Tuesday, May 29, 2012

A Simple Factory Reset Could Break Your Google Wallet Forever, Learn How to Safeguard Your Info

google wallet1 650x422 A Simple Factory Reset Could Break Your Google   Wallet Forever, Learn How to Safeguard Your Info

In the Android community, factory resets and phone wipes are almost second nature, even if you aren't a prolific ROM flasher. There are ways to get your information back onto your phone rather quickly after these wipes, but a security feature in Google Wallet leaves you with the potential of the application never working again after even a simple factory reset.

A new owner of an HTC EVO 4G LTE found that his Sense was crashing repeatedly, and making the phone unusable. So he factory reset the phone and found that the secure element inside his phone's NFC chip had been blown. At this point, Google Wallet and any other application that uses the secure element in the NFC chip is done, for good. A call to Google will only get the response that your warranty (if you have one) will replace the phone.

It should be noted that this problem isn't limited to the EVO 4G LTE either, the Galaxy Nexus can also fall prey to this feature. But there is a way to make sure your NFC isn't fried if you are planning on a new ROM sometime soon. Before doing a factory reset or wipe of any kind, users should go into Google Wallet, go into Settings and check the option of