With users finding so many ways to tweak their Palm Pre's, some wonder if they might "Brick" their Pre (make it stop working). The good news is that you basically can't brick a Pre and if it seems 'bricked,' there are lots of ways to restore it. In extreme cases, which translates to 'hardware failure,' you can brick your Pre, but we're going to assume you know what to do when that happens (get a replacement).
So you've managed to get your Pre in dire straits. We're going to walk you through the steps you should take to try to save it.
After the break, we will detail how to do a quick Restart, Partial Erase, and Full Erase. Then we'll detail how to use the webOS Repair Utility, webOS Doctor, and what to do if even the palm.com website instructions don't work. If you know the tricks, you can save your data too.
One quick note: Since that webOS 1.2.1 update just came out, you may need to wait a bit for some of the tools we're going to discuss to be fully updated to work. At the moment, webOS Doctor and WebOS Repair Utility are not compatible with 1.2.1. When that changes, we'll update this article.
Can You Brick a Pre?
Simple answer is that short of smashing your Pre with a real brick, it is almost impossible to "brick" a Pre.
Palm has built in a number of safeguards starting with the fact that webOS is built on the Linux operating system. Linux is tough. Also, if you know the tricks, the webOS has a number of easy steps you can take if your Pre does not respond.
So what do you do if your Pre stops working? Don't panic. Here are the steps we recommend for an unhappy Pre, in order of escalating need. Basically, we recommend working in the order we present here until your Pre is back up on its feet.
Restart
Sometimes apps don't clean up well when they are turned off. In some cases behind-the-scenes programs such as "services" may still be running. If your Pre stops working right or is sluggish, a simple restart may be just the trick. Here's how:
Tap Launcher
Tap Device Info
Scroll down and tap Reset OptionsThen tap Restart. You should be back in business in a couple of minutes!
But what if the Pre has stopped working and you can't get to the Reset Options menu? PreCentral members have found an undocumented trick! Press the Orange Key 
, Sym key 
, and R key at the same time to force a restart.
If you are not so ambidextrous, you can also press and hold the power button while sliding the Mute button back and forth 3 times (or more).
Finally, as a last resort, you can simply pull the battery out and put it back in.
WebOS Repair Utility
Sometimes the problem with the Pre is that a file has been changed. An app or tweak may have left something behind. In many cases, PreCentral member Jason Robitaille's WebOS Repair Utility is just the ticket. It checks which files are altered or damaged and can quickly repair them. The best part is that no data or settings should be lost. Click Option--> Override Compatibility for a deeper cleanup that will also remove tweaks and themes.
NOTE: ensure that webOS Repair Utility has downloaded the latest version of webOS Doctor (it happens during installation). Again, at the moment webOS Doctor isn't compatible with 1.2.1, so WebOS Repair Utility isn't either.
Partial Erase
"Partial Erase" is not as scary as it sounds. What it does is erase all of the data on your Pre except what you have in your USB storage area. If you can still use the Pre, first backup your data:
Tap Backup
If you can't do a last Backup, you may not have to worry too much. Your Pre should have been set to automatically backup every day. Backup saves your contacts, calendar, tasks, system settings, bookmarks, and Palm applications you downloaded to your phone. Information stored in online accounts like Google should be synchronized by the online provider. A Partial Erase should not erase your music, photos, wallpaper, or other personal files you have saved.
Are you ready? Here are the steps to do a Partial Erase:
Scroll down and tap Reset Options
Now tap Partial Erase and then confirm. Once you are back to your regular screen you will be asked to sign into your Palm profile to restore your contacts, calendar, tasks, system settings, bookmarks, and Palm applications you downloaded to your phone. Information stored in online accounts like Google should be restored by the online provider. Check your Email and Contacts to confirm accounts.
You will need to set up WiFi networking and Bluetooth pairing again. There are also some things that are annoyingly not restored properly yet (ex. linked contacts). Your phone may feel sluggish for a while as it continues to sync contacts and other info.
