HTC One M8 still contains visible personal info after factory reset

[AC Question]

I have an HTC One M8 which I would like to sell (switched from Sprint to Project Fi). I performed a factory reset via the Settings menu. After that, I looked at the Settings/About/Phone Identity screen. Under username it stilled showed my blahblahblah@sprintpcs.com user name (containing my full last name and first letter of my first name). Under Phone Number, it still displayed my phone number (which came with me to Project Fi).

I called Sprint today and spent a couple hours on the phone with various people. The only suggestions presented were to

* delete my account on the Sprint website

* do a factory reset through the boot loader screen

Neither of those helped. The username and phone number remain, visible for all to see. Is there no way to truly wipe the phone clean?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Before doing the factory reset, did you go to Settings>Accounts-Google, select your Google account, tap Menu, then Remove Account? If you didn't, then each time you did the reset, it was probably considering it "unauthorized," which means it would ask you to enter your Google account and password immediately after the factory reset. I believe this means your account would still be on the phone.

 

[Skip Montanaro]

Thanks. So, can I conclude that if I add a Google account back to the phone, then delete it and finally factory reset it, the personal information will go poof?

 

[B. Diddy]

Are you saying that when you go to Settings>Accounts menu, you still see your Google account listed there?

The account information you're referring to might be from your SIM card, or from the provisioning of the phone by Sprint. What happens if you remove the SIM card?

 

[Skip Montanaro]

No, the SIM card is out. Settings>Account page is empty other than for the Sync parameter.

I know the pages vary somewhat across phones, Android versions, and carriers, but the stuff I'm referring to is on the Settings>About>Phone Identity page. There is a username which looks like a sprintpcs.com email address, the left-hand side based on my name. It doesn't resemble my Google account email address. There is also a phone number field which is my current phone number.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm afraid I don't know the finer details for this. I suspect that this information would change once the phone was reprovisioned by Sprint (if you sold the phone to someone else and they started using it on Sprint). Not sure what would happen if the phone were unlocked and used on a different network, but the Sprint M8 is pretty limited in terms of compatibility with other networks.

When you spoke with Sprint, did you ask them if reprovisioning the phone would change that information?

 

[Skip Montanaro]

I bought the phone from Swappa to replace one with a cracked screen. ISTR the phone had the previous owner's information as well. I'm pretty sure it would change for the next person to connect to the Sprint network.

It sounds like I'm just going to have to grin and bear it.