Your smartphone may still be relatively new and for certain reasons, you may decide to replace it with a new phone model that better matches your requirements. You might want to get the latest phone because you want to be part of the trend. It might just be because your current phone hasn’t got enough space to hold the thousands of photos you’ve been taking. Whatever the reason, there are a few things that you should do before giving the phone to someone else.
1. Backup your data
After using your phone for a month or more, you already accumulate a fair amount of data. People take a lot of photos and videos during a trip. You might also download plenty of files and document. Google Photos is the easiest and most reliable way to back up your photos and videos. However, unless you purchase a premium plan, your media files won’t be backed up at their original resolution. Google Pixel users may get free unlimited backup account to store photos at original resolution. If you want to keep your media files at their original resolution quickly, then you should purchase a microSD card and transfer photos and videos there. If your phone supports USB On the Go, it’s easier to transfer files to USB flash drive. If you have many gigabytes of data in your phone, a sensible solution is to transfer them to your laptop or desktop PC.
2. Encrypt your data
You should know that deleting files and resetting your phone won’t guarantee that people get your data. There’s software that can recover deleted files from the internal storage. So, it’s never a bad idea to encrypt your files before you delete them and reset the phone. Instead of just deleting your files, you may install apps that securely delete your files. Your files will be deleted and random binary values will be copied to the empty space. This will prevent hackers from getting the original files. What they get will be gibberish strings of binary values. The latest thing you want is people getting hold of your personal data and possibly using tracking devices to narrow your location.
3. Perform factory reset
You should reset your phone and set it to the original factory state. This step will delete everything inside your internal storage and microSD card, if you decide to sell it as well. Apps will be gone and settings will be restored to default. It’s straightforward to do, but make sure that you have enough battery to complete the task. To factory reset your phone, go to Settings > Backup and Reset > Factory Data Reset > Reset. However, this could be different depending on the make and model of your phone.
Selling your phone shouldn’t be a huge pain and you can still ensure proper level of security. Make sure that you do it the right way.