Full Erase
Full erase is like a Partial Erase but as the name implies, it deletes everything. Think of it like reformatting a hard drive. Consider doing a full erase before exchanging a Pre or selling or giving it to someone else. Again, hopefully you left Automatic Backups on. To do a last phone backup tap Launcher and then tap Backup as above.
If possible also make one last backup all of your music, photos, and other Pre files. A simple way is to connect the Pre as a USB Drive and copy everything on the Pre to a subdirectory on your computer, maybe called "PreBackup." To set up free, automatic daily backups, see the Backup & Syncing Tips.
To do a Full Erase, take a deep breath and do this:
Scroll down and tap Reset Options
Now tap Full Erase and then confirm. Once you are back to your regular screen you will need to go into Email and Contact and confirm accounts. You will also need to set up WiFi and Bluetooth pairing again.
After a full erase, you will be asked to sign into your Palm profile to restore your contacts, calendar, tasks, system settings, bookmarks, and Palm applications. Information stored in online accounts like Google should be restored by the online provider. You can also sign in to your Palm profile on a new Pre and restore your data to the new phone in the same way. You will need to reinstall Homebrew Apps manually. Your phone may feel sluggish for a while as it continues to sync contacts and other info.
You can connect your Pre as a USB drive and restore the Pre files you backed up to your computer including all of your music, photos, and other Pre files. See the instructions above.
The webOS Doctor is in!
One last reminder, as of this writing, webOS Doctor comes with version 1.2, not 1.2.1. the below instructions will work fine, but you'll have to do a software update immediately after you finish these instructions.
During an update or even normal usage, there is a chance that your phone may no longer respond. Even pressing Orange Key , Sym key , and R key at the same time may not force a restart. Pulling the battery may not even work.
In this case, webOS Doctor may be just what the doctor ordered. The webOS Doctor can fully restore your phone. Unfortunately the webOS Doctor instructions at palm.com/support may not revive your Pre.
The webOS Doctor instructions below should work almost every time:
1. Backup your Pre one last time if you can: tap Launcher and then tap Backup. Use the instructions above to make one last backup of your music, photos, and other Pre files.
2. Disconnect your phone from your computer.
3. Download webOS Doctor for your phone to your computer.
If the webOS Doctor does not automatically run after you download it, double-click the file in the location where you downloaded it.
4. Select your language and click Next.
5. Click Accept to accept the terms of use.
6. After your system is checked, click Next.
7. You are now starting your phone in Recovery Mode:
7.1. If your phone is on, turn it off by pressing and holding the power button and then tapping Turn Off.
7.2. If your phone's USB cable is connected to your computer, unplug it. Do not connect your phone back to your computer until the webOS Doctor tells you to.
7.3. Hold the Volume Up button on the side of your phone down while you remove and then reinstall the battery.
7.4. While still holding down the Volume Up button, plug your USB cable into your phone. Continue holding the button down until the full-screen USB logo appears on the screen.
7.5. Make sure that you have connected the USB cable directly into your computer, not through a USB hub or other device. A "Found New Hardware" wizard may run.
8. Click Next.
• Warning: Do not disconnect your phone from your computer during this process. Disconnecting the phone may damage your personal information.
• Note: If the battery level is below 30%, the recovery process first charges your battery. This can take up to one hour.
9. When the Reset Complete screen appears, click Done.
10. After the phone resets, the original startup screen will appear.
11. You will be asked to sign into your Palm profile to restore your contacts, calendar, tasks, system settings, bookmarks, and Palm applications. Information stored in online accounts like Google should be restored by the online provider.
You can also sign in to your Palm profile on a new Pre and restore your data to the new phone in the same way. You will need to reinstall Homebrew Apps manually. Your phone may feel sluggish for a while as it continues to sync contacts and other info.
You can connect your Pre as a USB drive and restore the Pre files you backed up to your computer including all of your music, photos, and other Pre files. See the instructions above.
The technical version of these instructions is here: Palm webOSdev Device ROM Tools
Your Pre won't be another brick in the wall. (Apologies to Pink Floyd.)
