Kobo reset to factory defaults by itself!

[wwat]

My wife has been using her Kobo since January without too many issues. I noticed a few updates came through and I applied each of them without any issues. A few days ago she turn on the Kobo and a screen came up saying it was going to factory defaults or something similar. I think everything has been lost but I will find out once the current update has completed. Tonight I just got time to take a look at it and once I turned it on I saw the screen that ask for a connection to the wifi network and the was prompted for an update which is currently in progress.

Anyone experience this or got any suggestions as to what happened. This was a vanilla unit, not rooted or anything like that.

Thanks. W.

[wwat]

Installed everything again and just about back to the point where she can download library books again. I notice the app installation files were still in the download directory but all of the applications needed reinstalling and everything needed to be reconfigured.
She wouldn't know how to perform a complete factory reset on her own and was simply using the Kobo to read her library books. Why on earth would this device reset itself to factory defaults?? Very frustrating and disappointing for her and I just had to spend a few hours getting it back to a usable state. Unbelievable that the can sell this faulty product and get away with it.

[Laridae]

Mine did that too, last week for no reason. I've had it since Christmas. It was slow and balky before that but never anything like this! Vanilla version, no rooting or anything fancy (wouldn't know how)
All the operating software was recently updated, as requested, and then it inexplicably froze and then reset itself. Now I have to start again from scratch re-installing all my apps and reconfiguring everything!
I'm not a happy camper!
I wish I could get a refund on this PoS and start over with something more reliable.

[wwat]

Its a little early but I'm starting to suspect that the cause lay in one of the recent updates. Do you or anyone else know when the most recent update was pushed out?

[49Kat]

I just took a quick glance at this board, and there's a thread about the March 2nd update, so that's probably the one.

[Kboland]

There was actually a follow up update pushed through on March 12th. It's identical to the March 2nd one, but fixed an issue with the auto brighness feature.

I haven't used my Vox much since the updates were pushed so I can't really speak to any issues, but I am more and more convinced that Kobo should either issue a recall on the Vox, or quickly find real solutions to the issues plauging the unit.

Cheers

[paulsalter]

Originally Posted by Kboland

but I am more and more convinced that Kobo should either issue a recall on the Vox, or quickly find real solutions to the issues plauging the unit.

Cheers

well they are not getting mine back

it works perfectly, as i am sure it does for many people

[lorken]

Awww, CRAP. Mine just did the same thing this week! Spontaneously reset itself to factory settings.

I received it in December as a Christmas gift, and after a lot of reading on this board and others I finally got it loaded with just the apps I wanted (not too many, but enough to make it interesting). Had a few different readers, had a file manager, had some scheduling apps, some games, etc. I used it almost every day to read, do crosswords, or play sudoku. I also used a list app to make a lot of lists and to jot down a lot of quick notes on various things.

It was working just fine until thursday (May 10). It worked fine that afternoon, but in the evening when I turned it on it gave me the message saying something went wrong with the startup process and Kobo was now going to reset itself to the factory settings. Despite my horrified cry of "NOOOOOOO!!" it went ahead and did just that. I was so upset I just turned it off and didn't touch it until 3 days later.

Today I finally mustered up the courage to turn it on and go through the "new out of the box" startup process and yup, everything I had is GONE. I'm both upset and PO'd. Not only did I lose my apps, but I lost a lot of notes! (And the startup process was glitchy now too, it took 6 tries to complete. That didn't happen when I first did it in December.)

Right now I don't even have the heart to try to remember which apps I had loaded on it, let alone go hunt them down and rebuild the d*mn thing. I don't even really want to look at it.

I guess I need some time to mourn its death. Then maybe I'll try to rebuild it.

But I'll never trust it again.


PS I'm going to search the other threads for the answer to this, but maybe someone who knows can post it here more quickly: Once I get my apps re-downloaded and re-installed, will any of my old data for them (eg. my notes or lists) show up? (please please please?)

[dmacmart]

So sorry to hear of your loss :-( I can't speak for all your apps, but most of them will probably not have any storage off the device, so most of your data is probably gone.

Something I have done, that you might consider. I save all apks that I install in Dropbox. This can be done from my computer. So should I ever need to wipe the slate clean again (or, heaven forbid, my slate gets cleaned without my knowledge or consent) at least I know what apps I had, and what version. My Angry Birds progress is gone though.

