Before disposing of your old cell phone, Internet Security Office recommends that you encrypt the data on it and restore it so that the new owner can never access it. It is always necessary to restore your old mobile before selling it or giving it to others.
Restore your old mobile before selling
Typical scenario: open a classifieds site , post an ad with your old mobile (but in perfect condition) and you get a buyer. Or this one: you just bought the latest iPhone model but the Samsung you had before would be very good for a family member and you want to give it away.
In these or other circumstances, when we dispose of our old mobile, it is very important to prevent the next owner (whether we trust it or not) from accessing the stored data. From photos and videos to personal data, emails, passwords or contacts; It is private information that should be protected.
For this, the Internet Security Bureau recommends that we take several steps before getting rid of our old device, Android or iOS , to restore it and pretend it had not passed through our hands.
Read: 7 useful tools to repair your smartphone at home
Encrypt your device
While encrypting the device, the person acquiring it will never be able to access the information it previously contained. Apple users use encryption by default and Android users also from version 6.0. If this is not your case, to activate it, go to Settings> Security screen / Lock and security (or variants, depending on the device)> Encrypt device.
If the phone supports SD memory cards and you also ship it, it is advisable to encrypt them as well.
Unlink the device from your account
The next step after encryption is to log out and unlink the device from our account iCloud or Google , depending on the operating system. Let’s see the two cases:
- iOS: to unlink the device from the iCloud account, go to Settings> iCloud> Sign Out
- Android: Go to Settings> Accounts. Once in this window we will see all the services in which we have an account. Select the accounts associated with each service one by one and click on “More” (it can be three circles located at the top right of the screen); then select “Delete account”.
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Restore device
When we restore the device to factory values, the space occupied by all our data remains available for the operating system, and therefore without data. The importance of mobile encryption is due to the fact that, if this is not the case, the new owner of the terminal, equipped with adequate tools, could recover our personal information.
How to restore the mobile according to the operating system we have:
- iOS: Click Settings> General> Reset, then click the “Remove content and settings” button. If the “Find My iPhone” feature is enabled, you may be prompted for the Apple ID and password.
- Android: Select Settings> Backup & reset> Factory data reset. As before, if the terminal contains an SD card, you will have to repeat the same operation by going to Settings> Storage> Remove SD card.
That’s it! You are done with the process of restoring your old mobile. Hope this article will help you to sell your mobile safely. If you have any further questions, let us know in the comments box below and we will get back to you to resolve all your questions with the appropriate answer.
Do you know of any other good advice before selling our old mobile? Share them with us in the comments section below.
