So, you have got your eyes on the latest Samsung Galaxy S9, or maybe you are getting ready to buy an Android device of any other brand. It is a good thing to do, hence, did you think what to do with your old smart phone or tablet you no longer use. Why not consider selling it. You may know that used mobile phones and tablets can be sold to recycling companies that recycle or reuse them as refurbished devices for resale in the market. If you do it right, you can make a nice profit of the old phones or tabs laying around your home.
Although selling your phone or tablet is a profitable way to discard your old gadgets off, the question is what you should do before selling it. Let’s take a look at the list of key things that need to be done before selling your tablet or an old smartphone.
- Keep in mind a scratch-free and full functional phone or tablet can make the most money when you present it for sale. So, check the condition of your phone or tablet and if it has any issue, you should fix it with the help of a professional technician.
- Gather all essential accessories including power adapter, manuals, network cables, discs, original boxes, and other additional components that you want to sell with your device.
- Ensure to remove all things such as SIM card, memory card, optical media and more you don’t want to sell with your phone or tab.
- Last but not the least, it is a common thing that you store lots of personal information including photos, contacts, videos, notes, documents and some other sensitive data on your phone or tablet. Well, you don’t want to lose them, therefore, you should create a backup of all your data and then wipe the device to set it as a new one.
Here’s How You Can Wipe Your Data From an Android Phone or Tablet
If your device runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the good news is that it provides an extra layer of security using the feature of Factory Reset Protection (FRP). This advanced option is designed to keep a backup of users’ personal data and wipe the device to avoid having the data fall into wrong hands.
Enabling the factory resetting option on an Android device, you can remove your files, photos and other sorts of information from the phone or tablet and try to set it up as a new device. Though the procedure is not 100% fool proof, ensuring the security of data, there is a lot that you can do to ensure that your data and privacy are not compromised on giving the phone or tablet to the buyer.
Start following these simple steps to wipe your data from android device securely;
Step 1: Turn On and Slide to Unlock
This step differs slightly depending on the make of your phone. If you own a Samsung Galaxy then follow; Open Settings App > Lock screen and security > Screen lock type and then tap to NONE.
Step 2: Make a Full Backup
There are two common ways to create a full backup of your android device; you can try any of them according to your preference.
- Save All Data to Computer
The easiest way to back up the data on your Android phone or tablet is by connecting it to a computer via USB and accessing your device’s storage. Open the drive and copy all files and folders that you would not like to lose and save them to your computer.
- Google Backup
You can make a backup of your phone or tab with Google account. To do this, simply go to Settings App then tap on the “Backup and Reset” option that enables you to take backup of your photos, videos, and documents to your Google account. If you need to recover it on a new device, you simply have to sign in to your Google Account on the new phone or tablet and then it will be synced automatically if you enable the “Automatic restore” option.
In addition, you can also use Google Photos app that offers free unlimited storage for backing up all your photos and videos, hence, Google Drive is also useful for creating back up of all your important and sensitive documents with 15GB of free storage offered to you.
Here’s more you can do with Google account. Yes, along with making a backup of photos and videos, you can also save backups of your contacts, apps data, calendar notes, web browser bookmarks, and more to your Google account. To make sure all of your data has been saved, go to Settings App > Accounts > tap on Google Account > then check everything you want to sync.
Step 3: Disable Factory Reset Protection
Once you are done with making a backup of your photos, files, videos, and contacts, the next thing to do is to disable Factory Reset Protection. To do this, you need to remove/delete your Google account from the device. Open Settings App > Accounts & Sync > Google > and then choose your account. Open the menu by tapping on the three dots and then choose “Remove Account.”
Step 4: Wipe the Device Completely
After disabling the FRP, the next thing to do is to wipe your device. Most people think that performing a factory reset is enough to clean the device, but it’s not. The data can be easily recovered with the help of any data recovery tool. So, it is vital to make it impossible to recover the data from your device. For this, you will have to consider the “Encrypt Data” option besides taking a simple factory reset.
- Encrypt Your Data
Before you wipe your Android phone or tablet, it is advised that you should encrypt it first. This option will make your data impossible to recover unless your password is used to decrypt it. To encrypt your data, Open Settings App > Security > Encrypt Phone. A few hours will be required to complete the encryption of the data. So, ensure to keep your device charged in order to complete the process smoothly.
- Perform a Factory Reset
After the completion of encryption, you can perform a factory reset on your android phone or tablet. Simply Open Settings App > Backup & reset > Factory data reset and then tap on the Reset phone. It will wipe your device securely and set up as a new device.
Once you are done with wipe your device, your phone or tablet is ready for sale. Look for one of the best mobile phone recycling comparison websites so that you can find a right recycling site that will pay you the maximum price for your old phone or tablet. Comparison websites have made the selling e-devices easier than ever before. With a sole click, you can grab the topmost deal for your gadget by getting an unbiased comparison of prices from recycling sites.
