How do I safely uninstall MobileIron encryption on my Nexus 7?

January 5, 2013 12:45 PM

How do I safely uninstall MobileIron encryption on my Nexus 7?

My company launched BYOD a couple of months ago and I wanted to try it out on my Nexus 7, running JellyBean (v4.2.1).

To do this, I was required to install TouchDown and Mobile@Work. I've since found the functionality offered by TouchDown to be clunky and the encryption of the tablet has slowed everything way down that I don't want to bother with it.

I've already uninstalled TouchDown but want to check first before uninstalling MobileIron for fear I brick the device. FAQ from my company IT has no info. Looks like I need to remove it from Device Administrators, but is there something else I need to do before uninstalling?

Please also let me know if I'm missing something else that may be dragging down my tablet's responsiveness.

If I do need to reset the device and reinstall JellyBean from scratch, does anyone have a straightforward guide for idiots?

posted by arcticseal to computers & internet (3 answers total)

This is the place to start.

The Nexus 7 is almost impossible to brick. Since it's a Google device, Google keeps updated versions of the firmware on line. It's just a matter of reloading the ROM. WugFresh's tool is (fairly) simple to use, and his website is a good jumping-off point for digging further.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:20 PM on January 5

It is highly unlikely that your table is encrypted with MobileIron- more likely than not, MobileIron (through device administrators) is just requiring that the tablet is encrypted with Android's own built-in encryption. If you remove MobileIron from the device admin list and uninstall the app, your tablet will still be encrypted, so it may just be as slow.

However, I'm not seeing any way of turning off encryption, so you might have to do a factory reset regardless.

The factory reset should just put your device in like-new condition. You don't have to reinstall Android. You will of course have to reinstall all your apps and settings.
posted by meowzilla at 4:56 PM on January 5

meowzilla - that's good info. I took the plunge, took MobileIron off the device admin list and uninstalled it. Seems to be working OK, but I'll give it a few hours and if it still feels sluggish, will do the factory reset. Maybe not as painful as I initially thought.
posted by arcticseal at 5:22 PM on January 5