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[Q] Doubts about unlocking bootloader and rooting

Hi guys,
I've been playing around with my Nexus S for about 3 weeks and I've decided to root it, but I have some question, I've been searching the answers in older posts but it's not quite clear yet, hope you can help me.
When I unlocked the bootloader, what kind of data will be wiped? It's just the SD card or also all the apps I've already downloaded? what about SMS, pictures and videos?
Is there anyway I can backup that data considering I haven't root it yet???
Thanks in advance.

dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time

LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol what? its nobodys fault but your own. all the resources are available, just because somebody isnt responding to your threads and holding your hand to restore a nandriod backup doesnt make it a "lack of a community".. and your phone isn't bricked, it can be recovered but you are too close-minded and cant install Clockwork Recovery / get drivers working
The data that will be wiped are most likely your SMS/settings/etc. This is standard procedure. And its something you'll go through a lot when you are using custom ROMs.

There are complete instructions for rooting, unrooting and unbricking your phone. It's all here in the forums, and many other places, you just have to look and learn. I read for two weeks before I unlocked and loaded a ROM into my NS.
If you don't have a need to root your phone I wouldn't do it just because you can. I wanted to run the Voodoo app so I had to root and load a ROM. It took a little while but it was painless and I liked learning about the Android system.
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.

It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!

RogerPodacter said:
It's close to impossible to brick a nexus device. They purposely come with totally open boot loaders specifically for that purpose!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
"brick" describes a device that cannot function in any capacity (such as a device with damaged firmware)
In the strictest sense of the term, bricking must imply that software error has rendered the device completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
Netconn said:
You do have to backup your app and your SD, but that was the easy part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?

Make a nandroid backup first and foremost! Use Titanium Backup to make a backup of all your apps. If you want a backup of your sms, go sms pro really does a great job of that. Dont forget your contacts as well! Then copy your sd card and place it on the hard drive of your computer. When you unlock the bootloader, it does wipe your sd card. Once your unlocked and rooted, you should be able to restore everything once you replace the copy of your sd card back on the phone. Coming over from a Vibrant, I was nervous about rooting the phone but its an easy process. Just take your time and do lots of reading! Hope this helps!

Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Woops..yeah, your right there. Too quick to reply. I followed this method here..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=895545
and had no problems. Once you get unlocked/rooted and clockwork recovery, then you can make the fore mentioned backups. Export your contacts to the sd card then copy the sd card to the hard drive of your computer before unlocking the boot loader. I do not think apps get affected during the sd wipe unless you have them stored there.

zephiK said:
its not only Nexus devices but like I said people are using the term brick wrong. with these new phones coming out, a lot of them are hard to brick.
if you're phone is able to get into recovery/start/download mode (odin not popular but still an option)/bootloader then its not bricked.
if its unable to start in any form or way.. its considered a brick. please stop using the term in its wrong definition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
may i suggest a noob proof guide|? i postted 1 in the htc desire forum and people love it. yesterday i returned a moto xoom because ti was overheating , got a nexus s and 2day il b returning that because it wont turn on. can any1 help me think of a good idea i can tell the future shop return people?

kmhil said:
I think guys you have lost focus about my question, it's not about how to root (there is a lot of info about), it's about what kind of data will be wiped and how to back it up
What's the best way to do it? It's there an app or I have to day it by myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are forced to lose your data to initially root your device. then after that point, you can always create backups and never lose data again while you switch between ROMs and flashing etc. but i think to initially root, you have to lose everything. not the sd card though.

LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
i followed the instructions to flash gri74 back to stock and my phone wont turn on, wont goto any mode, wont read that its hookedup to my pc
isnt that what we call a brick? ive had issues on a galaxy s with this game issue. htc devices i can fly through the root procedure but i got this 1 rooted, tried reflashing to stock and the phone wont turn on at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do keep in mind, we don't have an i9020 or an i9023, we have an i9020A So the instruction out there all need to take that into considerations. I rooted mine fine with no "Bricking" I had to follow the instruction for the i9023, but it worked. I figure it took me all of 1 minute to root my phone. Admitedly, the "One click root" for the Galaxy series was easier.
I try to make it a point to never be the "First" person to do something on their phone. Much safer that way.
I also find it very unusual that you've managed to brick two phones, I've also had the pleasure of owning the telus fascinate, and not once did i get it bricked, I tried Bionics, CM7, Darky's and a bunch of other ones. Just never mess with the boot loader. When you went back to stock, did you make sure it was a stock ROM for the I9020A?
Have you tried connecting the USB to a computer, holding the volume up (or in the case of the galaxy, both up and down) While powering on the device? I've had to use that a few times to recover my galaxy (Thank you odin!!).
Now in regards to the OP, I would recommend using a program like Ti to back everything up, unlock the bootloader then restore from Ti, it's a little more hassel, but you can pretty much keep your settings and data. Personally, i rooted my phone before configuring a single thing on it.

