How to fix Android's Smart Lock Trusted Places feature from buzai232's blog

Smart Lock has been around since 2014's Android 5.0 era (which, according to my calculations, was approximately "an eternity" ago by 2020 standards). The basic idea behind it is to make securing your smartphone less inconvenient, thus making it more likely that you'll actually use a pattern, PIN, passcode, or person-paw press (also known as a fingerprint) to keep your data safe. The sensational headlines about big, bad malware monsters lurking in the dark and waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims may be scary, after all, but here in the real world, you're far more likely to suffer from your own self-made security shortcomings than from any sort of theoretical threat.To get more news about safe lock, you can visit securamsys.com official website.

So, yeah: Smart Lock makes an awful lot of sense — not just for average phone-ownin' folk but also for enterprises and businesses of all sizes that need to enforce proper security and want to make the measures as palatable as possible. There's just one teensy weensy little problem: One of the most effective Smart Lock options for Android is constantly breaking and failing to do its job.

I'm talking about Smart Lock's Trusted Places feature, which lets you set a specific physical location — your home, your office, the ostrich habitat you for some reason frequent at your local zoo, or whatever — at which your phone will automatically stay unlocked. Whenever you're at that location, your phone will skip over the standard lock screen and let you get stuff done without the need for any authentication. And when you're anywhere else, your standard security method will show up and apply.

The Trusted Places part of Smart Lock was fantastic when it first came along, but at some point, it just stopped working consistently. It's something I've experienced with numerous Android devices, including my own current personal phone, and something I've heard about from Android users endlessly over the past several years. And despite the occasional proclamation that some under-the-hood adjustment has delivered the fix we've all been waiting for, the issue just never seems to go away.
Hold the phone, though: There's still hope. While we may not be able to fix the finicky nature of Android's Smart Lock Trusted Places feature at its source, we can tweak our own settings to give it a metaphorical kickstart and get it working on our devices, at least for a while, once more.

The secret is a simple little workaround I've refined and relied on personally over the years, and it absolutely works — not always forever but typically for a fair amount of time. And it takes all of roughly 60 seconds to do.There's not much left to do here: Just tap the notification shown above, and you should be taken into the Trusted Places section of your Android Smart Lock settings. There, your phone should prompt you to use the "new" address as your Trusted Place location. And all you've gotta do is tap "Yes."

If for some reason you didn't get that notification — or maybe you dismissed it inadvertently — just head into your system settings, search for Smart Lock, then head into that section and tap the "Trusted Places" line. (You'll probably have to enter your PIN, pattern, or password first as a security measure.) Tap the line labeled "Trusted Places," then tap the line representing the location you just adjusted and look for the "Turn on this location" prompt at the bottom of the screen.

You certainly shouldn't have to do any of this, and it's annoying that you do. But now you know the trick. And if things get wonky again in another six months, you know exactly what to do to set 'em right once more.


Previous post     
     Next post
     Blog home

The Wall

No comments
You need to sign in to comment