Various users reporting the same issue:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=460c4539746cc2f0&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Mobile/thread?tid=4e003deb5f53f480&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=208652d34b3e3b21&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=3d87d37385f65ef5&fid=3d87d37385f65ef500046295806f145e&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=0258e1b06fabb847&hl=en

I would like the priority to be raised to critical, my phone (and several others) is
completely unusable and needs to be reset to factory default (losing all my contacts,
apps, settings, texts).

Have this issue as well, all attempts to recover failed (changing password to google
account, rebooting multiple times, trying different kinds of login i.e.
'username@gmail.com', just 'username', etc). It looks like phone doesn't make any
attempt to connect to the network (which is inside valid 3D zone), as "Invalid
username or password" is displayed straight away, without any visible delay. Judging
from the code, it might fail even before establishing connection, i.e. by fail to
retrieve IAccountsService interface (AccountUnlockScreen.java).
I also vote to raise this bug priority to critical, as the only available currently
workaround to perform factory reset leads to user's data loss (important notes in my
case).

I also had this issue with my TMobile myTouch phone.  My kids locked me out and I
could not log back in and had to do a reset of the phone.

I use my own domain with google apps so I suspect this may have been key to the issue
of not allowing me to log back in.  Perhaps it expects only @gmail.com accounts?

I'm using the default G-Mail and the problem happens for me too, it's not related to
google apps.

This exact thing happened to me. The email address and password I was using were
correct as I was still able to use the to log in on my laptop. If you search the
problem on the internet you will find forums and blogs where many people have had
this problem. Seems like a pretty big flaw on the phone to me. 

In the end I had to do a factory reset. There is no way I am putting pattern unlock
back on my phone until this problem is fixed which means I risk my phone being
unlocked by accident in my bag etc.

This also happened to me

I, like woeterman, would like to see this marked critical, since it's definitely a 
critical bug. Even though some, like me, have most data stored only, you can still 
loose huge amounts of work on a bug like this.

Experienced the same issue since a few hours with my G1.
It says username and/or password are invalid. But they're correct.

-----
Tried fixes:
-----
- everything woeterman did
- unlocking when connected via G3
- unlocking when connected via WiFi

-----
I (seemingly) went about with my pants doing some pattern dance, finaly locking it, 
unable to unlock with my google account. Have tried the above mentioned. A few months 
ago this feature worked fine.

If related .. yesterday i installed an (dutch) Android update TMobile pushed to my 
phone. The more info button said "Andoid 1.5 RC-something".

Indeed, please mark as critical.
To anyone having this issue: you should "Star" it at the top of this page in order to 
attain the solution.

I did a factory reset (hold Home on powerup) and can not replicate the error.

Lost all historical data (apps, wifi settings, configuration, dial history) on the 
device and thus only see the factory reset as a workaround, the problem at hand was not 
resolved.

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Thank you, I was nearly losing hope Google takes things serious.
Hope you can find a fix soon!

This is ridiculous. This bug has been out there forever and no one has fixed it yet?
I am waiting till tomorrow before I do the factory reset but have next to no hope
anything else will work. This seems to be a fairly intermittent issue as one of the
support guys at MobileDefense.com couldn't duplicate the issue on his phones. All I
know is when I type in my full gmail address and correct password it doesn't even
appear to hit the network. It just immediately tells me it is invalid. Not real happy
here.

I'm totally screwed as well. I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to log in 
after messing up the pattern too much and now I am in the same exact boat and furious.  
I don't know what to do other than reset and redo EVERY GODDAMN THING!!

i just happen to experience the same thing today.....

Addition to my previous posts: I now beleive i had `Android 1.5 CRC37`.

Could this (at least technically) be induced by a 3th-party app?
Apps i (definitely) had on the device at that time: AndFTP, Wheres My Droid , 
ConnectBot, VoiceRecorder, Barcode Scanner, Labyrinth Lite, Slashdot Reader, 
PointHome, Speedtest, Teletekst, Find My Friends, Ruler, Compass, My Maps Editor, 
ShowWayBack, android-vnc-viewer, nu, Linda File Manager, Stopwatch, Shazam, Ultimate 
Stopwatch, Gmote 2.0, SMS Backup, System Monitor, MotherTED, Robo Defense FREE, 
Transdroid, Xtremelabs Speedtest, ShareMyApps, Twidroid
Perhaps the updated my device got pushed didn't fare to well with one of those..

