unlock moto g31 without resetting

cisko65

Hi
I changed the pin number with a a pattern in my moto g31 and I immediately forgot it. 
Is there a way to unlock the smartphone without resetting?
Some websites suggest drfone but it seems you need to reset. 
Theunlockcode.net website suggests to do it via an IMEI number but I've no idea what that is and how safe/reliable it is.
Suggestions?
Thanks so much.
In case you didn't get it already, I'm not an expert...

flaneurs_lobster

You might be confusing unlocking your phone from a particular network so that you can use any carrier's sim card (what theunlockcode claims to do) and removing the screen lock (what drfone says it can do but just seems to be a variation on resetting your phone). You seems to be referring to a screen lock.

As long as your phone is backed up to your Google account then you might find that resetting it, restoring from backup and reentering app logins might be the easiest way forward. What you will probably lose are SMS messages. Whatsapp messages can be restored if they were set to backup to the cloud. 

Hacking around the screen lock is supposed to be really hard.

cisko65

flaneurs_lobster said:

You might be confusing unlocking your phone from a particular network so that you can use any carrier's sim card (what theunlockcode claims to do) and removing the screen lock (what drfone says it can do but just seems to be a variation on resetting your phone). You seems to be referring to a screen lock.

As long as your phone is backed up to your Google account then you might find that resetting it, restoring from backup and reentering app logins might be the easiest way forward. What you will probably lose are SMS messages. Whatsapp messages can be restored if they were set to backup to the cloud. 

Hacking around the screen lock is supposed to be really hard.

Thanks, you are right, I meant screen lock!

I was hoping it could be done quite easily and without resetting, as in my older phone.

Thanks again.

flaneurs_lobster

What was your older phone and how did you unlock it?

cisko65

It was a moto g5. I could unlock the screen through a pattern and my fingerprint so it was easy to do in case I forgot the pattern. 

Regarding my new phone... I went back to the factory resetting and then recovered most of my data as they had been backed up It took ages.