It is common to change your mobile phone to keep up to date with the latest trends, or simply to have more storage space, or a device with dual SIM or the best camera on the market.
Therefore, many users every so often consider selling their current mobile phone in order to receive some money to help to pay for their new technological purchase.
In this article, we want to explain the 3 essential steps to bear in mind before giving away your mobile phone. The phone is where all your information and activity for the recent years is stored, and if it is given to someone else you must ensure, for your own good, that there is no trace of information of any kind which could compromise your security.
Please remember that all accesses to social networks, emails, notifications, banks, etc., are stored in your device, as well as personal photographs, emails and WhatsApp messages…. Our whole life is in digital format in our mobile phone, which in addition registers the places we visit (using geolocation), our Internet searches, and it even records some audio clips and registers incoming and outgoing calls. If you think about it, “everything is in the mobile”.
In view of the above, we explain how to eliminate all the information before handing over your Smartphone.
1.- Locate and recover your receipt of purchase,
guarantee and additional guarantee policy if you took one when you bought the phone. These documents always increase the value of your device, and give out a good impression to the buyer or to the person receiving the device.
2.- Restore factory settings.
This is a very simple process. Please note that before restoring the settings, it is a always good idea to make a backup copy of all the files, documents and photographs, or download to your computer the items you wish to keep. When you restore your mobile phone to factory settings, it will not be possible to recover any information from it. The information will be completely eliminated.
How to restore factory settings in your Android device?
To reset to factory settings, you must go to “Settings”, and then in the search option of the device write “reset” and press “reset phone”. A list of things that will be eliminated is shown, and if agree we press accept. The process takes a few minutes.
How to restore factory settings in your IPhone?
Go to “Settings”, then “General”, go down the screen and select “Reset”. Finally, you must confirm this by clicking on “Erase All Content and Settings”. After a few minutes, all content from our Apple phone will be erased.
As a result, our phone will be exactly the same as the day we bought it.
3.- disinfect and clean your phone.
This is especially important nowadays due to the Covid19 pandemic. Therefore, it is important to adequately sanitize the phone, and all the accessories, using for example a cotton ball saturated with 96% alcohol. Or we can get a cleaning product from specialized stores.
Remember to clean the earphones, as well as all the openings and slits of the phone, and the charger and the cable. In addition to the benefits of disinfecting, this will increase the value of your device.