 Issue 3236  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 3567  has been merged into this issue.

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Just for reference, the login/password info that is used to unlock the phone in that
case is the original email address (case sensitive) and the original password that
were used to originally register the phone.

To the people who have been having this issue, is there any possibility that any of
the following could have happened at any point during the life of the device?

-you created an account when you originally registered the phone (i.e. you didn't use
an existing account), or

-you used a non-Gmail account to register the phone, or

-you swapped SIMs or ran the phone without a SIM, or

-you changed your password, or

-you did anything related to your accounts (e.g. using different accounts for
youtube, market, checkout), or

-you had to re-type your password at some point after a sync failed because of a
faulty network connection?

Thanks,
JBQ

I ran into the same problem today. I used my gmail address and password when I set up
the phone. It does not work to unlock my phone.

I never swapped SIMs or ran the phone without a SIM

My password has not changed.

Did not do anything with my accounts.

Never had to re-type passsword after a failed sync (no failed syncs)

Regarding comment 21:

No, I've simply logged into my google account on startup and never bothered with it
again. Sync always worked perfectly and I never changed my password (or anything else
in my account) of my google account.

Regarding all your questions: no.

Thanks for the quick information. This is tracked inside Google as bug 1565391.

Well i had registered the phone with a different account (not gmail)
but the e-mail was created through Google.
I have tried everything now, and I do not really want to use the master reset

I have had the same problem but i did find a temporary work around. I would touch the
password box so my better keyboard would pop up, i then would hold down the ?123
button and open the better android settings, after that i opened the emergency
dialer. while i was in the emergency dialer i repeatedly tapped the home and menu
button(this takes a while) you will then catch a glimpse of your home screen. When
that happens you need to open the physical keyboard and then continue tapping the
home and menu and it should pop you in.(its very tricky but it does work) After that
i disabled the lock pattern and now the only way for me to pass the too many pattern
attempts lock screen is to open the physical keyboard. I do not want to do a factory
reset but I'm getting tired of having to open my physical keyboard every time i want
to check/use my phone.

Hi, I had this problem yesterday and finally resolved it without hard reseting the 
phone. (with samsung galaxy)
During the call, I pressed the home touch, then went to the parameters and security.
I disabled the pattern locking... and hang off.
After that... the phone was still locked asking me to log in with google account, 
BUT if I press again unlock button I finaly unlock the phone.
When the phone is lock, I still have this 'strange' log in things but just disappear 
and let me use my phone in a normal way when I click again on the unlock button.
Hope it will help.

Hi, I tried techniques from comment 26 and 27 but none was working for me. But then
when I was really desperate I tried to combine them. During a call I tried to open
and close keyboard in rapid succession and I hit home button in meanwhile. And
suddenly I am looking on unlocked home screen. So I disabled gesture lock in
settings. Then I had sync error message in notification bar, which probably was
because as I was trying to unlock phone I changed my password for google account. So
I entered new password to sync error window and telephone resumed syncing. Then when
I locked phone 'too many attempts' screen showed again, but now my new password from
google account finally worked. Heureka! I dodged erasing phone. Blessed be the bug
that allowed me to do this.

RE @JBQ comment 21

-you created an account when you originally registered the phone (i.e. you didn't use
an existing account), or
Negative.

-you used a non-Gmail account to register the phone, or
Negative.

-you swapped SIMs or ran the phone without a SIM, or
Negative.

-you changed your password, or
Positive, happened months before: unlock-by-account worked fine.

-you did anything related to your accounts (e.g. using different accounts for
youtube, market, checkout), or
Positive, my youtube account has a different username: they are linked however.

-you had to re-type your password at some point after a sync failed because of a
faulty network connection?
Negative, 95% sure.

re: comment 21
I rather add my answers to questions.

