Random factory reset?

[Android Central Question]

I stuck my phone in a dash holder and for a minute and it flashed with red and white text that was too small to read, I was driving so couldn't even try. Next thing I see is the android symbol with a spinning section symbol and the word erasing below it. It was plugged in to car charger.

After it finally rebooted it had been factory reset and all info lost. Very annoying. Can anyone tell me what happened and how to avoid it? I've still not retrieved notes or pictures, but did recover contacts and SMS. Thanks in advance.

 

[mustang7757]

Which phone and android version?

I'll leave a Link to register so you can communicate here, As a guest account you can only post questions but can't reply
https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=409154

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Was it getting hot? Phones can get very hot in a car mount, especially during summer months. The combination of using navigation apps and the sun shining directly onto the phone can easily cause the phone to overheat. Normally, the phone should shut down automatically to protect itself, but perhaps something went wrong and it actually did a factory reset.

Another less likely possibility is that the mount might have done a combination button press that brought up the Recovery Menu, and you accidentally selected Wipe Data/Factory Reset there, although that requires confirmation at least once.