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[Q] Lost my Nexus S

I'm kinda in a daze from losing my Nexus S last night. The hangover is probably contributing to said daze. I don't have one of those security apps installed. I must have forgotten to restore it when I flashed a new ROM. My inner child is on my inner floor bawling his eyes out at the moment.
Anyway, my question is, what can I do to ensure minimal loss of my privacy. I have already changed all my passwords. Does this automatically unsync my account on the phone? I mean, will the phone ask whoever has it to re-enter the new password? What else am I forgetting? What else can I do?
Would appreciate it if "You should have"s are avoided. Thanks!

I know for sure that if you have changed your Google/Gmail Password, that the phone will prompt for a new one. As far as 'unsyncing' I do not know. I didn't check to see if my contacts/emails/calendar etc were removed when I changed the password and the phone prompted for a new one.
I will change my password again, see what happens and let you know.
*****EDIT*****
I changed my password for my phone, I got a notification about a sign in error, that prompted for a password. The dialing functions still worked as normal, any emails that you had cached were also visibile as well as the calendar. I rebooted without updating the password and could still call out as normal, but when I tried to access the Gmail app, it tried to sync the inbox, but prompted for a password right away.
I don't have any apps installed with other sensitive information, but I would imagine those would function as normal.
Hope this helps.

You could try lookout mobile security "plan b" will help find it.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

Hmm sorry to hear that dude, i would probably be bawling on the floor too!
Although... i probably will install one of those security apps now...

Thanks for your help, guys.

Even if you don't change password but someone change sim card,android will require reenter password for sync
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I don't know if Plan B would work seeing as how his Google Account is tied to the market account. Because he changed his password and the phone lost connection with the Google account, I don't believe remote installs will work, but I could be wrong.

SphericalPuma said:
I don't know if Plan B would work seeing as how his Google Account is tied to the market account. Because he changed his password and the phone lost connection with the Google account, I don't believe remote installs will work, but I could be wrong.
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Yes, I was wondering the same thing. I picked up a new Nexus S(not SAMOLED unfortunately) and synced it up and everything. Finally got to a PC and looked up my Market Account. It listed both phones under devices and I could go all the way to installing it on both phones. It located my current phone.
Unfortunately, I blocked my SIM card prematurely(did not know about Plan B), so, I can't send out the locate SMS. But, I figure whoever has it has probably removed the SIM card, or does not know how to charge it if the battery is dead or is using a SIM on it without a data connection. So, no data connection means no app on the phone. I haven't received an email from Plan B for the lost phone.

Why is the phone is still linked to my market account? I can see that the carrier has been changed which means a new SIM.
For now I'm just satisfying myself by installing inane and useless apps on the phone. HAHA! I hope it works and the app installation is going through. I've pretty much lost hope of finding it.

Exchange Security PIN vs. Pattern

I am wondering if someone can anwser this for me.....
Does the ability to use a Pattern unlock vs. PIN unlock for Exchange come from the Email.apk or the OS Version?
I was running Serendipity VII (2.3) and I was able to use a pattern unlock, which I prefer. Today I switched to Fasty's (2.2) and cannot.
Would love to know. Thanks!

Exchange server often requires a minimum number of PIN digits for unlock. Pattern unlock is not supported by Exchange server. Some modified email clients can ignore any such PIN requirements/policy. That's probably the difference between the two ROMs.

The email.apk that is in OBSESSION was the only one I found that overrides Exchange security for me. I no longer need the PIN security.
When I flashed a new rom last week I pulled the "email.apk" out of the obsession package and put it in the new rom package replacing the one that was in there.
Worked...
My exchange security policy also would force the phone to encrypt all data...made moving files to and from the phone rather pesky.

Thanks , Guys! I'll tinker around with some other apk's and see if I can resolve the issue.

cjkpkg said:
The email.apk that is in OBSESSION was the only one I found that overrides Exchange security for me. I no longer need the PIN security.
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Click to collapse
Any chance I can get that email.apk from you? I am rooted and running the Paragon Froyo ROM on my Captivate. I want to override our exchange pin policy as well. I prefer the pattern lock.

Here is the one that works best for me. It will also start pinging your exchange server to auto fill email addresses from the GAL.
There was another email client from S VII that also bypassed the pin unlock but seemed a little finicky.
I just placed this email.apk in the system/app folder and made sure to delete the old one.
You may need to clear the cache and reset data from settings/applications/manage applications/email unless you are coming from a factory reset.
You will be prompted to set up your email again but this time no pin unlock will be necessary.

[Q] Issues w/ 2-step verification for email; keep getting notification sign-in error

So I enabled 2-step verification on my gmail, and after doing so my gmail accounts on the phone stopped working.
I read that I needed to create application specific passwords in this case, so I did it.
After inputting these passwords (I have 2 separate Gmail accounts), I started receiving mail successfully (it gets pushed and I get the new mail notification). However, I am berated with notifications that there is a sign-in error. Clearing these only lasts for a couple of minutes before they come back.
How can I get the phone to stop thinking it's having a sign-in error? I have searched and this doesn't seem to be a common problem (I'm guessing because not that many people are using 2-step verification?).
I even tried completely removing the accounts and starting over from scratch with new application-specific passwords. No dice - still getting sign-in errors.
Any ideas? Thanks!

I was able to fix the problem (I think). Here's how I did it:
1) Remove all gmail accounts from phone
2) Re-add account(s) to the phone using a newly created application-specific password titled 'Droid Charge'
3) When the error arises, create another application-specific password titled 'Droid Charge #2' and use that
Should get rid of it. Don't know why it requires two separate passwords, but since doing this I have stopped receiving the error.

