Looking to pick up an HTC One? Join the club. If you’re a tinkerer like us, and you plan to one day get around to unlocking your One, a little caution might be in order, upon word that the phone’s configured to erase several of its apps during the unlocking process.

The issue is with a handful of apps stored in a preload directory on the One’s data partition. During a factory reset, that directory’s left alone, but unlocking the handset has no such restriction, and will scrub the data partition clean of these files. That’s going to leave the One without its Calculator, Flashlight, Ringtone Trimmer, and Sound Recorder apps.

Sure, you could replace those with equivalents, but there’s some concern that the missing apps could interfere with the installation of future system updates; backing them up in advance might be your best bet. HTC is reportedly aware of the issue, and may elect to deliver an update to modify the phone’s behavior during unlocking.

Source: MoDaCo