kmhil said:
Thenx, but I still have one doubt, if I haven't root my phone yet, will nandroid or titanium work?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no way to make a good backup without rooting.
basically yes, you will lose all your settings
there are a few apps you can use to backup your apk before unlocing/rooting the phone.
look for App admin on market https://market.android.com/details?id=az.mecid.appadmin&feature=search_result
the stuff backed to SD does not get wiped
only the internal storage stuff

LINKSLOVESANDROID said:
dont do it man. i just got my phone yesterday at 1 pm and its now 12am and its bricked by lack of support from the cummunity. i studyied and studied 4 around 10 hours. then bricked my device. and i have a good idea i wont be getting a replacement this time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i took about 12 minutes total to unlock my bootloader, flash clockwork, and flash a custom rom. its not difficult if you pay attention to what you read. youre phone is not bricked. btw, i read your threads. if you werent so demanding, i would have helped. use the pdanet website the next time you need to install the proper driver, and follow the directions that they give you.

When I unlocked I used Astro to back up my apps, I turned on the Google data sync to back up my contacts and I did a back up of my SD on my computer.
When the unlock and recovery was done NS asked for my Google account then it restored all my contacts, Astro restored all my apps and I restored my files from my computer. A few steps but not difficult at all.
You will have to redo your accounts and data, and maybe an app or two won't load but the market will show them installed, just reinstall any that didn't.
Make sure you follow the directions properly in the forum. I had to use two computers to get it to work, but it did work and nothing was damaged.
With all that said.... This was the first time I have ever owned or altered an Android phone. Sure I was nervous... Now I'm hooked.. haha
I wound up using NSCollab .17 so far so good..

First thing I did when I got my phone was fastboot oem unlock.
Even if you don't want to root, use another ROM. Fastboot unlock it so your data doesn't get wiped.
If your hardware and everything seems okay, then flash Clockwork Recovery and do a nandroid backup so you can restore to pre-flashing point if you need it for OEM purposes.
Afterwards, go crazy and flash like theres no tomorrow and find something that you'll like.
And agreed with simms. You've made so made so many threads about this. I would help you step by step but I've been busy so I can't do that anymore. But if you search, you'll find about two or three threads where I did help somebody get their phone to a working state.
The basic idea is... if your phone doesn't boot but you can get to recovery.
- Download a ROM or Nandroid backup
- Install USB drivers
- Fastboot oem unlock (if you haven't)
- fastboot flash recovery recovery.img (or whatever the recovery.img is named) should be in /sdk/tools
- reboot into recovery (adb reboot recovery)
- mount and storage: mount USB, put the nandroid backup or ROM onto phone
- nandroid restore or flash a ROM (wipe factory,dalvik,cache --> flash ROM (if its CM7.. flash gapps afterwards)
- reboot
your phone boots. alternatively, you can use Odin but thats not a popular method but the choice is available if you wish to go towards that approach

in the worse worse possible case scenario there is always ODIN to the rescue

Why did you guys wait at all?
Once i got the phone i immediately plugged it into my computer and rooted it.

[Q] Unroot / return to stock without using power button.

So my girlfriend's Verizon Galaxy S III is in quite the jam. The power button stopped working. She has to use a software button to turn the screen off and the home key to turn it back on.
Verizon sent over a replacement, but she needs to send the original phone in. Problem is, the normal methods for returning to stock all involve Odin, which requires the phone to enter Download mode....which we can't do. The phone won't register the power button being held down. I don't even want to turn it off since I'm not sure it could be turned back on.
So I've been googling around for another way (already having used Triangle Away) and found a couple of sets of instructions (here and here) on using Odin Mobile to flash the phone back to stock. But there seem to be a lot of comments around, especially on the YouTube video guides, of people saying it bricked their phone.
What's the safest bet here? As far as I can tell these are the options:
-Shut down the phone and pray the power button somehow works for getting into download mode (doubtful) so I can use Odin.
-Restore a nandroid / flash a zip of the stock ROM and then use EZ Root or whatever to unroot the phone and hope Verizon doesn't look into it.
-Use one of these sets of instructions for Mobile Odin...though it's not clear which one is best and what files I should be using.
-Just send it in and pray.
Odin Mobile seems like the smartest option...but the instructions out there aren't as comprehensive and up to date as I'd like. I'd rather not brick the phone.
Can anyone help? The phone is currently on AOKP 4.2 Milestone.
I originally accidentally posted this in the international forum. A poster there advised that I use Odin Mobile. What files should I use to move safely back to stock? I've never flashed back to stock before so I'm not familiar with the best source or if there's a specific version I need.
Thanks!

