Plan a reset for a real device without performing one

applied · 40 min · Objective 1.1

Task

Produce the pre-reset plan for a device you actually have: what would be lost, what must be captured first, in what order, and what would happen if the account credentials turned out to be wrong. This is the applied lab for the objective because the hands-on version costs the reader their only phone, and the plan is the artefact a technician is genuinely asked to produce.

Steps

  1. Record the device's account identity in lab/reset/account.txt: which account it is signed in to, and whether you can currently sign in to that account on a different device.
  2. Inspect the backup settings and write lab/reset/backup.csv with header item,in_backup,last_completed,evidence covering photos, messages, application data, authenticator seeds and documents. evidence is where you read it, not what you assume.
  3. Write lab/reset/authenticators.csv with header account,factor_type,transferable,recovery_codes_held for every account whose second factor lives on this device.
  4. Write lab/reset/order.md giving the numbered sequence you would follow, ending with the check that proves the activation lock has been cleared.
  5. Write lab/reset/failure.md describing what would happen, specifically, if you performed the reset and then could not produce the account password.

Verify

grep -c . lab/reset/account.txt
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" backup item(s)"}' lab/reset/backup.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && $3=="" {n++} END {print n" item(s) with no completion date"}' lab/reset/backup.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=4 {n++} END {print n" authenticator(s)"}' lab/reset/authenticators.csv
grep -Eic 'activation lock|factory reset protection|sign(ed)? out' lab/reset/order.md
grep -Eic 'lock|unrecoverable|cannot|paperweight' lab/reset/failure.md

Five or more backup items with evidence, the order naming the sign-out step, and the failure note describing the lock. A backup row with no completion date is a finding, not an error -- it is the most common real state and it is what this lab is looking for.

Notes

The step everyone skips is the authenticators. Moving them is a separate job with its own procedure, and after the wipe it is impossible.

This is an independent study companion for CompTIA A+ Core 2 220-1202 and is not produced by or endorsed by CompTIA.