-you created an account when you originally registered the phone (i.e. you didn't use
an existing account), or
Negative.

-you used a non-Gmail account to register the phone, or
Negative.

-you swapped SIMs or ran the phone without a SIM, or
Negative.

-you changed your password, or
I didn't change it prior to situation when my credentials stopped to work at "too
many attempts screen". 

-you did anything related to your accounts (e.g. using different accounts for
youtube, market, checkout), or
I registered in google checkout. 

-you had to re-type your password at some point after a sync failed because of a
faulty network connection?
I did see it for the first time when I changed the password as an attempt to solve
the problem with not working "too many attempts" screen. Which seems as correct 
behaviour to me.

re:comment 28 

that also fixed mine as well.. if users can change there password then get there
phone to re sync and add the new password. it will work on the too many pattern
attempts locked screen

we've made the following changes (that will be available in a future release) to mitigate this problem:
- clicking "forgot pattern" is no longer sticky; you can go back to trying your pattern.  that should prevent folks to getting into 
the "too many pattern attempts" state forever without actually entering the incorrect pattern 30 times
- the google account check now falls back on an online check against the current password (as opposed to the current local 
hash comparison). that way, even if you have forgotten you password, you can reset it online and then enter the matching 
password on your device.  this will also mitigate the case where the check against a stored hash of the "i swear it is correct" 
password fails

Great!

And what are people (including me) getting who lost a lot of business data because of
this?

Thanks for taking care of this.

I don't mean to sound critical, but please could also take this opportunity to make 
process improvements to your bug triage mechanism? An issue this critical should not 
have taken three months to resolve.

We had indeed fallen far behind on the bug triage, and we're looking for ways to better handle the volume of 
reports in the public bug database (we've already implemented some improvements). There's a large backlog to 
catch up with, so a full solution can't happen overnight, but things are likely to improve from here.

When is this update supposed to be pushed out? Would like to know so that I can turn my screen lock 
back on.

Cheers,

Joe

When is this update supposed to be pushed out? Would like to know so that I can turn my screen lock 
back on.

Cheers

When is this update supposed to be pushed out? Would like to know so that I can turn my screen lock 
back on.

Cheers

I can't believe you've closed this bug without a walkaround solution for mobiles
already blocked. How are we supposed to update if we cannot do anything but answer
phone calls?

I've tried #28 way and it doesn't work on vodafone htc magic (with default software:
1.5).
How am I supposed to recover my sms with important bussiness data on them?
I cannot turn back to factory settings without losing very important information.

#38: I do not know the schedule for the update that will have a fix for this (or for any other update for that 
matter)

#39: Very unfortunately I don't know of any immediate workaround.

 Issue 3795  has been merged into this issue.

Could someone of Google answer my question?
What kind of indemnification are the people affected going to receive?

The same happend to me as well. 

#21:
-you swapped SIMs or ran the phone without a SIM, or
yes, I swapped the sims

In addition, I deleted my own entry from the contact list and replaced it by a new
one. I did this again after the factory reset, plus I put in my old sim to get my
contacts back, which were lost due to the reset. After I got them, I put in my normal
sim. Right after the first reboot, android told me the password for my google account
was wrong and asked me to type it in again, what I did. The phone must have discarded
it, because I had entered it already when I started the android market app after the
reset using my normal sim. 
Who knows... maybe this helps to find whatever causes the problem.
 

#43: Google contacts are stored online, why would you have to re-add them via SIM?

#32: Thanks Google guys! Also signing #36 and #39.

#42: Android itself is free. Ask the shop you bought it (or cell provider) if you
believe they failed to deliver the experience they sketched via sale arguments.

I am truly disappointed by this. My new HTC Hero phone has locked me out completely.
With all my data inside :( If I d a factory reset I lose all my data. Not such a
smart phone after all...

I am truly dissapointed with this phone, my network provider for agreeing to market 
such as shoddy set-up but most of all your recommended solutions.  With all the 
techno goods that invented these phone why on earth can you not come up with a 
solution if comment 28 does not work for me.

