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Bypass activation on your Android device

Help & How To
By Jared DiPane | Sep 17 2010 | 12:33 pm  | 35 Comments

Android activation bypassIf you have multiple Android phones, you might now always want keep each device active. But that doesn't mean it's a paperweight. But resetting a phone brings you back to the pesky activation screen in many cases. Luckily you are able to bypass this so that you can access all the features within the phone, without having to actually activate it on your account. The diagram shows exactly how its done, but here's a simple breakdown.

  1. Tap top left hand corner
  2. Tap top right hand corner
  3. Tap bottom right hand corner (above grey banner)
  4. Tap bottom left hand corner (above grey banner)

Following these simple steps will allow you to skip the activation, and jump right back into using your device. The only downside to this is that usually upon rebooting the phone, you will have to do the same pattern, but that's only a small price to pay in comparison to the option of actually activating the device. 

Jared DiPane

Jared DiPane Slayer of the News

"News Writer for Mobile Nations. Husband. Father.
Technology lover with an unhealthy Chipotle addiction."

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Reader comments

Bypass activation on your Android device

35 Comments
ChromeJob

This article seems too generic, Jared. On the Nexus devices I've used (4, 5) you can simply keep configuring, they will so without a SIM, though you do get a single-screen warning.

Roberto Mendez

I have a ellipsis 4 g tablet it has a bad sim card reader in virizion left me in the cold on fixing it but it still worked fine on wi fi.my problem is i have been dealing with a hacker for 5 months now.some how hacker put google voice search over the keyboard .i can't use my pin to get in

mtnlaurel

Phone the Motorola E I took out the SIM card and restarted the phone and it went straight to set up for wireless.

Bailey Colby

Okay so this didn't work on my phone I have a android 4G LTE and I looked it up if you press the up volume key, down colume key, back button, and then home it skips the activation hope this helps :)

David Copson

When I wiped an old phone to use as a wireless wifi throttle for my model trains, I was stuck on that activation screen. Your tip saved the day. Works great and I only had to do it one time.

Also had to bypass the Verizon app store by logging into my Google account to download the necessary app.

Radio throttles that do the same thing cost over $100 each plus connecting hardware. A couple old phones with app and the Java Model Railroad interface cost me $0.

Thanks.

Justin Target

Hello, I have my Samsung Galaxy S from Verizon i cant get past the activation screen, how might i do this, all i want to do is use it on WiFi and use it for music.

dowgoutt

need help. bought htc eris no contract and used it for a while came to Ghana and gave it to my lil brother because i ave a lot of stuffs on it i reset it to factory settings and now i can't get pass the activation any help.

IAmTTim

Just so I'm sure, if you've wiped the DROID and do this bypass, then the carrier, in my case VZ, won't see me as using this device? I don't want to be doubling the use of my VZ data plan of the other phone.

I know, it's a stupid question since I'm bypassing the activation, but I'm a little OCD and want to know for sure for sure for sure that I'm just using the wifi and no data plan. This phone still shows the cellphone signal strength as really good, so that bugs me a bit and make me working that it's somehow pinging the cell tower and using plan data.

Pullback

Please help I bought a galaxy tab and my problem is how to bay pass the activation Best buy give it me with out activating first, i thought I can easily activate when I bring this to Verizon but I was wrong, now I planned to return it to best buy losing around 90 dollar as restocking fee. Can anyone here help me how I can activate it bypassing the verizon?

work4crown

This did not work on my droid incredible since I did not see a screen like that. I was able to click back and forth between an activate and a back button a few times and it bypassed the activation.

Futureboy#AC

This may work for you...

On my MT3G, tapping the four corners only worked when there was NO sim card in the phone. Without the sim card, it would bypass, but unfortunately, it would only take me to a screen that said "no sim card, emergency calls only." At this screen the phone didn't allow me to do anything. None of the buttons worked (home, menu, etc).

When there WAS a card in the phone, tapping the four corners would NOT bypass. It just stayed on the "touch the android" screen.

So here's what worked for me:

1. Insert valid sim (I used the sim that I had in my activated phone. If you don't already have a sim, you can use a friend's sim).
2. Touch the android to start
3. I skipped the tutorial because I already know how to use the phone
3. At the "Set Up Your Google Account" screen, I chose the "Set Up Later" option at the bottom.

This gave me access to the phone. I shut down and removed the sim from the phone, rebooted and the phone booted right up to the home screen with a "no service" message. I was then able to fully access all menus and settings. (NOTE: I didn't want to simply log into an account with the sim in the phone because I don't really know how sim and google accounts are tied together and I didn't want to mess up my other phone/account. I'm sure the answer is on the internet somewhere, but my main goal was to simply get full access to the MT3G without linking it to a carrier/data account, so powering down and removing the sim was the simple solution).

Once I was in (sim card removed), I put the phone in airplane mode and set up wifi. (The factory reset installed 2.2.1 which allows wifi in airplane mode). I then went into Settings>Accounts and Sync>Add Account. I entered an account different from the account I currently have linked to my regular phone. I now have access to the market for free apps and a fully functioning phone (without voice or SMS - though there may be free apps that will allow voice/text through wifi).

Hope this helps!

crunchyberry

I bought a Droid last night and the prior owner had wiped the Droid.

Verizon told me that there wasn't a way to get past this screen without activation. I didn't see this article until today. However, a Google search last night proved otherwise and it worked.

This Droid will be used only on Wifi. Does anyone know how to get Google Voice to work on a Droid that doesn't have a phone number?

Thanks!

crunchyberry

One update though. You don't need to do the key press sequence when the device is turned back on again. Pressing the Home button will bypass it.

Archon810

As far as I know, this has only been confirmed on the original Droid (I tried it there and it worked). Not sure it's as universal as you think.

charlier180

Nice Tip.

When I received my new DX the other day, this screen did not come up when I powered it on. A screen came up requesting PIN numbers. I did not input any numbers and somehow got past that screen. I did get a message about calling Verizon support because the activation failed.
Ever since, I have not seen the screen pictured in this tip when I powered my DX on. Have been using it on WiFi to download apps, etc., set it up and just play with it. Anyone else not get this screen when they powered up their DX?

crunchyberry

quicksilverss05,

Do you happen to know of a guide I could use to figure out how to best use Google Voice in a wifi-only configuration where it doesn't have a phone number assigned to the device?

Thank you for any insights!