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Help My M8 just randomly factory-reset itself in my pocket!

J

jpcdmd

Newbie
I am LIVID! Was shopping in Costco, sent a text message to my gf, loaded my car and came home, and when I checked my phone just now as I got home I was greeted with a factory-reset home screen. Phone was in my pocket the whole time. I use pattern to open my lockscreen. All my data is gone. No contacts, photos, text history.....nothing. Strange thing is its not displaying the initial screens from Google, etc to setup the phone and sync accounts. Its just displaying the Blinkfeed app and the stock homescreens.

I've had this phone for about a month now, got it new at Best Buy. Haven't noticed any problems until today.

I'm sooooo pissssed!!!!!!!!!!
 
There's no way to troubleshoot it from here (and there's no way to troubleshoot it unless you can reliably reproduce the problem), so this is just a wild guess, but my guess is that there's something defective with the phone, and it should be covered by the warranty.
 
Fortunately I had backed up most of my data to my laptop. The rest I'm restoring using Verizon's free Cloud service/app. Its restoring my call history and all my messages and some other pictures etc that weren't backed up elsewhere. I actually forgot I had utilized that Verizon app to backup so I guess its come in handy.

I hope this doesn't happen again. I don't feel like returning the phone for another, without knowing whats causing the problem.
 
The closest thing I've experienced like this was my M8 spontaneously reverting back to DALVIK from ANDROID Run Time. This happened about a week ago upon boot.

I was expecting the same when I d/l & installed a firmware/software update a couple days ago, but, it remained on ART.
 
I've had this exact same thing, spontaneous reset, happen on two different phones (mine and my wife's), for a total of happening two times altogether - and I've been using Android for well over 4 years.

In each case, I recovered what I could from backups and reconfigured the rest, never saw the problem again on either one.

Fwiw, I'd say that we're the poster kids for doing backups and that even extreme glitches happen.

If it persists, you may have a problem but if not, I'd call it a glitch and welcome you to the club.
 
That just happened to me. Phone in my pocket listening to music while mowing the lawn. I thought it was the battery but it was completely reset (with plenty of charge left). Based on the common experience it seems not random. Something is wrong.

I agree with EarlyMon's advice and wait for a recurrence before hitting the panic button.

Some club.
 
john98058 said:
That just happened to me. Phone in my pocket listening to music while mowing the lawn. I thought it was the battery but it was completely reset (with plenty of charge left). Based on the common experience it seems not random. Something is wrong.

I agree with EarlyMon's advice and wait for a recurrence before hitting the panic button.

Some club.
Click to expand...

All I can say is if you're not rooted with benefit of a nandroid backup, then Helium Backup is your friend.

Glitch, defective phone, loss, theft, upgrade - having an independent backup - priceless.
 
Had someone in our office have the exact thing happen with his S5 (based on our security policy) - the phone reset because, while in his pocket, the screen was on and log on was attempted. Seems like something was bumping the screen which caused the fail/reset. Have not ever heard of this before but seems legit
 
So walking about 30 feet to my house, phone locked with pin, pulled phone out of pocket and look at a red Verizon screen and then HTC screen to set up phone. Only have had this phone week and a half. Didn't have it backed up bc I wasn't sure I was going to keep it so I've lost everything. Switched from iPhone and have had texting issues since days one. Did eeverything I was supposed to and still miss several texts. Not sure what to do. I really like this phone but something else that has me wondering is the release of the m8 ace. Why would you come out with a other version so soon.... Hummmmm
 
vosg said:
Maybe the phone was turned on because wake up gestures were on.
Click to expand...
I just check and my phone already in 0 means HTC already set that or latest firmware change the setting to 0.

I only root my phone and never touch that part before.
 
jlg707 said:
So walking about 30 feet to my house, phone locked with pin, pulled phone out of pocket and look at a red Verizon screen and then HTC screen to set up phone. Only have had this phone week and a half. Didn't have it backed up bc I wasn't sure I was going to keep it so I've lost everything. Switched from iPhone and have had texting issues since days one. Did eeverything I was supposed to and still miss several texts. Not sure what to do. I really like this phone but something else that has me wondering is the release of the m8 ace. Why would you come out with a other version so soon.... Hummmmm
Click to expand...

Except for one year, HTC has been pretty consistent about two major releases a year for some time. Despite rumors, expect the new one(s) to really hit around September at the six months mark. Unlike Apple, Androids are not available at announcement time, there's a delay.