(No comment was entered for this change.)

The cartoonist Randall Munroe has found a workaround; it's at the bottom of this
page: http://blag.xkcd.com/2009/09/12/i-need-g1-tech-support/

Hi guys

I have the same problem but slightly different.

I have a HTC HERO phone, when I first started the phone, the phone wizard asked me to
setup a google account. Which I did. I created the account as requested and never
used it since, so I have no idea what it is. Is there any way I can find out what
account is registered to my phone? Then I can follow the procedure to enter my
username and password.

The data on my phone is critical to me. 

I need help please

Kind Regards

Chaz 

I am also in need of a solution to unlock my HTC HERO. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

This just hit me last night with my MyTouch.  Is there a workaround for MyTouch?  

My G1 Android locked up on me due to this same issue.  I don't want to do a hard
reset.  Apparently there is no other solution?  Major FAIL for Google. Regretting
buying a G1.

So far I was unable to get the suggestions in comments 26-28 to work on my G1. 
I can't believe I've got to wipe my phone just because a two year old poked at the 
screen for a few minutes.

Here's something that worked for a split second:

1. Click emergency call
2. Bring down the notification panel
3. Click on the sign-in error whilst frantically clicking the home button

It worked only once 

I have a locked HTC Magic. After failing the pattern I must log in to my Google
account which does not work. Hav had this account for years and years, so you bet I
know the pass word.

What now? Feel as if I can throw away the thing!

comment 48 worked wonderfully.

Bugs actually working in our favor.

If i knew the guy, i would buy him a drink.

-- Quote from 
http://blag.xkcd.com/2009/09/12/i-need-g1-tech-support/comment-page-2/#comment-32560


# Get someone to call you.
# After answering, flip the screen open and shut repeatedly, tapping the “home”
button every few flips.  Eventually you’ll drop through to your home screen.  This
may take a few tries.
# Go into your security settings and disable the unlock pattern.  You can now bypass
the lockout just by opening the keyboard.
# Change the password on your account, which may be your Google Apps account if you
have one.
# In a few moments, your phone will fail to sync with email and prompt you for a
password.  Enter the new password.
# You can now log in with the new password.  Lock your screen, press menu to try
unlocking it, and enter your new information.  This should unlock your phone.

Look here how to make a hard reset:
http://www.hardreset.eu/htc_magic_hard_reset_soft_reset_en.html

I will probably have lost all my apps, but luckly all my contacts are in Google already.

48 and 57: does the trick work for htc hero ?  i cant work it out :(

~HTC MAGIC SOLUTION~HTC MAGIC SOLUTION~HTC MAGIC SOLUTION~HTC MAGIC SOLUTION~

Hokay, just had this problem with my (Vodafone) HTC Magic (this should work with the
Hero too, but don't know for a fact). I found that 'machine gunning' the Home key
(the physical one with the house icon on), and then selecting the (on screen)
Emergency Dialer in a normal manner worked well.

Basically, do the above, and if you don't get the Home screen on any particular time,
revert back to the Username/Password screen and rinse and repeat the process until
you do. 

[Took me about 7 to 8 cycles of the above the first time, and about 12 when I
(riskily) did it again to "see how easy it was!" o.0 ]

[N.B. The Vodafone UK edition has a slightly compromised system, so it's possible
that if a processing delay makes it easier to "fall through" to the home screen, then
it's American counterpart could need a bit more button bashing. Maybe opening the
keyboard settings menu in the background would make this easier.]

At any rate, hope this helps. :)

My MyTouch is locked after my son played with the pattern lock. T-Mobile had me try
going to https://www.google.com/accounts/UnlockCaptcha? but that didn't work - as
it's been pointed out - the phone does not attempt to connect 3g or otherwise, it
comes back "invalid"
I've tried all of the suggestions, none have worked.
I didn't take out my simcard, my phone is a month old, I had a gmail account already
and sync works everytime, I changed my pwd, but never was prompted, I have played
Jewellust until 2am on many occassions... 
But none of these things have worked on the MyTouch... it's not something I "did" or
"didn't" do... it's a bug from Google that's been admitted but for some reason they
won't update. I refuse to do a factory reset - unless I sell the phone, which I'll do
if they don't put the fix in they've already come up with.
www.droiddoes.com ~ no it doesn't...

