How to Erase all Data from Phone

Here you can get information about How to Erase all Data from Phone. If you are reselling your old phone, or just handing it over to a loved one, you want to make sure that all your personal data is completely deleted before you do this. We’ve already described the process in case you’re moving on from an iPhone, and if you have an Android phone, this is what you need to know.

Please note that the exact steps will vary depending on the version of Android that you are using, and the manufacturer of the device. Settings are slightly different in the versions of Android, and manufacturer skins can change the names of settings or the exact menus. However, the general instructions are the same across all devices.

microSD card

The first decision you need to make is about the microSD card. In case your old phone has a microSD card, you can simply insert the card in your new phone and continue using it – most data like photos, videos etc. should get migrated seamlessly.

In case your new phone does not have a microSD card slot, or you would not like to carry forward the card for some reason then you should delete all the data on the card by formatting it. First, back up all your pictures and videos.

  • Connect your phone to the computer with a USB cable. If you are on a Mac, make sure you have the Android File Transfer application installed before you do this.
  • Open My Computer on your PC, or Finder on your Mac.
  • Navigate to the SD card and copy all the files you want to save to your computer.
  • After the copying is done, you can unplug your phone.

Now, you can format your memory card.

  1. On your phone, go to Settings > Storage.
  2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Erase SD card. You’ll see a warning message telling you that you’ll lose all the data on the card.
  3. Tap the Erase SD card button to continue. If your SD card is secured with a password, you’ll need to enter the PIN to continue.

A determined person can still recover your files from a formatted SD card, but the easiest way to deal with this is by “layering”. Simply put, fill the space with something else, delete it, and repeat this process a couple of times and your original data is gone forever.

So for example, if you have a 2 GB microSD card you’ve erased – reconnect it to your PC, and copy a file that’s about 2 GB to the card. Delete the file right away. Do this again, two or three times. The whole process shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, but you can then safely sell the card as well.

Backing up the data on your phone

The most important thing to do is to ensure that you don’t lose any of your contacts or pictures. The good thing with Android is that you need a Google account to set up the phone, and it automatically backs up your device. To make sure that this is the case, do the following.

  • On your phone, go to Settings > Backup & reset.
  • You should see a setting called Back up my data. Make sure that it’s ticked.
  • Next, press Back, and then scroll down to ACCOUNTS. Tap on Google.
  • You’ll see your Google account which was used to set up the phone with a green sync symbol next to it. Tap the account.
  • Make sure that all the options are ticked – this will use your Google account to sync everything from your calendar to contacts to email to the photos that you take, which get automatically backed up to Google+.
  • Not all versions of Android automatically back up pictures. We checked on a 2011 Samsung Galaxy Note and didn’t see the option, while the recent Moto E does have this option. In case your phone does not support this, you’ll have to use a PC to back up media via the USB as described above.
  • Back up any other media files to your computer by connecting the phone to your PC using a USB cable. Follow the steps in the first half of the SD card section above to copy the files to your computer.

How to Factory Reset Your phone

  • Some models will want you to go into “Settings” and encrypt the data
Android  Settings
  • Then you want to do a factory reset by going into “Settings
  • Click “Backup and reset
Backup and reset option
  • Scroll all the way down and click “Factory data reset
Factory data reset option
  • Click “Reset device

Restoring your files on another phone

If you followed the steps mentioned above in backing up properly, then you should be able to get all your data back without any difficulty at all. For one thing, if you’re continuing to use your old microSD card in your new phone, then your movies, music and photos get transferred automatically.

Otherwise, when you get your new Android phones, just sign in with the same Google account to carry over your contacts and other data, and transfer the files from your computer using the USB cable in the same way that you copied them to the computer as described above.

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