Well, I guess I won't be using that.

 I had some old Android phones that I decided to make into indoor security cameras. Years ago I used a program called AlfredCamera, so I decided to use that program on my old Samsung J3 and my mother's 2 old Samsung phones. My J3 and one of my mother's Samsung were locked and I couldn't remember the patterns. I figured I would just do the hardware reset and we would be ok. Both phones went to the screen where I can factory wipe them. I did so and when they came up with the white screen that said start, I thought I was good to go. The next screen had a popup. 

"An unauthorized attempt has been made to reset your device to factory default settings. Connect to a Wi-Fi or mobile network to verify your identity."

I'm sitting here for a second going WTH, then it hit me. Damn, both of these phones are still locked to the Google accounts they were connected to. Its gotta be the reason. 

So I started working on mine first. I had several Google accounts I used on this phone so I just tried them until one worked. Eventually, I got that one unlocked. Unfortunately, it's not the same story for my mother's A8. 

Her phone was locked to her Google account which I deactivated after I finished closing out her business on it. I forgot the lock code since I hadn't dealt with the phone since I got it turned off. So I went to the forums in Google for assistance after exhausting myself trying to remember the lock code. 

I asked if there was a way to unlock an Android phone that is attached to a Google account I requested for deletion. I pretty much got the answer I expected but I had to be sure. I have to recover the account the phone is attached to. Well, I'm not going to do that. The last thing I want to do is to recover my late mother's Gmail account.  So I'll be one camera short. I do have a Samsung A8s around here somewhere that I can add in its place. 

It's amazing how you can buy hardware and because of a service, the hardware becomes useless.