How to Reset Your G1 and Start From Scratch
It came time to part with my review unit of the G1 (Thanks T-Mobile!) and send the phone back to its rightful owner. But what about all the personal info on the phone? The apps, texts, e-mails, AIMs and all that jazz? A quick search of AndroidForums.com turned up an easy way of restoring your G1 to factory settings:
if you power off your phone and hold the home (shaped like a house) and the end (red hangup button) for about 20 seconds you get a triangle with an exclamation point and a picture of the G1.
Now all you have to do is pop open that pretty QWERTY keyboard and there are several keyboard shortcuts you can use to accomplish what you want to do:
Home+Back reboot system now – (Soft Reboot)
Alt+L – Toggle log text display – (Toggles between the exclamation and menu options)
Alt+S – apply sdcard:update.zip – (Not brave enough yet)
Alt+W – Wipe data/factory reset – (What I chose, had to re-register, out of the box settings)
I used the last option (Alt + W) and restored my borrowed G1 to factory settings. I’m sure the soft reboot could be helpful too, should you run into problems a troubled application may have caused. We didn’t try the other 2 options so use at your own risk.
By the way, I couldn’t live without a G1 so I made the leap and purcahsed a G1 with a T-Mobile service plan. I’m still a loyal Verizon customer and will simply have to keep both plans… but I NEEDED the G1. So basically, you can expect the application reviews and insight you’ve gotten at phandroid.com to cotinue since we’ve got our very own device now!
[Via Android Forums]