Following the changes Google has made in Android 17, Samsung’s next major One UI update also implements much stricter lockdown restrictions, including permanently locking a Galaxy device after 13 failed unlock attempts.
Earlier this year, Google announced that Android 17 would “significantly” reduce the number of unlock attempts someone would be able to make on an Android device.
This is a protection against brute-forcing the unlock of a device, and it also results in longer wait times between guesses as the number of unlock attempts goes up. There’s a hard cap of 20 failed attempts, but it’s not easy to hit that number by accident. Duplicate guesses won’t count, and the limit of guesses is based on periods of time – six in the first minute, seven in the first six minutes, eight in the first 25 minutes, 12 in the first 24 hours, and 19 incorrect guesses over five years.
Samsung has tweaked Google’s policy slightly in One UI 9, its own Android update for Galaxy devices.
As detailed on a support page, One UI 9 allows just five failed attempts in one minute, increasing the number of failed attempts and the lockout duration as failures continue. There are on-screen notices as each lockout occurs, but the cap is 13 failed attempts. At that point, the Galaxy device is permanently locked and requires a factory reset.
