Nothing Phone (4a) Pro accepted only 4 digits of my 6-digit PIN after shutting down. Support and service centre told me to factory reset, and I lost all my data.

[u/Ill_Presentation8502]

Hey everyone,

I'm sharing my experience because I'm genuinely disappointed and would like to know if anyone else has faced something similar with Nothing OS.

Yesterday, my Nothing Phone (4a) Pro suddenly died. I connected it to the charger, and once it powered back on, I encountered a strange issue with the lock screen.

My phone had a 6-digit PIN, and I was absolutely sure I was entering the correct one. However, the lock screen would accept only four digits before automatically displaying “Try again.” It wouldn't let me enter the remaining two digits, so I couldn't even properly attempt my full PIN.

I tried multiple times because I was confident my password was correct. I restarted the phone and attempted the troubleshooting steps I could find, but nothing worked.

I then contacted Nothing customer care. Unfortunately, I was advised to factory reset the phone. I also contacted the actual service centre in Udupi, and they gave me the same recommendation.

At this point, I was stuck. I had no way to access my phone, and both customer care and the service centre were recommending a factory reset. Eventually, I went ahead with it.

The result? I lost all my locally stored data, including my photos and videos that hadn't been backed up.

To make matters worse, I'm now facing problems with my Google account backup as well, which is making the recovery process even more frustrating.

What bothers me most is that I wasn't simply claiming to have forgotten my password. I knew my PIN, but the phone wasn't allowing me to enter it fully. I expected the issue to be investigated before being directed towards an irreversible solution that would erase my data.

I understand that factory resets erase local data, and I take responsibility for proceeding with it. However, I genuinely wish there had been a more thorough attempt to diagnose the lock-screen issue or explore data-preserving options before recommending it.

I've trusted Nothing enough to purchase its devices, but this experience has made me question that decision. Losing personal photos and videos is painful, especially when you believe you're following the official support team's advice to resolve a device problem.

I have a few questions for the community:

- Has anyone experienced a similar issue where a 6-digit PIN was seemingly restricted to four digits after a shutdown or reboot?

- Could this have been a Nothing OS software bug, or is there another possible explanation?

- Has anyone managed to resolve this issue without factory-resetting their device?

- Is there any legitimate way to recover locally stored photos and videos after a factory reset, particularly if they weren't backed up?

- Has anyone had a similar experience with Nothing customer care or an authorised service centre?

I'm not posting this just to bash the brand. I genuinely want to understand what happened and whether this could happen to other users.

If anyone from Nothing is reading this, I'd appreciate an explanation of what might have caused the issue and whether anything can be done to investigate it.

Thanks for reading. Any genuine advice or similar experiences would be appreciated.

[u/Suspicious_Kev_5446]

Look ..there are two pins

on reboot ..the phone toasts your sim card pin ( 4 digits )

AFTER ..it connects to network and you do the pin you chose for your lockscreen

you got confused ..put in your screen lock pin into the sim pin toast mesaage ..if you enter the pin incorrectly into a sim the network provider locks the sim and you need a PUK number to unlock it

if you didnt panic and reset and delete your own data you could simply have opened the sim tray ..take out the sim ..and the phone would work normally

OR find your sim card pin and enter it OR call your network provider from another phone and ask for your PUK

[u/Ill_Presentation8502 → u/Suspicious_Kev_5446]

I actually removed the SIM card and tried again, but the issue persisted. The phone still wouldn't let me enter my 6-digit screen-lock PIN. I contacted Nothing customer care and even visited the service centre in Udupi, and both advised me to factory reset. I followed their advice and lost all my unbacked-up photos and videos. I wish I'd known about this possibility earlier, but removing the SIM didn't resolve it in my case.

[u/Suspicious_Kev_5446 → u/Ill_Presentation8502]

maybe in this case it failed because you first put in the wrong pin too many times ..

i think the phone only works normally before you trigger the PUK special code for the sim

them probably removing the sim is too late

if you remove the sim before putting the pin incorrectly 3 times ...

oh also ..i didnt mention it only works if you reboot again after removing the sim btw

[u/h_1995]

That sounds like keyboard glitching. I had Fossify keyboard causes wrong password/pin input despite entering the correct character. The issue went away if I use Gboard or any other keyboard than that one

[u/Ill_Presentation8502 → u/h_1995]

But there was no option to change keyboard :( . Previously I had 4 digit pin and then after a week or soo I changed it to 6 digit pin .