Perform a remote wipe on a mobile phone

Your users carry sensitive corporate information in their pockets every day. If one of them loses their mobile phone, your data can end up in the hands of another person. If one of your users loses their mobile phone, you can use the Exchange Administration Center (EAC) or the Exchange Management Shell to wipe their phone clean of all corporate and user information.


A remote device wipe can reset a mobile phone to the factory default condition. Although the remote device wipe protocol as implemented in Exchange 2013 only requires the deletion of personal corporate data, all current mobile device manufacturers interpret the command as one that wipes all data on the phone. Many mobile device operating systems also wipe all data on any storage card that’s inserted in the mobile device. If you’re performing a remote device wipe on a mobile phone in your possession and want to keep the data on the storage card, we recommend removing the storage card before you initiate the remote device wipe. 

Remote device wipe vs. local device wipe

Local device wipe occurs when a mobile device wipes itself without the request coming from the server. If your organization has implemented mobile device mailbox policies that specify a maximum number of unsuccessful password attempts and that maximum is exceeded, the mobile device performs a local device wipe. The result of a local device wipe is the same as that of a remote device wipe. The device is returned to its factory default condition. When a mobile device performs a local device wipe, no confirmation is sent to the Exchange server.
 

 

 

Use the EAC to wipe a user’s phone

You can use the EAC to wipe a user’s phone or cancel a remote wipe that has not yet completed.

1. In the EAC, navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes.
   
2. Select the user, and under Mobile Devices, choose View details.
   
3. On the Mobile Device Details page, select the lost mobile device, and then select Wipe Data.
   
4. Select Save.
   

 

 

 

Use the Shell to wipe a user’s phone

You can use the Clear-MobileDevice cmdlet in the Shell to wipe a user’s phone.
The following command wipes the device named WM_TonySmith and sends a confirmation message to admin@contoso.com.

Clear-MobileDevice -Identity WM_TonySmith -NotificationEmailAddresses 

"admin@contoso.com"

Use Outlook Web App to wipe a user’s phone

Your users can wipe their own phone using Outlook Web App.

1. In Outlook Web App, select Settings > Phone > Mobile devices.
   
2. Select the mobile phone.
   
3. Click or tap the Wipe Device icon.