On a clean Vox, you can go to your Dropbox web page in the browser, install the Dropbox app, and then install your apps one by one as you need them.

[mr_nobody]

Considering how flaky the vox is, titanium backup is a must. It backs up all apps AND settings and the paid version includes builtin dropbox support. As with most useful apps, it requires root for some things, not sure which but you can look it up on their site.

[lorken]

Thanks dmacmart and mr_nobody, I'll look into both of those...one day...when I can get up the motivation. Right now I'm just gonna leave it in a drawer for a few more days at least.

[renee0986]

Originally Posted by Kboland

There was actually a follow up update pushed through on March 12th. It's identical to the March 2nd one, but fixed an issue with the auto brighness feature.

I haven't used my Vox much since the updates were pushed so I can't really speak to any issues, but I am more and more convinced that Kobo should either issue a recall on the Vox, or quickly find real solutions to the issues plauging the unit.

Cheers

My (virgin) Vox was fine before the March 2/12 update but since then I have been experiencing a couple of issues. These issues on top of the fact that I had a hard time trying to get my Vox to update and it reset about a dozen or more times before it was complete makes me loose a little respect for the Vox.

I fully support Indigo as a company and would continue to love my Vox should it not have encountered issues. But now it seems that I spend more time tinkering with it to try and make it work than I do actually reading it. At first I was all game to put up with a couple of glitches given it was the 1st release of new technology, but I had hoped by this point they would have done more to correct the issues with the Vox.

If they issued a recall at this point I think I would take it and get one of the more basic Kobo eReading devices or buy a tablet and start using the Kobo App. I never had one issue while using the Kobo app on my smartphone...perhaps I should have stuck with that rather than wasting $200 on something that doesn't work half the time.

[mr_nobody]

Originally Posted by renee0986

but I had hoped by this point they would have done more to correct the issues with the Vox.

This. I will not buy anything from kobo again.

That being said, all talk of a recall is just a pipedream, I guarantee it ain't gonna happen...

[renee0986]

Originally Posted by mr_nobody

That being said, all talk of a recall is just a pipedream, I guarantee it ain't gonna happen...

I agree with you 100% there. BUT as most businesses are, they don't care as long as they have your money in hand. Although, I would even be satisfied if they were willing to trade my kobo for $200 worth of store credit so I could buy paper books and at least get some enjoyment out of the money I gave their company.

Forget using it as a tablet. If I were even able to read books without having to fight with it I would be satisfied. AND I really don't have the patients to deal with their help centre anymore - there is only so much factory resetting, reinstalling of all apps and sideloading all books you can do before you don't care to bother with it anymore.

[49Kat]

Wow, that's rather concerning, that the Vox may just decide to reset itself one day, for no apparent reason. I should make sure I have all my apps available, just in case. Most of them are already on my laptop. The books can always be redownloaded to the Vox.

I'm enjoying my Vox and I find, now that the novelty of the other things like games and browsing have worn off, I mainly use it for reading and I actually do very little web browsing with it. I have to say, though, that the odd time I watch a video on it, the display is very nice. If I had the internet connection to be able to use Netflix, it would sure be fun to watch shows on it.

I'm not having to fuss with glitches anymore, which I'm grateful for because that gets pretty old when all you want to do is read a good book.

My Sony started it and the Vox reinforced it, combining 2 of my favorite things--gadgets plus books, and with the Vox's wifi, I am easily downloading books from various sources. I frequently make a point of downloading the book onto my laptop and sometimes even transferring copies to my Sony as well, though. I use several apps for reading. The Kobo app is acting up a bit with a bug also being reported by others--the preview banner showing up on purchased books. I removed all my books that really are 'preview' and in my Vox library, I start it up on the "My books" screen. Swiping, I can get to the "Preview" page. If all is well, it should be empty. If one of my books shows up there, I open it, navigate to the middle, and close the book. The preview banner disappears. I used to have to refresh the library to get it to move back over from the Preview page to the My Books page, but today I just swiped back to My Books and the book moved over.

So I wouldn't return my Vox if there ever were a recall issued, but it's still not a product I could heartily recommend at this point unless the person I was talking to had a fair bit of technical experience. As an alternate reader, I still like my Sony. I have the silver, and with it's brushed metal finish, it looks and feels like a good quality product. I still use it if I am in a situation where I know I'm going to be a long time without access to a battery charge.