Intro
This article describes how to factory reset your HTC Hero (also known as HTC G2 Touch) so that you can enter your Google Mail account credentials.
Background
On an unlocked HTC Hero if you swap SIM cards you can lose your Google Mail account settings from the phone, this can also happen for other reasons. Once this has happened it is impossible to enter you credentials again without performing a factory reset. The problem with doing this is that you lose all of your contacts, SMS, applications, APN settings, saved wifi connection, etc...
Backing up Your Data
Good news is that you do not lose anything on the SD Card so your precious music and image files are safe, to back up everything else you will need to use a (usually paid for) application downloaded via the Market. Here is the catch; you cannot access the Market without entering your Google Mail account credentials which is why you wanted to rest in the first place. Oh dear!
All is not lost, we can do the following
- If you were using Google Mail to synch your contacts then they are already backed up on-line and when you connect again they will be downloaded to your phone again. Any contacts that you added since loosing the Google Mail account from your Hero will need to be written down on paper for manual entry again after reset. SIM contacts will not be affected at all so you could save those contacts to SIM if you have room.
- APN settings can easily be written down on paper or are automatically filled in by your network provider.
- Applications can be downloaded again from the Market (if paid for once you should usually be able to download again for free)
- Wifi settings you can enter again as you use them.
- SMS messages, these are a problem you will lose all of these but fortunately there is a free application available for baking these up, see below.
Backing up Your SMS
There is a free application that can be downloaded from the internet and copied to your phone's SD card via the USB cable from your PC. The application is called SMS Backup & Restore and the .apk file can be downloaded for free from here. The application is extremely simple to use, back-up your SMS to the SD card, perform the factory reset then after entering your Google credentials again you can install the application again and use it to restore your SMS from the SD card.
Android .apk Files
All Android applications whether downloaded via the Market or from a website are .apk files, those downloaded by the Market are automatically installed for you. To install an .apk that you have downloaded you will need to use an application installer app for example "Apps Installer" a quick Google search provides a great deal of information on how to do this.
Reset HTC Hero Back to the Factory Default Settings
The following is quoted from the HTC support website.
"Resetting the phone deletes all data, including downloaded applications, and resets the phone back to its initial state. Press HOME > MENU, then tap Settings > Security > Factory data reset. On the Factory data reset screen, tap Reset phone and then tap Erase everything. To reset the phone using phone buttons, with the phone turned off, press and hold the HOME, END CALL/POWER, and BACK buttons. The reset process will start after a few seconds."
Backing up Your SMS to Google Mail
Once you have your Hero up and running again you might want to take advantage of another useful application called "SMS Backup" by Christoph Studer, this available via the Market and backs up your SMS to a folder in your Google Mail account automatically as you send and receive SMS, you need never lose your precious SMS messages again!