If all you need to do is get into download mode, you could probably force it with a usb jig. Then you can use ODIN on a pc and restore it that way. I have no idea how to use mobile odin, but I assume it shouldn't be that difficult to do a similar process. People make mistakes by not reading correctly and moving too fast through a process.
You could try to reboot, then while the phone is booting back up hold volume down + home to get to download mode. Just be ready to flash the phone, if your power button is broken you're only going to have 1 shot to do it and no way to verify it worked.
Did you happen to make a nandroid of your stock rooted rom? If so, you could just restore that and unroot it.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

I did create a back-up. Would restoring back-up -> using triangle away -> ez unlock to re lock bootloader -> unroot be just as good as using Odin?
What's the best tool for unrooting? I rooted it for her almost a year ago so I don't remember. I have a Galaxy Nexus myself.
Thanks!

You can always unroot from a superuser app from within the rom itself. On a stock rom you would simply relock with ez unlock, unroot with superuser app, then phone would be pretty much stock.
All triangle away does is erase the flash counter, you only had to do that once. It won't be tripped unless you flashed something over odin.
I think your best bet is to restore that backup, then accept an OTA update after unrooting and relocking the bootloader. That will overwrite your recovery partition and make sure you're back to full stock. Is your stock backup touchwiz 4.0.4 or 4.1.1? It won't work with a 4.1.2 backup.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Getting to 4.3...got past 402 error!

Apologize in advance if this is intuitively obvious to other but after searching and reading a better part of the day, I can't figure it out...
In any case...I rooted my 4.1.2 phone a while back with the casual root. Didn't unlock the bootloader or install a custom recovery, just rooted. So that puts busybox and supersu on my phone. Later on, I installed a custom sound thing to get some decent volume out of this thing.
Now I tried taking the OTA and it failed. I thought it would just wipe out the root stuff and be on it's merry way (like other devices I've had in the past). So, I used the one touch unroot in SuperSu and tried again. Still failed. And it still showed me busybox in the app drawer.
So, here's my question...
Do I need to remove my custom volume thing as well as do the unroot?
And do I need to uninstall busybox before doing the unroot via supersu? Or do i just go to the apps and install it there after the SuperSu unroot?
And, if none of those work right, do I fall back to flashing 4.1.2 directly - or maybe better to flash 4.3 directly? I plan on using saferoot once I'm up to 4.3.
If anyone can help me sort this out, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm rerooted for the moment.
Thanks!

doncaruana said:
Apologize in advance if this is intuitively obvious to other but after searching and reading a better part of the day, I can't figure it out...
In any case...I rooted my 4.1.2 phone a while back with the casual root. Didn't unlock the bootloader or install a custom recovery, just rooted. So that puts busybox and supersu on my phone. Later on, I installed a custom sound thing to get some decent volume out of this thing.
Now I tried taking the OTA and it failed. I thought it would just wipe out the root stuff and be on it's merry way (like other devices I've had in the past). So, I used the one touch unroot in SuperSu and tried again. Still failed. And it still showed me busybox in the app drawer.
So, here's my question...
Do I need to remove my custom volume thing as well as do the unroot?
And do I need to uninstall busybox before doing the unroot via supersu? Or do i just go to the apps and install it there after the SuperSu unroot?
And, if none of those work right, do I fall back to flashing 4.1.2 directly - or maybe better to flash 4.3 directly? I plan on using saferoot once I'm up to 4.3.
If anyone can help me sort this out, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm rerooted for the moment.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OTA will look for any rooted app and fail so you best bet is just Odin the full 4.3 then root with saferoot. This is you also have a nice clean install.

buhohitr said:
OTA will look for any rooted app and fail so you best bet is just Odin the full 4.3 then root with saferoot. This is you also have a nice clean install.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
Been a looong time since I messed with Odin...this will just be firmware - no data or store apps will be touched, right?

doncaruana said:
Thanks!
Been a looong time since I messed with Odin...this will just be firmware - no data or store apps will be touched, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but flashing the full firmware will wipe everything bring it back to factory stock phone, so you need to backup all your stuff.

