How to enable USB Debugging in Android if forgotten pattern for screen-unlock?

Note:

 that this method is tested on Stock Android 4.2.1 and Stock CM 12.0 (Android 5.0) , both devices having custom Recovery (ADB always enabled as default) . If your Stock Recovery allows ADB shell access then you may also consider this solution.

Instructions:

1. You should try your pattern-cracking software (or whatsoever the genre it has) from inside the Stock Recovery to see whether it works with the former's environment (ADB shell available there or not).
2. Since I would never try step 1., I would do the following:

   For Jellybean 4.2.1:

   1. Boot into Recovery and mount Data partition.
   2. Open a shell on PC and type:

      adb pull /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config ~/
      

      Repace ~/ with home directory of your OS.
   3. Open that file in a text editor and you would possibly see mtp written there. Change it to mtp,adb.
      Note that sometimes Android doesn't understand the text file changes if the line terminator is "DOS Terminators" which Notepad would probably do on Windows (mine is Linux so no issue here).
      In that case, I would suggest not using adb pull but doing:

      adb shell
      echo 'mtp,adb' > /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config
      

      You may verify that the echo command overwrote the file by using:

      adb pull /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config ~/
      

      and seeing the file's content in some text editor.
   4. Unmount Data and reboot into Android OS. USB Debugging would probably be enabled.

For Lollipop 5.0:

JB 4.2.1 users can also follow this method if the previous one didn't work for them.

1. Boot into Recovery and mount Data partition.
2. Repeat step 2 and 3 used in JB 4.2.1 method.
3. We need to tweak some parameters in settings.db. Type:

   adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db ~/
   

4. Back it up at some other location too, and open the file in an SQLITE editor. I'm running Linux and DB Browser for SQLite works well. It's also available for Windows OS/OSX.
5. In the global table, change the value for:
   • adb_enabled to 1
   • development_settings_enabled to 1
6. Check that verifier_verify_adb_installs is set to 1 in the global table.
7. Check that as default, in the secure table:
   • adb_notify is 1
   • adb_port is -1
   These checks in step 6 and 7 are not necessary but should be done so that troubleshooting becomes rather easy if the solution doesn't work for you.
8. Save the changes in settings.db and copy it back into Android by typing:

   adb shell 
   rm /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
   exit
   adb push ~/settings.db /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/
   

   That delete (rm) command is not necessary since adb push should overwrite the file, but I executed it for my peace of mind.
9. Unmount Data and reboot into Android OS. ADB probably would be enabled.

This is how it actually worked out when tested on my devices.

Author : Abdul Muizz

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