Coyote Tracks

Yesterday, a wonderful person who goes by the handle of pzil on the Palm Prē forums gave me a solution to my “You are signed out, there is no escape” woes. You can read pzil’s solution as posted on the Palm forum, but just in case, I’m also reproducing the meat of it here, in case it helps anyone else.

Again, I take absolutely no credit for this one; all credit goes to pzil.

Phone must be rooted – I did with the USB cable

1. root your way in
2. Invoke sqlite: (I’m not sure if the db file may be different, but it will be in that dir)

   sqlite3 /var/palm/data/file_.usr.palm.applications.com.palm.app.firstuse_0/0000000000000003.db

   update properties set value=’false’ where name=’isInvalidToken’;

   update properties set value=’language’ where name=’screenName’;

   .quit

3. Exit the linux prompt, and reboot your phone

I’ve tried the above, and it worked like a charm. After rebooting, I had to tell the phone that I wanted to speak English (not Spanish), re-agree to the Terms and Conditions, and then sign back in to my Palm Profile. It automatically pre-filled my email address; I had to remember my password. Then the Prē downloaded my profile data, asked for another reboot, and came back up as if nothing had ever been wrong.

Two other people on the Prē forum also claim to have had success with pzil’s method.

But what if you don’t have a rooted Prē? Well, I got the following email from Palm tech support this morning. The instructions are messy and scary, and I’m not sure how easily I could follow them if I actually wanted to. I’m glad I don’t have to. If anyone tries these, I’d love to hear about your experience.

Hello Kai,

As you had the issue regarding “getting signed out and erase all data” screen on Prē device, we have found resolution about it.

Please follow the below given steps :

1. First you need to restart the phone using webOS Doctor which will erase all contents of the phone, including data stored in the USB drive.
2. Then download the webOS Doctor from palm.com/rom. Make sure that WebOS doctor will need the phone’s serial number to download the file.
3. Then insert the USB cable into the AC charger, and insert the AC charger into a wall outlet.
4. Now remove and reinsert the phone battery. Please check the link given below to remove and replace battery :
   http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/44919_en.html

   Then, Press and hold the volume up button, and insert the USB cable into the phone.

5. A large USB icon should appear on the phone screen.
6. Then disconnect the USB cable from the AC charger and run webOS Doctor on the computer by clicking Run.
   Note: Do not connect the USB cable to the computer.
7. Now click Next in the beginning screen of webOS Doctor, confirm their language selection, and accept the terms and conditions.
8. Then select Next to continue. The webOS Doctor will check the system requirements before proceeding. This may take a few minutes.
9. When prompted by the webOS Doctor, Then connect the phone to the computer with the USB cable. The “Next” button will highlight.
10. Now select the Next button. The webOS Doctor will recover the phone. Then disconnect the phone when completed.
11. The phone will restart into Setup. Tap your language on the screen to select it. Your phone will check the network for voice and data activation.
12. When the Phone Activated message is displayed, tap Next. To accept the terms and conditions for Palm services, tap Accept.
13. Tap Sign in With My Profile.
    • Enter your email address.
    • Enter your password.
    • Tap Sign In.

If you still face issues, you can get back to us on live chat or you can contact our voice support team at: 877-426-3777. Support is available Mon-Fri from 6:00 AM PST to 8:00 PM PST and Sat-Sun from 8:00 AM PST to 5:00 PM PST.

Thanks & regards.
Palm chat support.

It seems like one of the lessons to be learned from this is: Always root your phone, even if you can’t imagine what you’d do with such power. Somewhere down the line, it might come in handy.

Any other lessons? I’m open to suggestions.