I lost an Android device of mine (Samsung Galaxy Tab 4). On https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager, I see that I can erase the contents. Currenly the device is offline. I understand that the erase will happen the next time the device goes online. My question is: What happens if the thief sees that the erase is happening? Can they stop it? For example, by removing the battery or whatever? Thank you.
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Help Can a thief stop a remote erase (by, for example, removing the battery)?
- Thread starter cutedroid
- Start date
Did you have an sdcard? You can also lock the device, change your password, and leave a nice little message for the thief to see everytime they power the device on. If you had an Sdcard, they simply have to remove it from the device. However, most thieves are naturally dimwitted so they probably didn't remove it.
lvt
Android Expert
The thief can prevent the remote reset by disabling all network connection, but once it's happens, he probably won't have enough of time to remove the battery. The remote reset works very fast because it only delete the internal memory's user content, the SD card remains untouched.
lvt
Android Expert
That's interesting, maybe they updated the whole process. When I lost my M8 last year I didn't have that option. My M8 has Lollipop.
lvt
Android Expert
I have no idea, that's the SD card's content that I wanted to delete the most, but I don't recall having that option at all.
Anyway even if the option exists, the chance to delete the SD card is 50/50 because when the thief pulled the SIM out of the phone, the SD usually comes out as well because of the tray design.
Depends on the device - some have a single tray for both, some have separate trays.
If a thief pulled the battery then of course it would stop whatever was going on - disconnect power and everything stops. But they would have to be quick to do it. If their interest was in extracting data and they were even half-way competent they would make sure it couldn't connect to a network before turning it on. If they were just after the device they would probably wipe it themselves anyway.
If a thief pulled the battery then of course it would stop whatever was going on - disconnect power and everything stops. But they would have to be quick to do it. If their interest was in extracting data and they were even half-way competent they would make sure it couldn't connect to a network before turning it on. If they were just after the device they would probably wipe it themselves anyway.
svim
Extreme Android User
Looking at different variations of the Tab 4 it appears to be a matter where the battery is not user-replaceable, that is you can't just pop the back cover off and pull the battery. Your thief would have to have a bit of phone savvy and know how to disconnect the leads connecting the battery to the motherboard, plus there just wouldn't be enough time even do it before the wipe you enabled takes place.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+Tab+4+7.0+Battery+Replacement/50949
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+Tab+4+8.0+Battery+Replacement/52375
Of course some smartphone thieves are pretty phone savvy as reselling stolen phones has turned into a lucrative market. Just as professional car thieves know about how to defeat car security measures, they already know that immediately powering off a phone or enabling Airplane Mode are other options to halt online connectivity, at least until there's time later to work on resetting it. But if it was just some smart-ass kid who stole your phone, he may or may not know what to do. Hopefully you had a lock screen implemented and don't forget to reset all the passwords for any online services you had set to autologin on your phone just to be safe. Odds are it's going to get wiped but it's a good idea to change your passwords every so often anyway.