I can't say that this will work on GB, because I've only tried it on ICS, but did you try just putting in your regular password? At least on ICS and later, when you do that it will redirect you to a webpage that asks for your authorization code, and then does the normal token exchange and pairs to your account.

shrike1978 said:
I can't say that this will work on GB, because I've only tried it on ICS, but did you try just putting in your regular password? At least on ICS and later, when you do that it will redirect you to a webpage that asks for your authorization code, and then does the normal token exchange and pairs to your account.
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Yes, I had tried that. Unfortunately GB falls under the 'older phones' bracket, and it's not smart enough to redirect.

[Q] Gmail 5.0 Exchange looping into security updates

I have been using the Gmail Exchange Account for a few days happily (Android L stock). But now I constantly get the option to update my security which is basically encrypting my phone. But after the restart this message comes up again with only option to update again. In the meantime no mail is synced. I have already removed and re-installed my echange account numerous times but not helping. Alternative app Mail Wise is giving the same problem. With Touchdown everything is working but I don't like the battery usage and most import the seperate password entry when entering the app. Did anybody else experience this security update loop?

Maybe I have solved the problem myself. What seemed to happen is that my companies security policy demands a certain type of password. Since I already had installed an exchange account before my password on my phone was already compliant. Therefore I did not need to change anything on my security after I setup my Exchange account on my phone. So what I did is disable password lock on my phone, setup my exchange account and entered a compliant password.

1979Sentinel said:
I have been using the Gmail Exchange Account for a few days happily (Android L stock). But now I constantly get the option to update my security which is basically encrypting my phone. But after the restart this message comes up again with only option to update again. In the meantime no mail is synced. I have already removed and re-installed my echange account numerous times but not helping. Alternative app Mail Wise is giving the same problem. With Touchdown everything is working but I don't like the battery usage and most import the seperate password entry when entering the app. Did anybody else experience this security update loop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every two or three days same problem returns. Gmail tells me to do a security update. After a lot of trying I get it working again but if this returns constantly it is quite frustrating. Anybody else with same experiences?

Solution given
Somebody on another site pointed me to the solution which can be found at:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79342#c18
As it seems a pin/password is required for startup as well, not only for unlocking the device.

FRP triggered even though Settings was used to reset

Hi
I just sold my S7 and beforehand I used the Settings menu to reset the phone. It also asked for the Samsung password too for some reason. I checked after the boot that the phone restarted in factory setup mode and it did, so I powered it off and shipped it.
Now the buyer has said that they see this msg on start up:
"an unauthorised attempt has been made to reset your device to factory default settings, connect to Wi Fi or mobile network to verify your identity"
Why is this?
They are saying that they have been advised that "the phone is locked" and so want to return it.
Why did the FRP get triggered? Is there any way out of this?
Obvs I really don't want to give the buyer my google userid (presuming this will allow them to to set it up) as even if I changed my password afterwards they could potentially do all sorts of stuff before I can change the password again ... Besides giving your login out just a no no in anyone's book.

mr-br said:
I checked after the boot that the phone restarted in factory setup mode and it did, so I powered it off and shipped it.
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Click to collapse
Did you check if everything was actually properly erased by going through the setup wizard again and seeing if it complained about an unauthorized reset, or did you just see the setup screen and thought everything was good? It also seems you didn't remove any accounts prior to the reset.
You should've removed all accounts, and disabled any screen lock methods on the device before even going into the reset menu on the Settings app. If you leave your accounts on your device, especially your Google and Samsung accts, both FRP and Reactivation Lock will assume that an unauthorized reset was made and as such it will store said accounts during setup in order to verify that it's *you* who reset the phone.
It may be possible for the buyer to bypass FRP and effectively remove your Google account from the phone, but if Samsung's Reactivation Lock was enabled and you still hadn't tripped Knox, then you're pretty much out of luck on doing that in any way. Removing the Reactivation Lock is incredibly hard if not impossible on some devices, so don't count on much if the feature is active.
If nothing is possible, the only choice you have is to talk to the buyer to see if he will temporarily send the phone back so that you can unlock the thing properly, then ship it again. But I doubt anyone would like to go through more hoops and expenses to get their used phone working and would rather just return it and get a refund.

Thanks for the info.
After the reset and restart I just saw the setup screen and thought everything was fine. All I knew from memory was that doing a reset via the Recovery boot menu would trigger the protection, but I had no idea that one had to actually remove the screen lock and accounts before doing a reset via Settings! I'm pretty sure that the Settings-Reset page even says it will remove all data & accounts etc. and I know it said nothing at all about removing lockscreen & accounts beforehand!
Even the specific page at https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00083965/ makes no mention of that step - how are folks expected to know this stuff?
Grrr, this is why I'm so frustrated at how such a seemingly simple operation is so screwed up - no wonder folks love iphones [ducks] ....
The buyer is non-technical but I've persuaded them to give me a go at talking them through entering my google userid over the phone - and then straight afterwards I'll change the google password and remove the device from google account. Failing that it's refund time and writing off all the postage.

Well we tried. But, for some reason during my account sign-in, it was asking for a mobile phone number too which I wasn't expecting, and then after that it wouldn't accept my password. The guy was 86 though and so there might have been something else amiss that he didn't spot. So I'll have to try and fix it when it comes back... Oh and it turns out that changing your google account password nukes all your app passwords without any warning, so that's another PITA to update everywhere that uses those.

The buyer actually dropped by during a road trip, so I could login myself. It turned out that it was the S7's Samsung keyboard that was at fault since it refused to type in actual characters correctly. I had to disable the Samsung keyboard setting for Predictive Text. Also it insisted on automatically changing the case of letters until I'd long pressed the shift key to fix the case.
Only after doing these things was it possible to enter email address and password correctly. I then removed my google account, did a settings reset, and finally the phone reset correctly.