Craig Lincoln, aka Milominderbinder, is a moderator on the PreCentral forums and the developer of the Palm Pre Tips and Tricks. Craig's recent articles include Music Player (Remix), There's a Patch for That (Part 1), Part 2, and Part 3, and Getting Started: Homebrew Apps, Patches, and Themes with WebOS Quick Install.
This guide is offered "As-Is" and without warranty of any kind. In no event shall the author or PreCentral be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability.
Comments
partial erase seems a lot more convenient.
How do i run WebOS Doctor and other applications? Do i need to download something on my computer?
i had a real bad pre once. it wouldnt partial erase, full erase, RTN erase, nothing would reset my phone. only thing that helped was to connect to quick install and restore back to 1.03 or 1.02 watever quick install says but it reset my phone and the software was still 1.1 but i had everything backed up.
did a full erase today after the 1.02.1 update because the phone was showing phone offline, thus not allowing me to make or receive calls. The Sprint repair store tried everything, but I guess they didn't do the full erase, which worked for me after I left the store. Unfortunately, I lost all my apps and stuff, but it worked regardless.
i did a partial erase of my phone last night in order to see if that corrected the problem of not being able to download nerw apps even tho i had 3GBs of memory left. Unfortunately i shouldn't have done that cuz even after the 1.2.1 update and a palm support recommendation of a full erase i have my service go "phone offline" mode once every 5/6 minutes!!! nothing has wroked with palm or sprint support! PLEASE HELP! will WebOS doctor work?????
Does doing a partial erase wipe out your SMS text messaging history?
Yes
Thats a Great Find ..( For Me )..i Never knew about this.
Thanks BatMan.
i completely forgot about webOS repair. a theme i installed left behind some stuff and i had to do update to 1.2.1 to completely get rid of it. well...at least i know for next time
I completely messed up my phone, AND RECOVERED IT!
I had themes/tweaks/root changes when I installed 1.2.0. I updated it, tried to apply the theme, 4x4, and extra pages afterwards and I lost everything on my launcher. SO... I tried to do the OTA Wipe through my Palm Profile. Well... it took forever for some reason, and my battery died during the process.
After that, my phone wouldn't do ANYTHING except for sit in the Palm logo screen on start-up.
The WebOS Doctor wouldn't recognize the phone was even connected. Sprint tried for an hour and couldn't get anything to work. I took it home while they ordered me a new phone (came in the next morning).
I got it to work that night by trying dozens of times for WebOS Doctor to recognize the device. It FINALLY DID. What I did:
- Started WebOS Doctor, and advanced to the screen prompting to connect the phone
- Removed battery to get it turned off
- Popped battery in
- Immediately HELD the Volume Up button
- Plugged in USB
- Clicked the Next button on WebOS Doctor that said, "Click next once device is connected" (or something like that)
It recognized the device, and said it would have to charge the phone before continuing. It did, for about 15 minutes, and restored everything on the phone back to factory specs. I logged into my profile, and everything was smooth after!
I'm having the same problem, it wont let me hit the next button, and i've done it a ton of times. Once in awhile it will let me click next, but then it would freeze on the USB screen on my phone and WebOSDoctor will say "device disconnected", what gives?
Keep trying. It took me probably over 50 attempts and a couple hours here and there. All it needs is that one connection to be recognized and it'll work. Keep unplugging and replugging, try holding the Volume Up button at different times.
palm.com/rom!! help pleaseee
i used webos doctor to restore my pre bac to factory settings .. becase i forgot to unistall my patches and every tweak .. when i tried to re download them it would tell me i needed to remove the old and install the new .. well when i tried to unistall the old it wouldnt let me . so i jus tried to run the doctor and when it finished it said it could not recover my phone and to go to the palm website for help .. my phone was froze on a chip on the screen and when i pulled the battery out and put it back in i tried to turn it on and the worst thing happen .. palm.com/rom .. thats all that comes up! .. wtf did i do to my pre .. can anyone help me pleaseeeee
Very appropriate article!