Well, just to share with everyone, I did not flash back to stock. For a number of reasons, that wasn't really an option.
My first step was removing viper4android. That actually got rid of the "custom" screen with the open lock on boot.
Then I uninstalled busybox from within itself. Unfortunately, as noted elsewhere, that leaves several hundred symlinks in xbin, so I removed all of those (I was only left with dexdump and su there). After that, I actually uninstalled busybox via the app manager.
Then I used the unroot option in supersu to clean up the rest and remove it.
At this point, I should be completely unrooted, but still got the 402 error when failing to upgrade with the OTA.
So...I plugged the phone in and ran the software upgrade assistant that shows up on the "CD" that presents itself from the phone when you plug it in to USB to the computer. And, actually, that successfully completed the upgrade to 4.3!
Haven't embarked on re-rooting yet (using saferoot) but that's the plan at least.

[Q]

Sorry guys, I know this has been covered, but I can't seem to find what I need via searching. I read forums more than I post so forgive me if I have done anything wrong. I am def an amateur when it comes to these things but I do okay.
I recently rooted my verizon gs3 4.3 with towelroot. It is actually just an old phone that I wanted to root and sell. Anyway, like an idiot I tried to install clockworkmod recovery from the clockworkmod app, my phone rebooted and I got the "unauthorized software" message from verizon. The phone will go into download mode. I need a little help finding the correct file to download and flash with odin to fix this. I'm sure its been covered but all of the download links for the file I have found have given me download errors. I have never bricked a phone before and I really want to fix this thing and sell it. Any help.
Scottie
Samsung Galaxy GS5 AT&T (finally rooted)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (rooted)
Iphone 5C (work issued)
Samsung Galaxy s3 Verizon (bricked...lol)

sdevans80 said:
Sorry guys, I know this has been covered, but I can't seem to find what I need via searching. I read forums more than I post so forgive me if I have done anything wrong. I am def an amateur when it comes to these things but I do okay.
I recently rooted my verizon gs3 4.3 with towelroot. It is actually just an old phone that I wanted to root and sell. Anyway, like an idiot I tried to install clockworkmod recovery from the clockworkmod app, my phone rebooted and I got the "unauthorized software" message from verizon. The phone will go into download mode. I need a little help finding the correct file to download and flash with odin to fix this. I'm sure its been covered but all of the download links for the file I have found have given me download errors. I have never bricked a phone before and I really want to fix this thing and sell it. Any help.
Scottie
Samsung Galaxy GS5 AT&T (finally rooted)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (rooted)
Iphone 5C (work issued)
Samsung Galaxy s3 Verizon (bricked...lol)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Follow these instructions and it should work.

verizon 4.3 gs3 soft brick update.
Okay this is where I'm at now. I finally got the phone to reboot into the regular system, I can boot into odin mode but not recovery mode, recovery mode give me the "unauthorized software" warning from verizon. When this happens I can do a battery pull, boot into odin mode, then press volume down to reboot the phone and the normal system comes up. I still have root with towel root. So when I tried to install cwm recovery from the cwm app that's where my problem started. This is my first time tweaking a phone with a locked boot loader. I can do anything with the phone when it's booted up to the regular system, except a factory data reset, if I try I get the "unauthorized software" screen. I tried un rooting with supersu, which seemed to work, because root checker reported that there was no root access. So I Re rooted with towelroot, reinstalled supersu from Play store. Now I have root access again, but still cannot go to recovery mode, or do a factory data reset.
That being said, since I can boot the phone the system, and i have root access with root explorer and es file explorer (with root files enabled). Is there a way to go in and remove all the files and things that cwm app installed when attempting to install cwm recovery. Basically I'll be thrilled to be able to factory reset and use stock recovery, I can deal with that, as long as I have root access so I can debloat and run root apps. So what can I do to get back to stick recovey, basically the state the phone was in before my dumb self tried to install custom recovery with a locked boot loader.
Sorry the post is long, I am def a amateur phone rooter, but through five devices this is my very first real issue.
Also thanks to all who contribute to this forum, I've been saved several times from info you guys post. So THANK YOU!

@sdevans80 Did you flash the above file that @SlimSnoopOS recommended? That should have fixed your stock recovery.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

Sorry, I meant to update sooner, I tried to flash stock image with odin several times with no luck. Eventually I connected to kies on my laptop, updated the phone from 4.3 to 4.4.2 which fixed every thing, after doing that I reinstalled towelroot apk and rooted the phone again. Rooting a phone by tapping an icon on a screen, and then not even having to reboot, is really cool. Thanks for the help guys.
Sandman-007 said:
@sdevans80 Did you flash the above file that @SlimSnoopOS recommended? That should have fixed your stock recovery.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What order for new phone?

