Android System Comes Out Again After Factory Reset

How to wipe your Android Telephone completely before selling information technology

Thinking of selling or recycling your Android device? Make sure to delete your data so yous're non handing personal information to a stranger. Nosotros explain how to fully wipe an Android telephone or tablet.

So a new Android phone or tablet has just caught your attention, and you are looking to upgrade to the latest i every bit quickly as possible. But what do you practice with your old device? In that location are a number of options available. You may want to give it away, merchandise it in with your carrier, put it up for sale, or recycle it.

Any conclusion you accept, information technology'southward important that all your personal information is wiped clean before disposing of it. Y'all don't want to accidentally laissez passer on your personal data to someone else. Leaving personal details on your erstwhile device may expose you to security and privacy risks.

And then, how do you properly wipe your information off your old Android device without running the risk of leaving remnant data? Is information technology plenty to just delete the files or do a mill reset?

Basic file deletion and factory reset are not enough

A lot of people perform a factory reset to wipe everything off their Android device, before disposing or reselling it.  But the trouble is, a factory reset doesn't actually delete everything. According to a contempo study by the Academy of Hertfordshire in conjunction with Comparitech , it was found that it's nonetheless possible to recover photos, emails, text and other documents from a reset Android device.

Contrary to popular belief, when you delete a file from your phone memory, SD card, or figurer hard disk for that matter, the file isn't actually removed. Permanent data erasure goes beyond bones file deletion commands, which only remove direct pointers to the information disk sectors, and make data recovery possible with common software tools.

The operating organisation (Android, Windows, etc) uses a concept called indexing to keep runway of where files are stored in a device. Each file on your device retention or storage has a pointer that tells the OS where the file'due south information begins and ends. It'south a lot like the index folio in textbooks. When you delete a file, the Os removes the pointer to that file (akin to erasing page numbers from the table of content of a textbook) and marks the sectors containing the file'south data as available.

From the file system's point of view, the file is no longer present on your storage device, and the sectors containing its data are considered free space. However, until the OS writes new data over the sectors containing the contents of the file, the files are notwithstanding recoverable. A file recovery plan tin scan the device for these deleted files and restore them.

So if you are because disposing of your old Android device, make sure you wipe your personal data the right manner. In this commodity, we'll show you how to securely wipe your personal data off your old Android device before selling or recycling it, to ensure it doesn't take any remnant of personal data. Outlined beneath are five important steps yous demand to take to deeply wipe your information and counter information remanence. We'll accept y'all through each step in item.

Here's how to wipe your Android telephone completely earlier selling:

1. Fill-in your data
2. Encrypt your data
3. Overwrite with junk information
4. Remove your accounts, SIM and memory menu
5. Perform factory reset

Backup your data

The importance of backing up everything on your phone before wiping it cannot be overemphasized.  Ideally, if Backup to Google Drive is turned on, device settings, apps and app data, SMS, call history, and contacts are automatically backed up and synced with Google Drive. Otherwise, you demand to manually back them up.

Here'south how to backup your data on any Android device:

• You don't take to worry much almost bankroll upward your email. You can hands recreate information technology on your new device. Almost email setups keep copies of downloaded emails on the server. If you're not certain about information technology,  but log on to your email on another device to confirm the backups on the server.
• When it comes to apps, Google has a record of all the Android apps you've purchased. So long every bit you're going to another Android device, yous tin download them again to your new telephone at no charge. Improve still, Google can also help you sync all your apps to your business relationship. If you don't take it already enabled, you can enable it by going to Settings >> Accounts >> Enable Automatically Sync Data . After that's done, motion to Settings >> Organization >>  Backup >> Enable Backup to Google Drive . Some apps may have their own specific deject backup storage . Others like WhatsApp rely on Google Drive, if enabled. This volition ensure all your information is ready to exist unpacked when your new phone arrives.
• I of the most important things you should back up is your contacts. Fortunately, Google makes it really easy to backup. Past backing up everything to Google contacts, your contacts will follow you lot everywhere and sync with every new Android device. If y'all are not already using Google contacts, you lot tin can fix information technology upward by going to Settings >> Accounts >>  Google Account >>  Business relationship Sync >> Enable Contacts. Delight see Figure 1.0 beneath.
• Another important piece of data yous want to backup are your photos, videos and music. There are a couple of ways to do this simply the fastest and most constructive is to connect your telephone to your PC or Mac using the USB cable that came with your phone. Mac users may demand to install a pocket-size app chosen Android File Transfer to get this working. Once continued, yous'll find all of your photos and videos in a folder called DCIM, and your music files in a folder chosen Music. Now y'all can just copy those folders over to your reckoner.

• What about all your text messages, call logs, arrangement settings, calendar events, playlists, browser bookmarks, etc? To support these, you may consider a third-party backup tool such as Backup Your Mobile or My Backup Pro , which allows y'all to backup your stuff to the deject or to your memory bill of fare and to sync it dorsum over to your new device.

