If you’re planning to sell your Android phone to someone, there are a few things you should do beforehand to make sure the process goes smoothly. Not only do you want to ensure that your personal information is protected, but you also want to make sure that the new owner can use the phone without any issues. From backing up your data to resetting your phone, there are several steps you can take to prepare your phone for its new owner. In this article, we’ll go over what you should do before selling your Android phone to someone to make the process as stress-free as possible.
What To Do Before Selling Your Android Phone
1) Backup Your Data
The first and foremost step before selling your Android phone is to backup your data. This includes your contacts, messages, photos, videos, documents, notes, songs, audio recordings, game progress, WhatsApp chats, and any other important data on your phone.
1.1) Backup your contacts
To backup your contacts, you can use the built-in backup feature of your Android phone. Go to settings, select accounts, and then select Google. Turn on the toggle button for contacts to sync your contacts to your Google account. You can also use third-party apps like Google Contacts, My Contacts Backup, or Super Backup to backup your contacts.
1.2) Backup your messages
To backup your messages, you can use the built-in backup feature of your messaging app. For example, if you use Google Messages, go to settings, select chat features, and then select enable chat features. This will backup your messages to your Google account. You can also use third-party apps like SMS Backup & Restore or SMS Backup+ to backup your messages.
1.3) Backup your photos and videos
To backup your photos and videos, you can use Google Photos. Google Photos is a free cloud storage service that automatically backs up your photos and videos to your Google account. If you have enabled the backup feature, all your photos and videos should already be backed up to Google Photos.
To check if your photos are backed up to Google Photos, find the Google Photos app on the phone and open it. Tap on your Google account icon at the top right corner of the screen and check the backup status (Backup is off / on etc). If you use Google Photos to backup your photos and videos, and if all the phones and videos are already backed up, then you need not backup. If there are some photos/videos not yet backed up in other folders, then you can select them in Google Photos app and backup to Google Photos as well. But note that, the free space provided by Google is 15 GB combined. So be wary of that as well. Also, backing up a large number of photos/videos may also take time.
If you don’t backup your photos to Google Photos, or if you have photos / videos somewhere else in the phone storage other than DCIM / Camera folder, then you should move them to your SD Card or to your computer.
Documents can also be backed up to Google Drive from your phone. But if you do not want to go that route, simply find the folders where your documents are saved and move them to the SD Card or or pendrive connected to the phone or backup to your computer. You should check downloads folder, documents folder or other folders you created on the phone for documents.
For these types of data, you need to explore the respective folder in the phone storage and backup. For example, for audio recordings, check ‘recordings’ folder.
If you are using other messaging apps like WhatsApp, then you should backup WhatsApp data. WhatsApp chats are automatically backed up and saved daily to your phone’s memory. Depending on your settings, you can also periodically back up your WhatsApp chats to Google Drive. This is the easiest way to restore WhatsApp Chats on a new phone.
To backup WhatsApp chats to Google Drive, open WhatsApp, tap on More options > Settings > Chats > Chat backup. Here the last backup is displayed. Tap on ‘BACK UP‘ button to take latest backup to Google Drive. When you setup WhatApp again on the new phone, you can opt to find backup and restore. Alternatively, you can copy the entire WhatsApp folder in the phone’s storage and back it up. When setting up WhatsApp on the new phone, after the Phone Number is verified, WhatsApp will automatically detect the presence of an existing local Backup File on your device. On the next screen, tap on the Restore button to Restore all your WhatsApp Chats.
Besides the above, you should explore all the folders on your phone and see if there is anything else to backup before you lose it.
2) Remove All Accounts
After backing up and transferring all your data, remove all the linked accounts from your Android phone. This includes your Google account, Microsoft account, WhatsApp account, social media profiles, and other miscellaneous accounts on third-party apps. This is also important as many services keep record of the devices used.
A factory reset (next step) will erase everything on a smartphone but it doesn’t log you out of the Google account(s). Even after factory reset, you may still see the device on Google’s ‘your devices’ which you can check here https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity.
NOTE: Removing accounts is important – If you factory reset your phone without removing your Google account, the next owner might not be able to use the phone or sign in to their Google account since the device owner may still be you. Google keeps records of ‘your devices’ which you can check here https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity. You can sign out from there if there are some devices listed which you no longer use.
Follow the steps below to remove your Google account from your phone.
Open your device settings > Go to Accounts and backup.
Tap Manage accounts.
Select your Google account and tap Remove account.
Tap Remove account again to confirm
3) Factory Reset Your Phone
After removing all the accounts from your Android phone, the next step is to factory reset your phone. This will erase all the data on your phone and restore it to its original factory settings. This ensures that all your personal data is completely wiped out from the phone and cannot be retrieved by anyone else.
To factory reset your Android phone, follow the steps below:
Open your device settings > Go to System > Advanced > Reset options.
Tap Erase all data (factory reset) > Reset phone.
If prompted, enter your phone password or PIN to proceed.
Tap Erase everything to confirm.
The factory reset process may take a few minutes to complete. Once it is done, your phone will be restored to its original factory settings.
4) Remove Sim Card And SD Card
After factory resetting your phone, remove the SIM card and SD card from your phone. This ensures that no one can access your phone number or any data stored on the SD card.
5) Clean Your Phone
Before selling your Android phone, clean it thoroughly to remove any dirt, dust, or fingerprints. You can use a microfiber cloth or a cleaning solution to clean your phone. This will make your phone look new and attractive to potential buyers.
6) Sell Your Phone
After completing all the above steps, you can now sell your Android phone confidently. You can sell it to a friend, family member, or online marketplace like eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist. Make sure that you get a fair price for your phone and that you follow the guidelines of the marketplace to ensure a safe and secure transaction.
In conclusion, before selling your Android phone to someone, backup your data, remove all accounts, factory reset your phone, remove SIM and SD cards, clean your phone, and then sell it. By following these steps, you can ensure that your personal data is safe and secure, and that the new owner can use the phone without any issues.
