[noordzy77]

What are the necessary steps I need to take to clear my prime of all personal info for a warranty exchange?

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2

[Jonneh]

Did you root or anything? ASUS provided a factory reset option in the settings menu (or is that a stock ICS thing? Not sure), I think it's under "Backup and reset" --> "Factory data reset".

[Devinator]

Yea, a factory reset should do the trick.

And yes, versions of Android before ICS also had factory reset in the settings menu. At least the devices I've had my hands on did.

[Va1ha11a]

Yes, it was a stock feature. However many Rom developers removed it because it could cause a brick is used with a custom recovery.

[Devinator]

Really? It's more likely to brick when factory resetting that way? Is it safer to reset from the boot menu?

[Va1ha11a]

Really? It's more likely to brick when factory resetting that way? Is it safer to reset from the boot menu?

At least for the optimus, it causes a brick. Yes, reseting from the custom Recovery is safer (remember, with stock recovery, it doesn't matter how you wipe), though with some ROMs (like CM10 for the aforementioned optimus) JB is so big that some large apps such as the keyboard had to be moved to /Data/app. The problem with this is if you decide to wipe data before giving the phone to a less tech savy friend, he has no keyboard whatsoever (and you can't download one from the market because you can't search for it, and the same is true for downloading on from the internet).

[Devinator]

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for sharing that Val. That explains some things that happened in the past after doing a factory reset.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Android Central Forums

[SpikeJones]

I did something really dumb. I gave them my prime to exchange, and asked if I should factory reset it in front of them. (I didn't do it initially incase I had to test stuff for them.) The CS girl said no, and that geek squad would do it. I became paranoid, even though I had pattern lock, and then used gmail to sign out of every account. That was my only real personal information other than facebook, which I also remote logged out of. I really wish I had wiped it before though, just in case!

[Devinator]

I wouldn't really sweat it anyway. Unless you are doing banking or something really sensitive, it's not a big deal. I only use devices that are secure in my home to access things like online banking, just to be safe.

[Va1ha11a]

Plus, you would probably know if they had accessed your data, and if they did, it would be very bad for their business ,because then they would get a reputation for being untrustworthy.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Android Central Forums

[Devinator]

Well, the issue with sending products back to companies, is, lots of times they end up all across the world being turned into refurbs. So, if you return a hard drive without wiping it, it might end up in Taiwan to be processed for a refurb. Someone there could access your personal information and the manufacturer wouldn't be at fault. You'd never really be able to trace down the culprit.

[WasatchRocks]

Regardless of how much you log out of accounts and or delete data, ALWAYS run the factory reset before handing over any hardware.

Even trusted companies such as Best Buy have their bad days (or should we say, not so honest employees). Check this one out...

[Topgonzo]

Well I might be worried about the bank info and insurance I keep on my phone or the naked pics of my gf too.

Sent from my EVO 4G LTE

[Va1ha11a]

Well, the issue with sending products back to companies, is, lots of times they end up all across the world being turned into refurbs. So, if you return a hard drive without wiping it, it might end up in Taiwan to be processed for a refurb. Someone there could access your personal information and the manufacturer wouldn't be at fault. You'd never really be able to trace down the culprit.

Hadn't thought of that. You're right.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Android Central Forums