So I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a G930F. Sorry for the noob question, but when it arrives, what should I do with it and in what order? End goal would be to be able to install custom roms easily when new roms are released.
I was thinking:
1. Flash new firmware
2. Enable OEM unlock from settings
3. Disable auto updates
4. Flash recovery TWRP
5. Wipe data
6. Root
7. Setup phone
Thoughts?
Also for the firmware, I'm going to be using this on US T-mobile. Should I do UK firmware or German T-Mobile?
Thanks

Any suggestions guys?
Sorry if this question sounds stupid. I've had my current phone (HTC One M7) for 3 years now and it's at a state where I can just flash a new rom whenever I want. It's been a long time since I did the initial setup of unlocking, installing the custom recovery and initial rooting that I can't really remember what I did and what order they have to be done. I just want to make sure I don't do them in the wrong order and have to redo any of the previous steps again.
Thanks

johnusesandroid said:
So I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a G930F. Sorry for the noob question, but when it arrives, what should I do with it and in what order? End goal would be to be able to install custom roms easily when new roms are released.
I was thinking:
1. Flash new firmware
2. Enable OEM unlock from settings
3. Disable auto updates
4. Flash recovery TWRP
5. Wipe data
6. Root
7. Setup phone
Thoughts?
Also for the firmware, I'm going to be using this on US T-mobile. Should I do UK firmware or German T-Mobile?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love root as well, but the S7 is so good, really doesn't require root at this point. If root is what you desire, you can look in the S7 forums, and they should walk you through what you should do, but your set-up doesn't seem bad. I still suggest sticking to the S7 at least for a week and see if you really need root. With Samsung's Theme store, launchers, and etc, besides removing bloat, having exposed and etc, not sure why its important to root at least at this point.

I'm not clear on whether the bootloader on the 930F can be unlocked; you might want to check on that first.
In terms of root, I still use Xposed and Titanium Backup. Yes, you can already hide the quick-connect icon, but the brightness slider is locked on there (SQL Editor needed to get rid of it, another root app). You can also use the fun features of root - I use Tasker to turn NFC on only for those apps that need it and turn it off when I don't, use Keepass2Android's automatic keyboard switching, etc.). I rooted mine within the first hour of having the phone home and turned on. The phone still isn't perfect, and honestly still not as flexible as many of us would like, but it's not a do or die situation anymore either.

Truth6199 said:
I love root as well, but the S7 is so good, really doesn't require root at this point. If root is what you desire, you can look in the S7 forums, and they should walk you through what you should do, but your set-up doesn't seem bad. I still suggest sticking to the S7 at least for a week and see if you really need root. With Samsung's Theme store, launchers, and etc, besides removing bloat, having exposed and etc, not sure why its important to root at least at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah I'm just the kind of guy who can't stand not having admin/root rights on my stuff :laugh:
but yeah a couple root only apps that I can't live without are xposed (and the hold power button to turn on flashlight mod), titanium backup, f.lux, etc...
databoy2k said:
I'm not clear on whether the bootloader on the 930F can be unlocked; you might want to check on that first.
In terms of root, I still use Xposed and Titanium Backup. Yes, you can already hide the quick-connect icon, but the brightness slider is locked on there (SQL Editor needed to get rid of it, another root app). You can also use the fun features of root - I use Tasker to turn NFC on only for those apps that need it and turn it off when I don't, use Keepass2Android's automatic keyboard switching, etc.). I rooted mine within the first hour of having the phone home and turned on. The phone still isn't perfect, and honestly still not as flexible as many of us would like, but it's not a do or die situation anymore either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
awesome sounds like the kind of setup I would do, thanks
but the order of what I'm planning on doing is correct though, right? If I'm understanding them correctly, I need to do firmware before root since firmware flash would get me back to root-less stock I think. I need to do root right after twrp and data wipe because of that boot loop issue they described in the twrp thread. so firmware first, twrp second, then root third?

johnusesandroid said:
yeah I'm just the kind of guy who can't stand not having admin/root rights on my stuff :laugh:
but yeah a couple root only apps that I can't live without are xposed (and the hold power button to turn on flashlight mod), titanium backup, f.lux, etc...
awesome sounds like the kind of setup I would do, thanks
but the order of what I'm planning on doing is correct though, right? If I'm understanding them correctly, I need to do firmware before root since firmware flash would get me back to root-less stock I think. I need to do root right after twrp and data wipe because of that boot loop issue they described in the twrp thread. so firmware first, twrp second, then root third?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems right. Plug your SIM in first by the way; the phone does a wipe when it gets a sim for the first time (not sure about thereafter; don't have a second sim to test with). But yes, your process is essentially what I did.