I too tried to remove some tweaks post 1.2.1 update and the launcher stopped working. The only thing that would pop up was the universal search (Google, Twitter, Infopedia, etc) but I could not type (so no way to type "Device Info" to do a restart).
I ended up doing to WebOS doctor and it is currently reinstalling.
Thanks!
Erik
I love linux but the fact that you can't brick a pre has nothing to do with how tough linux is. It has to do with never needing to touchand therefore never breaking the part of the pre that allows you to reload everything. It's probably in rom or something. As long as you have the ability to reload the OS you'll be ok. Break that functionality and you're toast.
I just finished updating my pre to 1.2 and then installed almost 60 homebrew apps and tweaks and now here comes 1.2.1!!!!!!! Does anyone know if I can safely update to 1.2.1 without having to uninstall all of my tweaks and themes. Or will 1.2.1 install without causing any issues with everything I've installed. I would really hate to have to go through and install everything again. It's beginning to become a real pain in the you know what, all these updates is ridiculous. Can someone please give me the answer I want to hear? Is anyone in this same dilemma?
no need to remove the apps, just the theme and anyy tweaks. you can leave preware and the package manager service as well as the led service if you are using it. Quit complaining about updates, they are a sign the product you paid for is being supported and still relevant.
I can't believe you are complaining about updates!
I made the mistake of installing the update without removing my tweaks, the update loaded fine, most of my tweaks were gone. Then I opened up preware and saw that they were still installed. I tried to uninstall and reinstall them but the uninstall scripts kept giving me errors. I installed the emergency patch recovery patch, that allowed me to remove those packages safely. after I removed the EPR, I reinstalled the tweaks and everything was good.
I'm not quite sure exactly what the EPR does or how it works, but it worked for me.
Hello my fellow Pre loyalists,
I have a bit of a problem. When I use the phone on my Pre, the screen goes black and doesnt respond. I have to take out the battery to restore touchscreen functionality. I spoke to sprint and they say the phone probably has to be replaced. Any advice?
My wife's Pre had the same problem. In her case it turned out to be a bad screen protector! The Pre screen turns off when held next to the ear during a call. Somehow, the screen protector interfered with the sensor saying "no ear, turn screen back on".
Try running the hardware test. I think it's under Device Info app, but my Pre's battery is dead at the moment so I can't check the location :(
accidental duplicate comment removed
Let me chime in if I can. I had all sorts of homebrew apps installed on my Pre. I had used the WebOS Quick Install and that had several Tweaks on, I went to update to OS 1.2 and it acted weird. The launcher brought up the search window but I couldn't type or access the applications at all. I called Sprint Tech Support had me enter my msl (after entering code on key pad)and did a "reset". Well as you can guess, it didn't work. So he patched me onto ADVANCED tech support. She had me do the same thing... Nothing .... I mean nothing. It hung on the "preparing to reset phone" screen. Twice. I had got my phone on Sept 1st, and she advised me to return the phone as I was day away from the 30 day trial. (this happened on 29th, late nite.) After all this it couldn't even take or make calls. I was told to check this and that, and we found out the phone number got wiped out from memory. She helped me re-enter it so at least, I could make calls. So Wednesday morning (the 30th) I was all prepared to take my phone in. I got the kids off to school, and remembered something about connect to computers without the developer mode. I searched and found an emergency way to connect to computers. So I did that. But I recommend always call your phones provider first and see if they can't help you. I love mine and do not want to give mine up yet. I think it will be able to out beat the iPhone. I laugh at all the commercials Apple comes out with for the iPhone. And I must say I've seen quite a few. To me it's a sign they're trying to keep (or convert others) to there product because of amount of apps or how well there apps work with their phone. I like multiple open tabs (all running, i might add) Linux OS kernel, and full physical keyboard. So Apple, you have come out with 3 different (4? i lost track) phones, keep blocking syncing and keep coming out with commercials. One, Apple, embrace the syncing. People will be downloading form the Apple Store spending money on your site. Two, come out with a different approach to lure customers over to iPhones. I like the quick battery access. Can you give that option to phone users? Three, how many phone updates are there. i mean really, it's easier to software update than to replace a whole phone. I had a coworker who was upset the 3 months after buying his iPhone they came out with the 's'(i mentioned i lost track of how many phones came out). From what i've gathered, palm is working on getting video on the pre (i'm sure without coming out with a NEW phone). Just one thing I'd like to see them fix (or add) OBEX. If I were to use the Touchstone (which I don't see apple ever having) I can't connect to computer to take files home with me for work. And when I get home doing the same with Touchstone and files to computer. So far it's always a physical connection. So as of now, I see no need to buy a Touchstone until that issue is addressed and fixed. But still. I don't think that they will come out with a NEW phone I have to rush right out and get. I'm sure it's just an issue with webOS. It is Linux (free OS by the way) and Linux is still -somewhat- new as OS's go, BUT it looks to be here to stay. So as soon as people (palm or just average Joe) can figure out how to enable OBEX on the Pre I'll still be here. Waiting. This phone has the longevity to stay for a good while. Too bad for you Apple.
