Activesync and Remote Wipe

[stressds]

Hello,

I'm currently waiting (impatiently) for the Lumia 920 to be released fully in Canada. IN the meantime I'm working on getting my company to approve this phone as a Bring Your Own Device.

The concern they are having, and the one that I cannot answer is whether it can be remote wiped. I'm sure that it can, but what I would like to know is whether the whole device must be remote wiped, or can they remotely wipe just my exchange email / calendar / tasks that are synced with activesync (i.e. not my personal email from another account and videos, photos, apps etc.)

Thanks!

 

[Landsharkk]

I know there's a way to remotely access your Windows Phone 7 device from the internet. So if you were to lose the phone, etc you could find it via online and also lock the phone or even post a message on the lock screen for whoever finds it to read. I don't know if you could also erase the phone remotely or not.

I'm searching, but can't remember where that website is (it's a microsoft website).

EDIT: found it: https://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/my

And yes, you CAN erase the phone (at least with windows phone 7) remotely.

Erase your phone?

Erasing your phone will return it to the factory state and you will not be able to find it using windowsphone.com. You also won’t be able to buy things from the Store until you sign in on a phone again.

 

[stressds]

I know there's a way to remotely access your Windows Phone 7 device from the internet. So if you were to lose the phone, etc you could find it via online and also lock the phone or even post a message on the lock screen for whoever finds it to read. I don't know if you could also erase the phone remotely or not.

I'm searching, but can't remember where that website is (it's a microsoft website).

EDIT: found it: https://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/my

And yes, you CAN erase the phone (at least with windows phone 7) remotely.

Ah.. but can you remote wipe just one email account? I.e. the work email and not the personal email account.

 

[Landsharkk]

Ah.. but can you remote wipe just one email account? I.e. the work email and not the personal email account.

For WP7 it seems you can only erase the whole phone (back to factory defaults). I don't know if this changes with WP8 or not (I don't have a WP8 device yet).

 

[brmiller1976]

I am pretty sure that the remote wipe function for Exchange (which does work on WP8) nukes the entire phone, not just the e-mail account in question. All files, apps, etc. are wiped when the code gets sent out.

If your company runs Good Technology, the kill code simply takes down the Good component (which is a separate app), not the entire device.

 

[Landsharkk]

On a positive note, the only thing you'll be losing on a full phone wipe is the apps and app settings, and any txt messages you haven't already backed up.

With WP8 (and also WP7) your office docs, emails, and contacts (and pictures/videos too) are all backed up to Skydrive automatically (although might require some initial configuration to set this all up).

I could toss my WP7 phone into the ocean right now and lose not worry about losing anything important.

 

[sutt359]

Yep remote wipe works via activesync / Exchange.

Wp8 devices are a 920 and 620