Same problem with my HTC Magic on SFR (France), I called the customer support and
they told me to do a reset... I lost some contacts, notes, addresses, passwords...
This is really unacceptable... I think I'll soon be switching to iphone :(

I had the same problem with the HTC Dream ... I was lucky enough to have the alert
icon in my notifications. while on a call I pulled down the notifications and clicked
the alert which was a authentication error. I assuming on the basis of being
connected it actually checked with Google to validate my password and let me in. The
key to this solution being the alert icon in the notifications list.

I need data on the phone. It's astonishing that I'm locked out of my own phone,
especially when I enter my own email and password as prompted. Why would a programmer
create an option which appears to be a dead-end? These prompts do nothing! Phone does
not even attempt to connect to the internet. Avoid this phone (HTC Hero).

comment 48 with the link works. Call yourself from another phone, flip the phone open
and closed and tap the home button every few times. Then go the security settings and
disable phone lock, there are a few more points. Look comment 48

(Htc magic), Have had this phone is feb 09, since the other day have never had a
major problem apart from the old freeze here and there. Which you get with most smart
phones, so fair enough. 

I woke up to find that i have been locked out of my own phone its very annoying to
find out that such a greatly designed phone has such a bug that lets it down overall,
i have confirmed that i have the correct login/password as i have accesed my google
account on my pc. To find out that i'm not the only person with this problem by
researching for the last couple of days , this is a major problem that HTC support
team should been on top of a long time and if this how they wish to treat their
customers, i may have to leave vodafone and move to o2 to use the iphone which i have
been against from the start. As i use this phone for a business it is fustrating that
all my contacts,notes, address etc could be erased if i factory reset my phone but if
this is the only soloution which other options are available to me ? I see a great
number of people trying to help but all advance technical members of vodaphone and
htc support team are no where to be found, and if they have posted something, they
have just copied from other posts that have been there before hand. HTC SHOULD OFFER
SOME TYPE OF REMORSE TO ALL US CUSTOMERS OR RELEASE A SOLUTION VERY.SOON.

(Htc magic), Have had this phone is feb 09, since the other day have never had a
major problem apart from the old freeze here and there. Which you get with most smart
phones, so fair enough. 

I woke up to find that i have been locked out of my own phone its very annoying to
find out that such a greatly designed phone has such a bug that lets it down overall,
i have confirmed that i have the correct login/password as i have accesed my google
account on my pc. To find out that i'm not the only person with this problem by
researching for the last couple of days , this is a major problem that HTC support
team should been on top of a long time and if this how they wish to treat their
customers, i may have to leave vodafone and move to o2 to use the iphone which i have
been against from the start. As i use this phone for a business it is fustrating that
all my contacts,notes, address etc could be erased if i factory reset my phone but if
this is the only soloution which other options are available to me ? I see a great
number of people trying to help but all advance technical members of vodaphone and
htc support team are no where to be found, and if they have posted something, they
have just copied from other posts that have been there before hand. HTC SHOULD OFFER
SOME TYPE OF REMORSE TO ALL US CUSTOMERS OR RELEASE A SOLUTION VERY.SOON.

I set a screen lock on my phone ages ago but did not like it so turned the feature
off.  Over the weekend I found out that I had been calling people by accident when
the phone (Vodafone HTC Magic) was in my pocket so decided to reinstate the screen lock:

