New issue with unlocking my Samsung phone via phone link app on PC

What I didn't finish in the previous post is that the phone screen popup is fully functional on my PC. I can click mirrored phone icons with the mouse (or my fingers -- my PC has a touch screen.) and the phone app opens on my PC. I can cut and past to and from the phone. Because my PC has a touch screen, I can actually swipe the phone screen. It's just like my phone is part of the PC. Actually, it's a much better UI than Phone Link ever provided. I'm happy.

(Also, because I enabled the Stay Awake option {...Developer Options->Stay Awake}, the phone screen is accessible from the PC as long as I have it plugged in to its charging station -- which lives across the room and away from where I work at my PC. No need to go get the phone and unlock it because the Stay Awake option keeps the phone unlocked as long as it is charging. FINALLY!)

I discovered a new way to access your phone from your PC. This post is very off topic because the solution does not use Microsoft Phone Link in any way. I'll outline what you need to do to make this work, but you'll almost definitely need to do web-searches to accomplish each step.

The solution involves "mirroring" your phone's display onto your PC using a PC app called SCRCPY. Here is a link where you can download SCRCPY to your PC.

Before you download and launch SCRCPY, you need to install the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) on your PC and enable wireless Debugging on your phone.

Here's a link for downloading ADB to your PC.

To enable wireless Debugging on your phone, you must first enable Developer Options under Settings->System. Do a web-search to find out how to enable Developer Options. Once enabled, do this:

1. Settings->System->Developer Options->Stay Awake
2. Settings->System->Developer Options->USB Debugging
3. Settings->System->Developer Options->Wireless Debugging

Now that you've got the phone and PC setup with ADB, SCRCPY, and Wireless Debugging, you need to use ADB to connect your PC to your phone. The ADB download link has an extensive set of instructions about how to accomplish the connection. You have to read that and make it happen.

Also, you'll need the IP address of your phone. I forced my home network router to always assign my phone to IP address 192.168.1.99

I created a .bat file on my PC that makes the PC to phone ADB connection and launches SCRCPY. Here's what's in the .bat file I launch from Windows Explorer on my PC:

adb kill-serveradb start-server

REM Add your device's IP address on the line below if you want to auto-connect when you launch this fileset ip="192.168.1.99"if %ip% EQU "" set /p ip="Enter Android Device IP Address (eg. 192.168.1.43): "echo.echo Connecting adb over TCP/IP on IP: %ip%...adb connect %ip%:5555

scrcpy

Here's what pops up on my PC when I run the .bat file:

...

Set up a routine. I called mine "Unlock Device"

...

On your PC, open your notepad app and copy this line: curl -d "Device Unlocked" ntfy.sh/"NTFY Topic"

...

curl -d "Device Unlocked" ntfy.sh/"NTFY Topic"

SHOULD BE:

curl -d "Unlock Device" ntfy.sh/"the-topic-you-subscribed-to-in-the-ntfy-app"

To anyone still struggling with this, I found a cleaner (if tedious) setup. It does involve using Samsung routines. First, set up your "Extend Unlock" how you want, like if you're at home or simply connected to your PC.

On your phone, go to the Galaxy Store and download "Good Lock"

In "Good Lock," go to "Life Up" and download "Routines +"

Go to the Play Store and download an app called "NTFY"

Open "NTFY" and subscribe to a Topic. Essentially, this is just your own custom server name.

Set up a routine. I called mine "Unlock Device"

Add an "If" condition for Notification Received with a specific keyword. Set the keyword and specify that it's coming from the "NTFY" app

Add the following "Then" statements: 1 - Functions>Navigation button action>Home>Done; 2 - Advanced options>Wait before next action>1 second>Done; 3 - Good Lock>Touch macro>Add>OneUI Home>Create a macro where you swipe the screen>Done

Save your routine

On your PC, open your notepad app and copy this line: curl -d "Device Unlocked" ntfy.sh/"NTFY Topic"

"NTFY Topic" is the name of the server you made in the NTFY app on your phone

Save this as a .bat file

At this point, you can be done! Anytime you need to unlock your phone to use it from Phone Link, you can click on this .bat file to unlock your phone to the home screen before mirroring. You can also get a little more fancy like I did and download Bat to Exe converter to turn it into an executable that can be pinned to the Start menu and activated with 1 click.

That seems an even cleaner workaround than my solution. I was using Flow and Unison to send notifications to start and close Routines.

To anyone still struggling with this, I found a cleaner (if tedious) setup. It does involve using Samsung routines. First, set up your "Extend Unlock" how you want, like if you're at home or simply connected to your PC.

On your phone, go to the Galaxy Store and download "Good Lock"

In "Good Lock," go to "Life Up" and download "Routines +"

Go to the Play Store and download an app called "NTFY"

Open "NTFY" and subscribe to a Topic. Essentially, this is just your own custom server name.

Set up a routine. I called mine "Unlock Device"

Add an "If" condition for Notification Received with a specific keyword. Set the keyword and specify that it's coming from the "NTFY" app

Add the following "Then" statements: 1 - Functions>Navigation button action>Home>Done; 2 - Advanced options>Wait before next action>1 second>Done; 3 - Good Lock>Touch macro>Add>OneUI Home>Create a macro where you swipe the screen>Done

Save your routine

On your PC, open your notepad app and copy this line: curl -d "Device Unlocked" ntfy.sh/"NTFY Topic"

"NTFY Topic" is the name of the server you made in the NTFY app on your phone

Save this as a .bat file

At this point, you can be done! Anytime you need to unlock your phone to use it from Phone Link, you can click on this .bat file to unlock your phone to the home screen before mirroring. You can also get a little more fancy like I did and download Bat to Exe converter to turn it into an executable that can be pinned to the Start menu and activated with 1 click.