyone can give.  I’ll watch here for a little bit, then find something else to use as an alarm and see if there’s a solution in the morning.

Thank you in advance.

Edit: I’ve used the bug mentioned in #28 here (thanks, Julian!) to successfully get to the home screen.  I couldn’t believe it actually worked, but it does — you can unlock the phone by getting a call and flipping the screen open and shut repeatedly while tapping ‘home’.  Now I can get into the phone by opening the keyboard, but if I just try to touch ‘menu’ it’s still locked.  This is still annoying, but I can deal with it for now (I’ll let it finish syncing and try reboots and stuff).  Thank you so much, internet.  ❤

Edit #2: Thanks to Dan Egnor over at Google, I’ve gotten the last piece.  The phone was tied to my Google Apps account rather than my Google account, which have the same email address as their name (and I had tried the passwords for both, of course).  By changing the password for the Google Apps account (not the Google account), I made the phone fail to sync, which prompted me for a new password — which was then saved properly.  When the lockout screen came up next, I entered that password, and my phone is back.  So, in summary, to fix this without wiping your phone, you:

1. Get someone to call you.
2. After answering, flip the screen open and shut repeatedly, tapping the “home” button every few flips.  Eventually you’ll drop through to your home screen.  This may take a few tries.
   
3. Go into your security settings and disable the unlock pattern.  You can now bypass the lockout just by opening the keyboard.
4. Change the password on your account, which may be your Google Apps account if you have one.
5. In a few moments, your phone will fail to sync with email and prompt you for a password.  Enter the new password.
6. You can now log in with the new password.  Lock your screen, press menu to try unlocking it, and enter your new information.  This should unlock your phone.