Remote wipe your phone 14
by Adam Marks Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:29 pm EDT
Have you ever lost your phone and worried that someone else may be using it or accessing your private data? Hopefully you set a power-on password so it wasn't easy for them, but if not, you can easily send a remote wipe command to remove all your information from the phone. All you need to do it go to www.palm.com/profile, log in with your Palm Profile email address and password, and then click the "Device Options" button next to the device you want to erase. You will then be presented with a "I Lost My Phone" button that will allow you to remote wipe your phone.
Forgot which email address you used for your Palm Profile? Just refer back to this tip
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14 Comments
I was looking for this yesterday. Great timing for this tip. :)
man I so needed this a few months back.
Good to know--thanks!
Can we remotely wipe out data on a lost phone then get it back when we get a new phone? I wonder if data will still be saved to the server.
Yes - Taken from the same link as the post below this.
"8. Click Yes to confirm the erase, or No to cancel. If you have new Palm profile data that you have not backed up, select Back Up Data Before Erase. Note that data stored on the USB drive is not backed up.
9. If your phone is not in your possession, you are done with the remote erase process. If your phone is in your possession and you want to restore your Palm profile data, select your language, and follow the onscreen prompts to enter your Palm profile email address and password. (DO NOT create a new profile.) This restores your Palm profile data, including account info, contacts, calendar events, memos, and tasks, and apps downloaded from App Catalog."
If the phone is in your possession, there is a much easier way to wipe it. In the "device info app" toward the bottom is a button called "reset options", in there u have the options to erase apps and data, erase the USB and do a full erase etc
So this is pretty important for people who use stuff like dropbox or other similar apps that store important sata on the USB partition...
***Does this wipe the USB partition as well?***
A remote erase completely erases all data stored on your phone, including files on your phone
Double post.
SURE WISH WE COULD GET THOSE DATABASE ERRORS TAKEN CARE OF P|C!
Thanks!!! I hope I never how to use it.
This has been around for awhile now.. I saw this last year, still nothing new.
Just because it isn't a new feature doesn't mean people instantly knew all about it. That's why P|C is doing tips and tricks. Not everybody is as up on everything the Pre can do as others. It's a very good reminder that if you lose your phone, there is hope.
One note to add would be that when you perform a remote swipe palm servers send an SMS message to your phone with the proper command in order to erase it...
So don't worry if you don't have a data plan or wifi on... I checked that because I don't have a data plan and my wifi is mostly off hehe...
Beware. I lost my Palm Pre and tried to use this service. To this day, I still have no idea if my phone was ever wiped.
Here is my story:
1) Called Sprint via my wife's Pixi just after my phone was stolen/lost. Told them I lost my phone, they immediately put my account in a suspended state, then transfered me to Palm to learn about remote wipe. So far so good.
2) I asked Palm to just do the remote wipe for me, since I was traveling and couldn't get to a computer easily. Nope, they can't. So no problem I said, I'll use my wife's Pixi to login to the site! Nope, Palm says their site doesn't work on their WebOS mobile browser (ugh... what?? Flash he insists, I need a real computer). Ok, ok fine, understand, whatever it takes: I really would like to wipe it.
3) I finally made it back to my hotel; I login and do the remote wipe via the site mentioned in the tip. Seemed to go smoothly... volla! I was on my way (minus, however, one beloved Palm Pre).
4) The next day (or so?) I login to the site just for kicks, to see if it has some sort of "phone responded and wiped" note etc. Well, no. And not only that, but no record of any prior remote wipe! Just like I had never attempted it. Getting nervous, I click "lost phone" again and went through the motions. This time noticing one small caveat: the phone must be on and able to receive normal text messages. Hmm, "on" sure (duh), but able to receive text messages? Umm what kind of back door is this Palm? My Sprint account was suspended so actually no, the phone is NOT able to receive text messages. Right about now I am wondering just how the order could have been so off here, Sprint first disabling the account, and THEN telling me to do a remote wipe. Palm itself made no mention of this either, and I do remember telling them right away that "Sprint already put my account on hold" etc. Super, duper, grumble.
5) I call Sprint (or Palm, I can't recall). They confirm that indeed yes, remote wipe doesn't work if the account is suspended. Ok, fine $%^&*@# unsuspend it then so I can wipe it before I loose my identity and/or the battery dies. Account is now active again.
6) I go back to the website and do the remote wipe AGAIN, same as before, no record of mention of any prior remote wipe. I notice there is a 24hr (?) window that the remote wipe command is good for. Ok, fine, but seems a little flaky and hints this process may be poorly implemented under the covers.
7) Next day, back to the website again. Same as before, no mention of the remote wipe I did the day before. So I do the friggen remote wipe again. Go back to the site an hour later and indeed "remote wipe command sent" or some such. So at least it does do something.
8) Next day back again to website, which is again reset. Happily allowing me to remote wipe my phone if it is lost. Yes, umm, it is very lost at this point Mr. Website. I decide to do this song and dance a few more days and hope that one of them would "take".
So... about a week after my phone was stolen/lost I give up.
Like many others, I was very happy to have the remote wipe option on my WebOS device in case I needed it. However when that time came, I could not have been more disappointed with the process in practice.
I've since purchased an Epic 4G running Android. With the hard lessoned learned above, the first thing I did was set a screen lock gesture code, and setup a fully functional remote wipe app complete with GPS tracking, remote camera capability and "siren" mode etc. I even tested it.... guess what? Their website has great records, including phone responses. That's real peace of mind.
Also, I should point out that the backed-up fancy Palm Profile is utterly useless if your phone is lost/damaged. There is NO WAY to get that information back ever again... unless you register the profile on another WebOS device. Good thing I synced 90% of my contacts with Google. Made switching to Android that much easier.