Every year smartphone manufacturers release new flagship devices. They come with features that help users in accomplishing more. Users wait anxiously to buy these phones when they become available in the market. All the ads and product placements in movies and on TV shows we watch on Cox cable add to the urgency. Once the phones are finally available, they tend to sell their old phones and get new ones. However, it is important to take care of a few factors when getting rid of your old phone. The reason is that it may contain important data that may fall into the wrong hands if you’re not careful enough.

Phone resellers often talk about how most sellers do not remove properly wipe their phone data. As a result, the person buying your old phone can get access to personal information such as passwords, email addresses, medical forms, and private photos. If you are planning to get rid of your old phone, you must take care of a few important things beforehand. Read on to find out more about these.

Backup Your Important Data

You may have used your old phone for quite some time. It is necessary, therefore, to back up all the important data in it such as family photos, videos, contacts, email addresses, and forms, etc. You can do this quite easily if you have a good understanding of cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox. For example, you can simply use Google Photos to back up your phone gallery. Manually transferring videos and images to a PC or external drive, on the contrary, will take much longer. You can also use Google Drive and Dropbox to create data backups.

WhatsApp conversations can also be backed up on Google Drive. All you have to do is go to the app’s settings and give the right commands. A third-party SMS restore app can help you save your phone’s text conversations. Do note that most applications have a built-in backup feature.

Transfer Data to Your New Device

You may be looking forward to buying a new phone after selling your old one. If this is the case, you may have to transfer all of your existing data from your current phone to the new one. Most Android phones do not come with such features by default. One way around this is to save the data on a laptop or CPU by using a standard cable. Once you get the new device, connect its charger to the CPU or laptop to export the data from your PC to the new phone.

Other solutions to transfer data to the new device also exist. Samsung users can use the Smart Switch feature to do transfer data between an older Samsung model and a new one. Similarly, OnePlus users can use the OnePlus Switch app. Do note that these solutions may not work if the Android versions are not supported or the smartphone is from a different manufacturer.

Remove Your Google Account

It is mandatory to have a Google account logged into an Android phone to use it. Google now provides an anti-theft feature called the Factory Reset Protection (FRP). In case your phone gets stolen, Google will render it useless if the thief resets it to factory settings. Once he/she restarts the phone, it will ask for your Google account details. Unless the thief already has this information, the FRP feature will activate and the person will not be able to log in to the device. However, now that you want to sell it, you will need to disable this feature on your old phone so the buyer can use it. Head to “Settings” and then to “Accounts” to remove your Google Account from the device.

Reset Your Phone to Default Factory Settings

After backing up all the data on your device, you must reset it to its default factory settings. This will make sure you get rid of all the accounts and information you have synced with the device. It will also remove all software updates from it, restoring it to the same version it was when it came off the factory assembly line. The purpose of doing this is to provide the new owner a phone that doesn’t contain your personal data and is free from any information you may have forgotten to remove. Also, they will be able to set up the device according to their own preferences without having to navigate through any of your own personalized configurations.

Remove the MicroSD and SIM Card

After resetting the phone to factory defaults, it is time to remove the microSD card and SIM card. You then should use a micro cloth or nonalcohol-based wipes to clean the device. Next, gather all its accessories and the box if you still have it. Hand them to the new owner or reseller along with the phone.

These are all the important measures that you should take before selling your Android smartphone. Doing so will keep your private data safe. Also, you will be able to transfer your important files to your new phone with ease.