Motorola Q Warning

If you have a Motorola Q and you care anything about security, like me, you’ll probably set an alphanumeric device password at some point or another. Here’s a word of warning for you: do NOT use any special symbols (the ones found by pressing alt-shift) in your password! The set password screen will allow you to enter a password as such, but when your device locks, the enter password screen will freak out (for lack of a better term) when you attempt to input the symbol, and you will be unable to unlock your device.

If this happens, the only thing you can do is a hard reset to clear the password. Unfortunately, you can only hard reset the device from within the start menu, which you can not access if your device is locked. Basically you’re completely screwed out of getting back into your Q. Note: If you have not yet updated your Q to the latest firmware when this happens, I have heard that doing so will work to reset your device password. I have not tested this, however, as I had already applied the update and could not re-apply it. The software update is available here.

If you get into my situation where there is no way to reset the device and clear the password, be warned: Verizon and Motorola will give you a huge hassle and runaround. I spent a grand total of about 6 hours on the phone with Motorola and Verizon, was told by Motorola that inputting symbols into the password is impossible, and was basically infuriated by the lack of customer service. It’s only for the help of one persistent technical support guru at the Easton Verizon store that I was able to finally get something resolved, and they’re shipping me a new phone.