How To Reset Phone To Factory Settings Android

Before you become besides excited about your new phone, you lot need to prepare your one-time Android for selling or recycling without compromising your security in the process.

The twenty-four hours has finally come! That new phone you've been so excited about has arrived and you tin't wait to get started learning about all the new features at your fingertips. (Y'all're definitely going to want to cheque out these hidden Android features and find out how to stop spam texts). But showtime, you have to set up your erstwhile telephone for selling or recycling. And that means performing a factory reset of your Android phone, which volition wipe all your information and so that someone else can't become their hands on your personal information.

Why is information technology important to wipe all personal information from your phone?

Put but: If yous don't, someone else will be able to admission information technology. That tin be embarrassing and intrusive at best—and downright dangerous at worst. "If yous do not manufactory reset your phone before selling it to someone, they tin look at all of your pictures and documents and also observe your address and have all of your passwords," explains Rickey Cyr, co-founder and editor of TechTastes.com. They tin can even think deleted text messages.

And the security risks don't stop there. If y'all're nonetheless logged into Google Pay, Samsung Pay, your bank account, or apps for other financial services, whoever ends up with your phone could theoretically spend your money and impersonate yous. "The risk of identity theft is very real," says Liam Shotwell, lead Android writer at UpPhone. "Failing to properly manufacturing plant reset your Android telephone before giving it to someone else is a lot like giving someone every important detail of your life. This is especially the instance if y'all store important information similar your social security number, bank account numbers, passwords, addresses, and other personal information on your device." Speaking of which, you really shouldn't shop these eight things on your smartphone. And, to be safe, you lot can also learn how to turn off Google Assistant on an Android phone—it'southward always listening, after all.

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What steps should y'all take before yous do a mill reset?

Prior to performing a mill reset, you should back upwards all of your information. "Wiping all the data from your telephone poses a take chances of deleting something you lot care about forever," Shotwell explains. "This could exist personal information, photos, videos, files, or other data. Users should back up all data that they [want to keep]." Technically, there are ways to call back information after a factory reset, simply doing and then is complicated and non at all guaranteed. It'due south amend to simply not take that chance.

Just exist careful not to select "Erase SIM Carte du jour Memory" forth with your reset, equally this will also reset your SIM bill of fare. Otherwise, the reset applies only to your phone and not to the data on your SIM card.

Worried near the payment methods you have saved on your phone? Don't be. They will be deleted with a factory reset, so you don't have to take any additional steps alee of time. Speaking of payments on your smartphone, here's what you need to know about how safe Google Pay is, in general.

How to articulate your Android phone

Once all your information is backed upwards, you are prepare to begin the steps for performing your mill reset and immigration your Android telephone.

Disable mill reset protection

"Factory reset protection is a characteristic that restricts anyone only the owner of the device from resetting the phone," Shotwell says. "This is determined by the Google account logged into the device." If you fail to log out of your Google account before performing a factory reset on your device, Shotwell says the new owner of your telephone won't be able to become past the initial setup process.

Is that a big deal? In a give-and-take: yes. "If you forget to do this step, you might have to share your Google password with the new owner or sign in for them," he explains. "Try to avert this problem as best you tin can by disabling factory reset protection before getting rid of your Android device."

To do this, simply sign out of all your Google accounts (which might include Gmail, Google Docs, GSuite, and Google Play). "This can be done in the device settings under Accounts or Google, depending on what telephone y'all have," Shotwell says.

Encrypt information

The goal of a factory reset is to wipe everything—but that doesn't always happen. Data often remains hidden in the background, even after a mill reset, and determined hackers can find it if you don't take a few extra steps. That's only one of the secrets hackers don't desire you lot to know.

