Who doesn’t love getting some cash back after spending an unreasonable amount of money? Like new cars, phones begin losing value as soon as you buy ’em. Especially if you like to buy your phones new, you’re paying a premium known as “depreciation.”
And also like a new car, while you can’t get back most of the money you spent on your new Android phone, you can sell it to recoup some of the money to put toward your replacement phone. Before you do, though, you really ought to wipe it clean so that nobody gets into what’s most valuable of all: your personal data.
wiping your Android
Unlike Apple iPhones, which all share iOS and are exclusively the devices that use iOS, many manufacturers use Google’s Android operating system. Only a few, such as the Google Pixel, offer a particularly pure version of Android.
Most layer their own tweaks and changes on top of Android. That means navigating to the settings required to factory reset an Android device differs a bit from one Android phone manufacturer to another.
The path to resetting a Samsung Galaxy, for example, can differ slightly compared to the path to resetting a Google Pixel or a OnePlus.
First off, make sure you’ve backed up your Google phone data to your cloud service, if you’re using one. You’ll need that to transfer all your photos, files, contacts, and Android settings to your next phone.
If you don’t want to use the cloud, transfer your data from your old Android phone to your new one (or your new iPhone) in person by following the prompts that appear when you start your new phone for the first time.
Once your old phone’s data and settings are all transferred over, set aside your new phone. Log out of your Google accounts on your phone, as well as any other apps in which you have accounts for sensitive data, such as password managers and authenticator apps. On your old Android, go to Settings, then System, Reset Options, and then Erase All Data.
While hardcore tech enthusiasts will note that scraps of data can still be recovered from an Android phone wiped in this way, it’s very unlikely. First, the next person to own your phone would have to want these scraps badly enough to go through a major hassle. Then they’d need to know the tools and processes to scrape it up, and it’s not common knowledge.
Factory resetting your Android phone is safe and secure for most people. You may be eager to get your new Android phone going—new toys are fun—but wiping your old Android takes only a moment and leaves you far more secure so that its next owner, whoever it is, gets a blank phone, minus all your valuable data.
The post How to Wipe an Android Phone Before You Sell It appeared first on VICE.