Encrypt your data

Encryption renders your personal information in your device in an unreadable or scrambled format; which means that even if someone tries to restore your information, they won't exist able to access it. This stride is necessary to ensure that if by some miracle, a skilled hacker does manage to get concord of your erased data or some residue left behind after a full reset, they will non be able to make sense of it. Anyone attempting to admission the encrypted data will demand a special key (PIN, password, or lock screen design) to decrypt it, which of class they don't accept.

Almost Android users rarely encrypt their phone information, probably due to either ignorance or fear of performance degradation. According to an estimate , only "10 per centum of the globe'southward i.4 billion Android phones were encrypted, compared to 95 per centum of all iPhones." But these days, it seems newer Android devices come up with encryption enabled by default. If your device is reasonably recent (Android 6.0 and above), information technology should almost certainly exist encrypted by default. But if you lot're getting rid of an older Android device, it might not exist.

If your phone doesn't have encryption enabled past default, yous can encrypt it manually with just a few taps:

1. For Android devices running Android 5.0, navigate to Settings >> Security >> Encryption >> Encrypt phone . For Android 4.4 KitKat or lower, navigate to Settings > Security > Screen Lock > Encrypt phone.
2. Tap "Encrypt phone" or "Encrypt tablet", every bit the case may be. Please note that you'll exist asked to plug in your telephone to accuse while the encryption procedure is going on, just to ensure that it doesn't ability off and crusade errors.
3. You'll now be prompted to gear up a PIN, password or lock screen which is needed to access your encrypted files.

Overwrite with junk data

If you want to be absolutely certain that your personal data cannot be accessed by anyone, you can overwrite your encrypted data with junk information, thereby making it incommunicable for anyone no matter how highly skilled to recover your erstwhile information. This is similar trying to over-egg the pudding, but information technology gives y'all the full balls that your personal data is irrecoverable .

There are 2 ways you tin can do this. You can load your device with large files such as video clips until the storage is filled upwardly, and then erase these files; or preferably, you can use a special app from the Play Shop such equally iShredder or Shreddit . These apps apply shredding algorithm techniques to digitally shred information permanently. Once completed, you are good to go for the final footstep, which is the manufactory data reset.

Remove your accounts, SIM and memory card

As part of the final preparatory process,  you want to make sure you remove all your accounts configured on your device before doing a manufacturing plant reset. A Mill reset will non remove your accounts from that device. Depending on the verbal model of the Android telephone or tablet, the steps to remove your Google account may differ slightly. For most phones, go to Settings >> Accounts >> Gmail Business relationship  >> Remove Account , every bit shown in Effigy 2.0 beneath. You may also want to to become through each app and service you're signed into, and sign out. Remove any other email accounts setup on your device.

The next step is to remove your SIM and memory card, so that they don't get erased or accidentally passed on to the next person. You tin can detect the memory card either on the side of the phone or in the bombardment compartment. Make sure the phone is powered down and then remove the memory carte du jour.

Perform manufactory reset

Finally, you lot are ready to perform a factory reset. When you practise a manufacturing plant reset on your Android device, it erases all the data on your device, and returns the phone dorsum to its original out-of-the-box state as it was from the factory.

Starting time off, let'due south outset by removing the Factory Reset Protection (FRP). Google introduced FRP in Android 5.0 Lollipop as an extra layer of security to forestall anyone from being able to reset and sell your device if lost or stolen. When you factory reset a phone with FRP enabled and try to set it up as a new device, yous'll be required to provide the login credentials for the concluding Google account that was configured on the device. If you fail to provide those credentials, the device will remain locked and you can't proceeds access. This is plain not okay, especially if you're trying to sell it or give it abroad.

Disabling FRP is like shooting fish in a barrel. Before yous begin, cheque if your phone has a "find my phone" app enabled, and manually disable it. On most phones, FRP will be automatically removed whenever you lot choose to factory reset your telephone through its settings. This will automatically remove all the associated accounts, thereby freeing the phone from FRP.

Once the FRP is removed, you can now go on with factory reset. The easiest fashion to mill reset your device is through the settings bill of fare. The location of the manufactory reset option might vary slightly depending on your manufacturer. On most phones, y'all can manufacturing plant reset your telephone through the Settings app. Go to Settings >> General Management >> Reset >> Factory Data Reset , as shown in Figure 3.0 beneath. You lot may bank check your manufacturer's back up site for device-specific instructions. Otherwise, you tin can try factory resetting your phone using its power and book buttons.

You lot can ostend that FRP is disabled past attempting to sign back into the device after manufacturing plant reset. If information technology asks for the previous username and password, it ways FRP is still enabled. If it doesn't, you lot're proficient to get. Yous may now power it off and repackage it for the new possessor.

Wiping your Android phone: FAQs

Tin can my data still exist accessed fifty-fifty after resetting my device?

The data on nearly Android phones is encrypted which means that it tin't exist accessed post-obit a mill reset. As such, you don't demand to worry about another person accessing this information if you sell your Android telephone. While data that's backed upward on the cloud remains accessible, this requires signing in to an business relationship (for example signing in to Google to access Google Drive documents). And so as long equally it's only you that holds the passwords, this backed up information is secure and inaccessible to others.

See also:

• Best VPN for Android
• Best antivirus for Android

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Source: https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/wipe-android-phone-before-selling/

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