Getting a refurbished Thunderbolt- removing personal info

[iowaberg]

Verizon is sending me a replacement. They told me I just need to move my current SIM card and micro sd card to the replacment. What else should I make sure to do so I don't leave any personal info and data on the one I'm returning? Also, I've put as many apps on the sd card but what about the apps that can't move over? Will I just have to redownload those from the Market? Is there an easy way to know which ones those are?

Thanks for the input!

 

[blackjaguar25]

A good old factory reset should get most of the job done. There's other things you can do if you're rooted. If you're not rooted, if you go to the Android Market on a desktop, it'll show you all of the apps you've downloaded. If your gmail account backs up your phone, the apps should stay downloading immediately

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[defcon999]

Verizon is sending me a replacement. They told me I just need to move my current SIM card and micro sd card to the replacment. What else should I make sure to do so I don't leave any personal info and data on the one I'm returning? Also, I've put as many apps on the sd card but what about the apps that can't move over? Will I just have to redownload those from the Market? Is there an easy way to know which ones those are?

Thanks for the input!

If you are rooted, I would say to UNROOT your phone before you send it back.

As long as you use the same account name / email address on your replacement phone, all your apps should download automatically. If you have unlimted data, no worries on downloading, but if you want to save some data usage, use WiFi.

You can always do a MyBackUp or Titanium backup and that puts it on your SD Card and then just reinstall the program on your new phone and restore.

Doing a factory reset is a great idea but, also again, make sure you UNROOT if you are rooted. You can probably just download 605.9 RUU and install that and I hear that will take you too factory.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Yup...factory reset. If you want a really warm and fuzzy feeling, do it 2 or 3 times.

FYI, "moving apps to SD" is pretty worthless, unless I'm not understanding your complete meaning. If you're referring to going under "settings --> applications" and clicking on "Move to SD Card", then you're not really backing up your apps. You're simply instructing that app to use SD storage as opposed to internal storage while running on your phone. I believe* that if you were to switch phones or have to reset your current one, you'd still have to re-install those apps on the new phone, and would not be able to use the existing data on the SD card. To me, this is a feature that was once very necessary, but given the amount of internal storage present on today's devices, pretty useless now.

*I'm not 100% sure about this -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Jude526]

Once you get your replacement place the micro SD card and the SIM card in it. And the battery. Activate per instructions. Once you set your email up it will start backing everything up for you. Any apps that you have should appear under my apps in the market place. If you have to redownload it will remember and not charge you twice. Also any apps you have downloaded from Amazon are definitely saved. Its a minor in- convenience but it isn't that difficult.
Before you send back the defective device as mentioned you need to do a factory reset. That will remove everything.

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[droid77]

Yup...factory reset. If you want a really warm and fuzzy feeling, do it 2 or 3 times.

+1.

 

[mmontel]

I just got a refurbished replacement yesterday and it does NOT download your apps automatically. After you reset up your gmail account on the phone the market will show you which ones you purchased and lets you download again at no charge. But as for the others that were free, the market does not even keep a list of what apps you had installed previously. I was told all my apps would either be listed or download automatically by simply installing the SIM and SD card into my new phone but that was not the case. Maybe I missed a step? It certainly could be my error. All I know is I had to search for all my apps again and reload them.

Do make sure your contacts are backed up before changing phone with with backup assistant. That is easy to restore. Also do a factory reset on the phone you are returning.

Good luck with your phone. My "certified like new" replacement is being replaced. Phone worked great except no one could hear me talk but I could hear them. So much for like new.

 

[FrankXS]

I just got a refurbished replacement yesterday and it does NOT download your apps automatically. After you reset up your gmail account on the phone the market will show you which ones you purchased and lets you download again at no charge. But as for the others that were free, the market does not even keep a list of what apps you had installed previously. I was told all my apps would either be listed or download automatically by simply installing the SIM and SD card into my new phone but that was not the case. Maybe I missed a step? It certainly could be my error. All I know is I had to search for all my apps again and reload them.

Do make sure your contacts are backed up before changing phone with with backup assistant. That is easy to restore. Also do a factory reset on the phone you are returning.

Good luck with your phone. My "certified like new" replacement is being replaced. Phone worked great except no one could hear me talk but I could hear them. So much for like new.

What options did you have checked on this page?

-Frank

 

[mmontel]

I have Notifications and Auto Update Apps checked. What do you recommend?

Thanks
Marian

 

[FrankXS]

I have Notifications and Auto Update Apps checked. What do you recommend?

Thanks
Marian

I like mine set just as the screenshot I posted.

-Frank

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[paintdrinkingpete]

Actually, if you want Google to automatically restore your apps after a factory reset and/or device switch, I believe you need to have the following options set:

Settings --> Privacy --> Backup and Restore:
"Back up my settings" and "Automatic restore"

You'll want those settings present on your old phone, plus you'll want to allow those settings when you do the initial setup wizard on the new one. If you do that, it *should* automagically reinstall most of your apps for you, paid or free. There are some exceptions to this, however, as I've had some of my apps be missing after this process, and on rare occasions have it not work at all, but in most of those cases it was an issue with a custom ROM, and not the stock OS. Also, if you have multiple Google accounts on your phone, it will only do the auto restore for the primary account that you initially setup on the phone, so if you have apps tied to secondary accounts, they will need to be manually re-installed as well.