Google Smart Lock is a readily available service on all Android devices. Besides being the main Auto-fill service for Chrome and third-party apps, it also allows you to unlock a variety of nearby devices or to keep your phone unlocked. If you have enabled Google Smart Lock and want to delete a password or remove the device or want to disable it completely — it can be done. Learn below how to remove or delete Google Smart Lock in different categories that this service offers.
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How to remove Google Smart Lock?
Google Smart Lock is an essential system service and can’t be removed completely. However, you can undo everything Smart Lock does and disable all important features. You just need to take some time and find all the necessary settings to effectively turn off Smart Lock on your Android phone or Chrome.
1. Turn off Smart Lock for devices
Google Smart Lock allows you to keep your Android unlocked under certain terms. Currently, you can keep your phone unlocked when moving with the On-body detection, while at a certain location (e.g. at home or work), or when connected to a certain device via Bluetooth. Of course, you can add and remove places and devices as you please, and all of that is done in Smart Lock settings. These settings are usually in system settings — under Security or, in some cases, Lock Screen settings.
Here’s how to turn off Smart Lock for devices and places, or disable On-body detection on your Android:
- Open Settings.
- Select Security or Lock Screen. It’s one of the two on the vast majority of Android handsets.
- Choose Smart Lock.
- Enter your PIN/password/pattern.
- After that, select the option you want to disable and just remove the device or the place. To do so, just expand either Trusted places or Trusted devices, select the device, and tap Turn off this location or tap Remove for devices.
- Open and disable On-body detection if you don’t want it anymore.
In addition, Smart Lock can be used to unlock Chromebooks with Bluetooth. You can disable that on Chromebook. Just search for Smart Lock in Settings and disable the option.
2. Delete Smart Lock for apps
Smart Lock is also the default auto-fill service for Android apps. It keeps login credentials for a lot of apps and you usually get a prompt after you sign in for the first time. The extension of this service is available in Chrome for website logins making it a multiplatform password-managing solution. But what if you want to delete or update a certain password? Or what if you want to turn off Smart Lock auto-fill completely? It can be done within settings.
Here’s how to delete or update app passwords saved in Smart Lock:
- Navigate to Password Manager.
- Locate the app or website that you want to delete or edit. You might get the prompt to type in your Google Account password.
- Tap Edit and change either your password or email/login name.
- Or tap Delete to delete the password.
- Also, if you go back and tap on the cog icon, you can see a few settings. Disabling Offer to save passwords will relieve you of prompts and disabling Auto sign-in will prevent autofill.
And this is how to disable Smart Lock completely on your Android:
- Open Settings.
- Select Google.
- Choose Autofill.
- Select Autofill with Google.
- Disable the option.
3. Disable Smart Lock for Chrome
Finally, you can do the same for Google Chrome. Besides updating/editing or deleting login credentials, you can disable autofill completely and you won’t need to worry about it anymore. If you still get login credentials fields filled up automatically, make sure to clear the site data.
Here’s how to disable Smart Lock for Chrome on Android:
- Open Chrome.
- Tap on the 3-dots menu and select Settings.
- Choose Passwords. There you can delete or edit passwords or disable Auto-fill and Offer to save prompts.
And that’s a wrap. Thank you for reading and feel free to share your thoughts with us. Do you find Smart Lock helpful or unnecessary because you rely on different services? Tell us in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in May 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
