These days everyone wants to buy a new smartphone, but often we hastily sell our old phone or give it to someone else. In such cases, the biggest negligence is that the phone’s data is not properly deleted. Your old phone contains personal information like photos, WhatsApp chats, banking details, emails and passwords. If this falls into wrong hands, it can cause major damage. Simply deleting or factory resetting does not completely erase the data, it can still be recovered. Therefore, it is very important to follow some necessary steps before selling or exchanging the phone. So, today we will learn why is it necessary to completely delete data before selling an old phone and what precautions should be taken before deleting data. Question – Why is it necessary to completely delete data before selling an old phone? Answer – Think about it, you’re selling your old phone but your private photos, bank details and chats could end up in someone else’s hands. Therefore, make sure to delete your data before selling your old phone. Let’s understand this through the graphic. Question- What precautions should be taken before deleting data? Answer- Before deleting data, take backup of important files and check that no important documents or photos are left behind. Also check in recycle bin or cloud storage. If you are planning to sell or give the device to others, don’t just delete – completely wipe the data so that no one can recover it. Question- What should you do before selling or exchanging your Android phone? Answer- It’s important to keep certain things in mind while selling or exchanging your phone. This can help protect you from data theft or misuse of your information. Whether you are going to factory reset or want to restore your phone to factory settings, make sure to do this before trade-in. Let’s understand this through graphics. Let’s understand some points from the graphic in detail. FRP means Factory Reset Protection
If your phone is running Android Lollipop (5.0) or later version, it will have FRP (Factory Reset Protection) feature, which needs to be removed, otherwise the new owner won’t be able to use the phone. If your phone is running on an older version, you can skip this step. To check your phone’s version, go to Settings – About Device – Phone – Software Info. It’s necessary to fill phone with dummy data before factory reset
Just doing a factory reset before selling or exchanging the phone is not enough because sometimes old data can be recovered using special software. To reduce this risk, the trick of uploading dummy data is used. For this, before factory reset, fill your phone with some junk data. Such as large video files, songs, movies or any data that is not important to you. This will almost fill up the phone’s internal storage. The benefit will be that when the phone’s real data is already encrypted and this new junk data is written over it, the old files get completely buried. In such case, if the new owner or anyone else tries to recover data from your phone, they will only find these junk files, not your personal information. Question- How to take backup of Android device? Answer- Before factory resetting and erasing all phone data, it is very important to backup your essential files and data. Follow some necessary steps for this. Let’s understand this through graphics. In Android 8.1 or later versions, your messages are automatically backed up, but call logs are not saved. If you want to keep your messages and call logs secure, you can use third-party tools for this. Along with this, you can store data from your old device in the new device. However, you will need to install an app for this. These apps are different for different companies. Like Smart Switch for Samsung. Question- How to completely delete data from Android phone? Answer- The factory reset process may vary slightly depending on the phone manufacturer. The steps given below will work on most phones. Let’s understand this through graphics. Even after factory reset, your phone will be completely secure only when you remove it from your Google account. This step is necessary because as long as the phone remains linked to your account, the new owner may face difficulties using it, and your information may also remain linked to it. For this, first go to your Google account and login. Then go to account settings and open the ‘Recently Used Devices’ section. Here you will find a list of all Android devices that are linked to your Google account. From this list, select the phone that you are going to sell or give to someone else. After selecting the phone, you will see the ‘Remove’ option, click on it.
The post Pre-sale checklist; want to sell your old phone:Deleting data is not enough, do these 5 things before selling, data won’t be stolen appeared first on Tri-Cities India.
