Factory Default GO!

Last week I completely forgot the encryption password for my smartphone. Since the big hoo-ha last year where just about everyone seemed to have got hacked in some way or another (or was it a virus?), I have been changing all my passwords with steady regularity. Nothing with a password stays the same for very long.

That’s a lot of passwords, PIN and codes to remember.

When I restarted it, following an Android update, I couldn’t remember the code at all. I swear, I tried all the passwords, PIN and codes I’ve used for the last 12 months, but none of them worked. I found this aggravating that adhering to good security practices by changing passwords regularly means eventually you WILL lock yourself out of an account.

After 40 failed attempts (and with a warning after the 30th), the phone reset to factory default.

On the plus side, most of the content of my smartphone is backed up to the Cloud or internal memory. I lost nothing that I’ve noticed and just had to restore some email accounts. I’ve had to log into a few accounts as well.

The big plus is that my phone’s battery life has improved massively.

I don’t know what I had running on there, but a week ago I could expect to hit less than 50% battery by lunch time and not make it to the end of the day without a couple of minor charge periods (in the car at the start and end of the day).

Now, I’m still good for 90% charge by lunch.

It seems that a factory default reset can do wonders getting rid of the detritus that accumulates and drains power without rhyme or reason. I’m adopting this now as an ongoing phone maintenance strategy.