If you are lucky and your phone has not been robbed by thugs but just want to swap, sell or give away your smartphone, it is always advisable to wipe your it in other words resetting it to factory conditions. This will remove personal data and leave you with a sense of comfort. Luckily, that’s pretty easy to do.
Before you start, be aware that these instructions are for a Stock Android devices, but the process for most current Android phones should be pretty much the same. Needless to say, first make sure that all of your data is transferred to your new phone, backed up, or both. Once your old phone has reset, there’s no going back.
- To remove personal data, Go to Settings
- Select System > Advanced > Reset options
- You will be presented with three choices. “Reset Wi-Fi, mobile & Bluetooth” is sometimes useful if you’re having trouble with connectivity. “Reset app preferences” will restore all of your app and notification defaults, among other things. Neither of these will delete the data on your phone. That’s the job of the third choice, “Erase all data (factory reset),” and that’s the one you’re going to select.
- You’ll get a warning screen reminding you that your data that will be erased, along with all the accounts you’re currently signed into. Select “Reset phone.”
- If you have a PIN or some other security setup, you’ll be asked to enter it
- You’ll get another screen asking if you’re sure this is what you want to do. Are you sure? Then hit the “Erase everything” button.
That’s it! The process usually takes only two or three minutes. Your phone will reboot and begin with the usual opening questions, such as language, account, network, etc. Once you see those, you’ll know that it’s worked.
For older Android phones
There are a few things to be aware of before you remove personal data. First, if you’ve got a Samsung phone, you’re going to be asked for your Samsung account password before you can reset (provided you’ve created one and added it to the phone).
If you’ve got an Android phone that is using an earlier version of the OS (say, before version 8), the reset may, after it reboots, ask for your login. This could be awkward if you’ve already sent the phone to someone else. As a result, if you’ve got an older phone, it’s a good idea to turn off your screen lock (by going to Security > Screen lock and selecting “None”) and deleting your Google account (which you’ll find at Settings > Account > Google) before you start the reset.
There is evidence that some data may remain on a phone even after it’s been reset. To be extra careful, you can encrypt the phone before resetting it:
- To remove personal data Go to Settings > Security & location > Advanced > Encryption & credentials and select “Encrypt phone”
- Go back to Settings and start the reset process
