When we sell a smartphone as used, we will have to pay particular attention to the personal data and accounts configured on it, to avoid that our privacy is violated and that the future buyer can pass himself off to us without our knowledge. If we want to sell or give away the Android smartphone or an iPhone, we will have to perform a factory reset and delete all our personal data, so that nobody can use it. In this guide we will show you in detail how to format Android smartphone or iPhone before selling it, showing you step by step the items to be used to restore. Remember that this operation will delete all data (including photos, videos and so on) from the internal memory: before proceeding it is advisable to make a backup, as described in our guide Backing up your smartphone.
How to format Android smartphones
If we have a smartphone with Android operating system, carrying out a complete format is very simple.Internal memory
To format the internal memory of the phone, open the Settings app and go to the Backup and restore menu (on some smartphones this menu may be present in other menus such as Other settings, System -> Advanced-> Reset options or Additional settings ). Once the right screen is open, we select Factory data reset and we tap on Reset phone or on the item Erase all data (factory data reset) .
The system will ask us for the security password, enter it and confirm the start of the restore operation. The phone will reboot and remain locked for a few minutes while the reset occurs.
At the next reboot the phone will be like new, with the initial configuration procedure on display.
In addition to the procedure directly from the phone, we can also restore the device with the official management programs released by the various manufacturers, which allow you to restore an Android smartphone from a PC.
To do this, first of all we download the right program below, according to the manufacturer.
- Samsung Smart Switch
- Huawei HiSuite
- Xiaomi Mi PC Suite
- LG PC Suite
- Sony Xperia Companion
After downloading and installing the right program or suite, we connect the Android smartphone via USB cable, open the official manager and click on Restore device or similar items.
We follow the instructions provided on the screen and confirm where necessary, so that we can start restoring our smartphone to be sold or given away. During the procedure we do not disconnect the smartphone from the USB cable until the operator expressly allows us to do so (since a lot of data is exchanged during the process, we risk seriously damaging our smartphone).
NOTE : some Android smartphones have an advanced security system that requires the insertion of the latest Google login credentials or the manufacturer's account credentials present on the phone before the reset; it prevents someone from stealing our phone and starting recovery without our consent.
After entering the credentials, the phone will unlock and can be configured by the new owner (the credentials entered for unlocking will not be saved on the newly restored phone!).
MicroSD memory card
If our phone is equipped with a microSD memory card, the easiest way to recover it is to remove it and use it on our new smartphone, or keep it for future use. In case we wanted to sell the smartphone with the microSD too, we will have to format the memory card separately from the recovery (which never involves the microSD!).To format the memory card (both after and before recovery), let's go to the Settings app and tap on Memory, Memory Space or Storage Space . Scroll down the screen until you identify the section reserved for the microSD or select the item relating to the portable memory, tap on Format SD card or on Delete SD card and finally on Format .
The system will format the memory card, which will return as new, again providing maximum storage capacity.
How to format iPhone
If we want to sell or give away an iPhone, we can delete all our personal data, accounts and apps installed on the phone by opening the Settings app and going to the General path -> Restore . In the new screen we can restore the device to factory conditions by tapping on the item Initialize content and settings .
The system will ask us for Apple credentials for confirmation, then restart the device. The whole process can take several minutes, depending on your iPhone model. If we want to restore the iPhone from iTunes, install the program on our computer, connect the iPhone via USB cable, wait a few minutes then open the program from the Start menu.
After starting, click on the phone icon at the top of the program and, in the summary tab, click on the Reset iPhone button.
In the window that appears, click Restore to confirm. iTunes will now initialize the device and also install the latest iOS software (if there is an update).
Conclusions
As we said, restoring an Android smartphone or an iPhone is a simple operation, which we can implement both from the menus provided by the phone and using the official management programs. In other guides we have seen how to backup the iPhone and how to backup the Android smartphoneWe have to sell a laptop "> Factory reset on PCs and laptops (Acer, Asus, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba etc.). To restore instead a desktop computer or a laptop without a dedicated partition, we can follow the instructions in the our guide on How to install Windows 10 even from scratch (clean installation) .
