Home Tech Guides Selling your Android Phone? Here’s How to Erase all Data

Selling your Android Phone? Here’s How to Erase all Data

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When it comes to buying a new phone, one thing that comes to mind is how can you get rid of the data on your phone. Would you manually delete all data and accounts? No, because that’s a time consuming process.

Everybody eventually upgrades their phone. If you’re going to sell, gift or donate your old phone, you should make sure to wipe or erase all the data on your Android phone.

Modern electronic devices store a lot of important information and that’s why it is essential to do a factory reset before handing it over to anyone else. The steps for data wiping are similar on all Android devices, but the options for the process can be placed in different locations on the device.

Before we start, note that this process will wipe out all your data, so you should backup your data if you haven’t done so already. In general, the process involves backing up your pictures, videos, notes and similar files, and the your personal can be easily restored using the Google Play Store once you enter your login details on the new phone.

How to wipe or delete all data on an Android phone

Step 1: Launch the Settings app on your device.

Step 2: Scroll down to ‘Personal’ section and from there, tap on “Backup & reset.” From the next screen, tap on “Factory data reset.”

Step 3: You’ll get a screen informing you that this process will erase all your data from your phone’s internal storage such as Google account, system app data and settings, downloaded apps, music, photos and more.

Step 4: Scroll down and tap on “Reset phone” as seen in the below screenshot. It is recommended that you have at least 40% battery left when you’re performing this task. Note that from this point, there’s no going back.

factory-reset android

All your phone data will be deleted, and your device will also shut down automatically. When your phone reboots, it will look just like a brand new device.

The person whom you’re giving the phone to will need to go through the usual process of entering Google account details, WiFi details, installing apps and such tasks. Last but not least, don’t forget to remove your SIM card and memory card before giving away or selling your Android device.

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