1. I ticked the 'use screenlock' option.
2. I selected the option to set a new pattern.
3. I couldn't change my pattern because I had to enter my old pattern which I could
not remember.
4. I looked on the internet and found out there was an option to change the pattern
once the phone is locked.  I did not like the sound of this so decided to turn the
pattern back off.
5. I unticked the 'use screenlock' option except I couldn't because I had to enter my
pattern first (which I still could not remember).
6. So now I am worried because I can't let my phone go to sleep.  So I desperately
search the internet for a way to turn it off.
7. The only hope is that if you get the pattern wrong there is an option to use the
Google account. Phew, I think.
8. I hit the red button twice to sleep and reawaken the phone.
9. I enter the pattern wrongly and get the option to enter my Google account.
10. The Google account does not work despite me being 100% sure I have the correct
username and password.
11. I try just the username, I try username@googlemail.co.uk,
username@googlemail.com, username@gmail.co.uk, username@gmail.com to no avail.
12. I try uppercase password, still no luck.
13. I turn to the internet and find I am one of many in the same situation.  This is
unbelievable especially as I had my Donut upgrade at the weekend.
14. I have tried the manic home bashing suggested above, I have tried Daly Thompson's
Decathalon on the Home and Menu keys but nothing does anything.  I have tried putting
calls on hold, tried pulling the status bar down.  Nothing works.

As a follow up to my previous post #68, I used #58 to reset the phone.  This was
actually a lot less painful than I was expecting as the contacts are synched with
Google and the contents of the SD were not deleted.  Even reinstalling apps was not
too bad as the Downloads page in the Market is obviously synched too so it was just a
case of installing everything I wanted from the list.

I completely refuse to factory reset my phone. Google, this is completely 
unacceptable. I freaking loved this phone (Mytouch 3G) to death until last night 
when this happened. There is unrecoverable information that I couldn't even begin to 
put a price on in my phone and I know others feel my pain. I'm going to wait this 
one out as long as I can (only being able to recieve calls and not a damn thing 
else). All the faith and trust I had in Android was shattered when I went online to 
find a solution and found there was none. (G1 users, I'm so jealous you have found a 
way to get around this). A software update obviously won't help out our situation 
since we wouldn't be able to update. There HAS to be a solution.

I DID IT! MYTOUCH USERS! OR HERO OR MAGIC OR WHATEVER ITS CALLED EVERYWHERE ELSE, I 
DID IT!

thank the lord. the hyper repetitive pressing of the home screen method works! 
believe it! just do it until it works! heres exactly what I did:

-press the password text field to bring up the keyboard.
-long press the ?123 button and select android keyboard settings (or whatever it 
says) (not input method) (this won't bring up anything visible except for when the 
onscreen keyboard moves up from the bottom of the screen, you'll see the options for 
a second but this probably doesnt matter... i'm just telling you what i did.)
-press the emergency dialer NOT when its at the bottom of the screen but after it 
moves up to the middle of the screen above the keyboard.
-as your pressing the emergency dialer on screen, RAPIDLY press the home (house) 
button REPEATEDLY, literally as fast as you can.

i kid you not, i tried doing it with the emergency dialer while it was at the bottom 
of the screen and when i tried it this way it worked the SECOND TIME.

if it doesnt work, JUST KEEP TRYING. i promise you not only does it work, its your 
ONLY CHOICE.

lol  it works
just like he said

with both hands, repeatedly press home and emergency dialer.

lol  it works
just like he said

with both hands, repeatedly press home and emergency dialer.

If your phone is rooted then install the Android SDK and do the following:

> ./adb shell
# sqlite3 data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
sqlite> .exit
# exit

The above commands will connect to your settings-database and then disable the
autolock as well as reset the permanent lock.

Originally found here:
http://www.naschenweng.info/2009/09/17/android-too-many-pattern-attempts-phone-is-locked

Wow... this is some total backwards crap here. I had much higher expectations of
Google than this. Of course, there are bugs - especially in an emerging platform such
as Android. But, to have a rather CRITICAL bug like this come out and then do nothing
about it except - Oh, it's fixed in the next release. And just out of curiosity -
WHEN IS THAT RELEASE COMING OUT? That statement was made 4 months ago... Even apple
has fixed their bugs in Snow Leopard in that amount of time... How many releases has
Microsoft made in that amount of time? I don't even want to compare how quickly any
other OPEN SOURCE company releases updates... 

If you're not going to fix it, then let the community... Cyanogen could have handled
this crap ages ago... but, no - you had to send off a Cease and Desist. 