As for the Ace, that's a plastic version without all of the M8's features. Last year's M7 also got a plastic version for the Asian market.

As for missing texts, please take your phone to a corporate store for your carrier with a service counter.

I had that, called in, they did everything, no good. Took it in personally, the service rep asked where I lived and worked. Said it something in the phone that got borked due to tower maintenance by my job (and I watched them out there with my signal going up and down, so it was clear she knew her stuff). She did some sort of service reset on my phone I'd never seen before. My apps and data were fine, they charged me nothing, it took 5 minutes and my problem was solved.

Maybe something to consider.

Sorry about the reset problem.

Let them know about it too though, you never know.
 
jlg707 said:
So walking about 30 feet to my house, phone locked with pin, pulled phone out of pocket and look at a red Verizon screen and then HTC screen to set up phone. Only have had this phone week and a half. Didn't have it backed up bc I wasn't sure I was going to keep it so I've lost everything. Switched from iPhone and have had texting issues since days one. Did eeverything I was supposed to and still miss several texts. Not sure what to do. I really like this phone but something else that has me wondering is the release of the m8 ace. Why would you come out with a other version so soon.... Hummmmm
Click to expand...

A co-worker of mine is having texting issues on his S5 after switching from an i-Phone.It's been an on-going issue w/those switching from i-Phone to all ANDROID devices & just recently has been getting some press.

Here's a How-To from C-Net to try to alleviate the problem:

How to fix Apple's iMessage bug - CNET
 
The texting thing is because their numbers are still in the iMessage database so Apple is still trying to intercept their messages. I just called Apple and asked to have my number removed from their system and all was good.
 
DAMN IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN!!! I had Motion Gestures turned OFF since the last time it reset itself. This time I unplugged the phone from my car charger, put the phone in my pocket, went into a store to return some item, and when I got back in my car I pulled the phone out of my pocket and it had reset itself.

This is unacceptable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Sorry to hear that, I can't imagine how frustrating that would be. Since you are the only one I have seen that has experienced this I would strongly advise you to take it into a service center.
 
I have had the same problem with my M8. Mine has reset itself three different times over the past couple months, including today. I have my phone locked with a password pattern. The only time that my phone has reset itself is when I have the password on. After the second time it happened I thought that maybe in my pocket the screen came on and the password was attempted 10 times. I believe that this is what has been happening. I am not certain though. I am probably going to not use a password to unlock my phone this time around and see what happens. If it happens without a password then something must be wrong internally rather than the reset being triggered.
 
Wow, this is pretty terrible. :(
I know with my G2, there's a "glitch" where if you simple push down on the screen with one finger, it turns on instead of having to "knock-on". I don't have a PIN lock so it's not the end of the world.
 
I know several people with M8 that haven't had this issue. Could it be as simple as a hardware issue?
 
maybe the screen is getting turned on if you have a case on that makes the power button bulge out a bit more than going naked? I have one of these cases and this is part of the reason why I removed that "feature" to reset after 10 attempts.
 
TUCKER3CFC said:
I have had the same problem with my M8. Mine has reset itself three different times over the past couple months, including today. I have my phone locked with a password pattern. The only time that my phone has reset itself is when I have the password on. After the second time it happened I thought that maybe in my pocket the screen came on and the password was attempted 10 times. I believe that this is what has been happening. I am not certain though. I am probably going to not use a password to unlock my phone this time around and see what happens. If it happens without a password then something must be wrong internally rather than the reset being triggered.
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with the incorrect password reset feature. I had Motion Gestures turned OFF and mine still reset. Besides, even if I had motion turned on, its next to impossible for it to reset because of random taps on the screen while being in your pocket. If you watch the YouTube video on the reset sequence you'll see what i mean. I also have a case that does not cover the Power button... In fact my power button is very protected.
 
Whatever is going on, it's pretty clear that HTC needs to get this sorted and issue a patch.

I urge everyone with the problem, or worried that it could happen, to contact HTC and insist on a case number or however they do it these days. Because they do do it.

We're all in this together and we're stronger as a group.

Let's all pull together - and remember - just because it's not raining where you are, doesn't mean it's not raining elsewhere - or that you won't get hit by rain tomorrow.

If we don't have answers, let's see if they do.
 
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