My Pre got F'd from the messaging ipk to add MSN ...
Anywho long story short I had to do a partial erase... after reboot everything seems ok... except my email no longer has an Inbox or an Outbox or a Sent Items or a Anything...
I've attemtped to remove/re-add - I've done a full erase... I've added a different account, I've added an exchange account... all of which still give me no inbox etc..
FYI :)
So is the phone going in and out of service due to the 1.2.1 update? or is it because i caused this issue?
I also cant get the 4x4 to work after i tried to install the 5x4....
Thanks!
about a month ago i was adding some tweaks to my phone when i discovered i couldnt read my messages.. when i clicked on it, it highlighted the message but would not show the message.. i also noticed that the icons on the launcher was kinda faded and sometimes showed the same icon twice under each other.. i reseted the phone, turned it off and back on, then went back and turned off all the tweaks i made. (this is before the 1.2 update) after the resets nothing seemed. then the computer couldnt even read my phone as a device. the top part of the screen went white and i couldnt even see the time or the battery icon.. so i did a partial reset thinkin that would help.. after that it erased all my contacts and everything.. after i logged back into my account i still didnt have any contacts. but i still had my pics and music.. still couldnt read my messages and the phone was basically dead.. so i got another one...
But can anybody tell me where i went wrong and wat i coulda did to get my contacts back and my phone workin?
Just wanted to let others know that I had a problem 2 days ago after trying to install themes with the WebOs Quick Install...my pre "locked up" in that tapping my launcher icon would only open the universal search screen and I couldn't type on the keyboard...I reset my device several times with no success...despite the fact that the above article said that WebOs Doctor was not compatible with WebOs 1.2.1, I ran it and it did fix my phone...so, I don't know if WebOs doctor had already been updated or if the incompatible statement above was incorrect...just an FYI for anyone who may have had similar problems
What if your USB stops responding, so there is no way to communicate with the device? This happened to me after taking a tweak off (battery disply). I had a white strip on top where the battery/network info would be, and all restarts wouldn't work. The USB connect quit working. I just went to Sprint and had them replace it.
I just want to know how to remove the themes but I do not know how. I don't want to mess up my phone if I install the themes on my phone.
fyi, i thought my pre was done for, til i stumbled on some great work Submitted by majikTib on Sat, 10/03/2009. popped battery out then back in, held the volume up button while connecting the usb cord and vola, everything acroding to plan.
So I did the software update to 1.3.1.. and now my pre is stuck in the "boot up mode" with the glowing light that says palm.. I wouldnt mind having to restore it to factory settings, but I have over 300 pictures that I took while touring the country.. (my band on the Today show, meeting the president.. etc). Is there ANY way of retrieving my photos from the phone. It wont recognize it as a usb, but Webos repair utility is able to scan it but finds nothing wrong... please help.. I wouldnt care if these pictures weren't once in a lifetime pictures...
-H
Man I was sweating that my pre was seriously bricked from the CPU scaling patch, but I was able to save it with the volume up trick and webosdoctor. Thanks a bunch!!!
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