Get with it Google, this is straight bull $h!t... 

I agree with Daniel, leaving a critical bug in, not providing any workarounds or
compensation for those losing all their data.

This is extremely pathetic and Google lost all the respect they earned from me.

last week was annoying for me. firstly, y lost all the data storaged on SD. yesterday, 
astrid app stopped working with aaaaaaall my tasks inside. now, this problem with the 
pattern. 
all this is happening since i had the first of a repetitive error: 
"Android.process.acore has stopped unexpectedly" comment #71 works... but i really 
think i'm going hard resetting my phone (htc magic)
i'm truly disappointed...

Same problem here with Samsung i5700 Spica, Android 1.5

It is interesting, that after wipe this problem does not appear again...

Agreed - Google please reopen this issue up.  The priority needs to be critical, and 
the fix needs to be done for all Android OS's.  I just got a Droid and am alarmed that 
this has not been fixed.  I've tried doing the unlock using my google account thing and 
that's how I got to this page.  This is bad bad bad especially as Google and Verizon 
and Motorola are trying to advertise the Droid as the iPhone killer.  One or all three 
of the companies need to put some man-power on this issue and answer these concerns.  

I agree with #79 (minyangmao). #32 is a band-aid solution and not a permanent fix.
Please give users choice to use this magic pattern permanent lockout option or good
old enter secret pin option. In #32 have you thought of a case, what if user is in an
area where there is no Data plan (internet) available for my phone to connect to
Google Servers? Very disappointing.

I agree with #80 (prateek.arora).  The secret PIN option would be most welcome.  I 
miss my iTouch because of this.  We are all trained to remember 4 digit PINs, and 
it's quite easy to enter on the fly.  The pattern lock is a cool thing at first, but 
ends up being unwieldy and impractical.  I first did a very easy pattern lock pattern 
but my friend guessed what it was on the first try!  I then did an incredibly hard 
pattern lock pattern that 1) I was afraid of forgetting and 2) could never enter 
accurately while I was walking places (e.g. trying to make a call, etc).  The pattern 
lock just feels less secure than 4-digit PIN.  Please bring it back as an option for 
locking my data.  I feel very uncomfortable walking around with a phone full of 
sensitive data that is not secured in some way.  Thank you.  

Another forum for this issue is here:

http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/15918-major-flaw-pattern-lock-how-brick-your-
droid.html

Does anyone know how to ask Google to re-open this issue?

Readers of this thread, please subscribe and comment on a new Issue Thread I created so 
that we can get Google's attention on this SAME issue that persists for the Motorola 
Droid without resolution.  Make some noise!

New Issue Thread:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4784

Wow, Mytouch users do #72, basically button mash the emergency dialer button and the 
home button. And Voila! home screen.

Motorola Droid user here who has encountered this problem. Apparently it carried over
from Donut to Eclair. I only have one google account on the phone and a facebook
using the same email and password. I haven't changed my password in years. I know for
a fact that my username and password are correct. I can log in a million times
online. I cannot login to my Droid after incorrect pattern attempts. It seems as
though it doesn't even check to verify my password. It IMMEDIATELY says invalid
username/password. I highly doubt it communicated with any kind of server at all.
Please fix this as soon as possible. I consider this a deal breaker for the phone and
am seriously considering bringing it back before my 30 days are up. 

Still not fixed in 2.0?!? Well, I'm going back to Windows Mobile :))

By the way I've found another bug. It may help you when your phone gets locked out
forever. http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4698

Lol @ David.jirovec;  Posters please add your thoughts to the new Issue 4784 I created 
to raise Google's awareness of this issue, it is basically a revival of this issue 
because Google "closed" this issue already:

New Issue Thread:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4784

Cannot believe this bug has been in several android releases (literally can't believe, 
is it true?). I have fallen victim to it, and have just reset to factory. Woe is me.

yes scottah, unbelievable is the right word for it... please add your story of woe to 
new Issue 4784 I created to raise Google's awareness of this issue, it is basically a 
revival of this issue because Google "closed" this issue already:

New Issue Thread:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4784