2

I'm sending my (unrooted) nexus s off repair under under warranty, and was just wondering if there any precautions I can take to limit the amount of personal info on the device, lest the engineers take a look through my contacts/emails etc.? (ideally without resetting phone to factory defaults)

Main ideas I've had so far are:

  • Associating the phone with a brand new google account and deleting the old ones
  • Moving all sd card content to computer
  • Clearing caches
Matt
  • 123
  • 1
  • 4

2 Answers2

2

Resetting the phone to factory settings (Menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset) and wiping the microSD card (after backing up its contents) should be all that's needed.

Factory reset dis-associates the phone from your Google account, removes any custom apps (installed on internal memory) with their data, and clears all the caches.

[Edit]
P.S. There is a good chance that the manufacturer (Samsung in your case) or whoever you are sending your phone to for repairs might send you a different handset. Depending on their service terms, they may simply ship you a brand new Nexus S, or even a refurb. So jumping through hoops to leave your installed apps intact might be a waste of time.

Chahk
  • 19,505
  • 3
  • 56
  • 80
1

Basically, it looks like you want to clear everything except your apps. Is that right? If so, I'd just use something like App Manager to back them all up, and then do a factory reset. If you back them up to the SD card they should be safe, but you can always copy the backup to your computer.

Matthew Read
  • 50,567
  • 30
  • 145
  • 273