How to securely wipe data on your Android smartphone before selling

Selling or trading your old smartphone? You have to securely wipe data on your Android smartphone before selling to reduce the risk of misusing your personal data. While purchasing the new smartphone most of us sell or exchange our old smartphone to save some money. Many of the online websites like cashify purchases an old smartphone by entering few details of the smartphone and they will pay you cash. Most of the people forget to wipe the device data while selling their smartphone and put their personal data in wrong hands.

Remember that there is no method to completely remove your data apart from destroying the device and device storage is foolproof – hackers or cybercriminals use right software data tools to restore your personal data. So be careful bef]ore you pass your device to others hand.

Steps to securely wipe your Android smartphone

Google made all the device encrypted by default for the devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above. If you own Android device with Android 5.1 Lollipop or lower you have to first encrypt the device and wipe it.

Encrypt Device

For Pixel and Nexus devices

Go to Settings -> Security & Location -> Encrypt phone.

For Samsung Devices

Go to Settings -> Lock screen and Security -> Encrypt phone.

For OnePlus Devices

Go to Settings -> Security & Fingerprint -> Encrypt phone.

For Xiaomi Devices

Go to Settings -> Additional Settings -> Privacy -> Encrypt Phone.

After you have encrypted your smartphone, now, login to each App like Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Twitter and others and sign out of each app manually.

Go to Settings -> Accounts -> Sign out all your Google and other accounts.

Also Read:

How to Disable Encryption on Pixel and Pixel XL

How to Backup Important Data On Android (Non rooted users)

How To Secure Rooted Android Devices From Security Threats

Factory data reset

For Pixel and Nexus devices

Go to Settings -> Reset Options -> Erase all the data.

For Samsung Devices

Go to Settings -> General management -> Reset -> Factory data reset.

For OnePlus Devices

Go to Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory data reset.

For Xiaomi Devices

Go to Settings -> Additional Settings -> Backup & Reset -> Factory data reset.

These are one of the ways to securely wiping the data on Android device before selling it. If you have any doubts, let us know in the comment section below.