"Android phones use a kind of flash storage called a solid-land drive or SSD," Shotwell explains. "Wink memory is limited by how much data can be overwritten to the bulldoze." If this is overwritten besides much, the drive can become unusable. To help prevent this, whenever you lot delete data from your phone, it is frequently marked as being available for other data to take its identify rather than being fully deleted. Equally a upshot, a hacker could use special software to recover that overwritten data.

"To foreclose the phone's new owner from recovering your information, one of your options is to encrypt the telephone," Shotwell says. "In the by, you lot had to do this manually. Nonetheless, most phones from the concluding few years no longer have this option, and I assume that this is considering it can exist done automatically once y'all brainstorm the manufacturing plant data reset."

To exist safe, check to see if your telephone has the option to encrypt data. Yous can perform the encryption on phones that even so allow you to do then manually past going to Settings > Security > Encrypt Phone.

"It's possible to encrypt an SD card manually if you have expandable storage installed," Shotwell adds. "Notwithstanding, this is not related to the factory reset procedure." Still, it is important to remove your retentivity bill of fare before giving your phone away, he adds. This is generally yours to keep and use in your next phone. While encrypting your data can assistance continue your personal information out of hackers' hands, it's withal of import to know how to remove spyware on an Android phone to ensure your phone is the safest it can perhaps be. Also, make sure you stay upward-to-date on the best Android deject storage available.

Android phone showing the factory reset settings menu Getty Images (2)

Mill reset: Step by pace

While the steps for performing a manufacturing plant reset may vary depending on the brand of your Android telephone, there'south one thing everyone should exercise. "Before beginning, brand sure that your device is charging," Shotwell says. "Resets can take a long time, and it's very important that your phone isn't interrupted by its battery dying."

In one case yous take a total charge, he says to follow these steps for a mill reset:

Open up upwardly your settings.
Go to System > Advanced > Reset Options > Erase All Data (Factory Reset) > Reset Phone.
Yous may need to enter a password or PIN.
Finally, tap Erase Everything.

One important note: These steps are specifically for a Google Pixel device. While they volition likely be like for other Android devices, just be sure to cheque your brand instructions to be safe. "Other phones can be reset in a similar style, but the options might be located in a slightly unlike place in your settings," Shotwell adds.

By the way—doing a factory reset tin also help you lot get rid of a virus. Hither's more information on how to go rid of a virus on an Android phone.

Load the phone with junk data

If you desire to exist absolutely certain that your personal data is safe, Shotwell says there is an extra step you can have: You can make sure all of your data is overwritten before giving your phone abroad. "Theoretically, after you perform a mill reset, you could make full the phone with as much data equally yous can and so perform another manufactory data reset," he explains. "This would overwrite all the sectors of the drive and make accessing your old data impossible."

Remember, this probably isn't a necessary step for newer phones that already encrypt your data upon factory reset. And Shotwell warns that a phone'south SSD can just perform so many overwrites. "Filling the Android device with junk data and then resetting it again may reduce the life bridge of the hard drive," he explains. So you should probably only practise this if have a much older telephone y'all are concerned virtually. No matter what model you have, though, these are the top mobile security threats you need to worry about in 2022.

What to look from a factory reset

"When yous factory reset an Android telephone, you completely wipe everything that was on your telephone and give it a fresh start, similar yous just bought it for the first time," Cyr explains. All data should be wiped, and all apps, photos, letters, files, and videos erased.

But, as Shotwell notes, a factory reset doesn't necessarily delete everything. "It does preserve the credentials of the Google account that was logged into the telephone before you lot reset it," he explains. "If you do not log out of your Google account, it will crave you to sign in later on the reset is completed to cease setting the phone backup." For this reason, once more, information technology's important to brand sure you log out of your account before doing the reset and earlier getting rid of the phone.

Once your reset is complete, you're ready to say goodbye to your erstwhile phone and utilise your new one! Start by enjoying these things Android tin can do that iPhones can't.

Sources:

Rickey Cyr, cofounder and editor of TechTastes.com
Liam Shotwell, lead android writer at UpPhone

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