So I will confess that I’m not a very experienced Android device user (although not knowing about something has never stopped me from learning to “figure it out”). First things first, make sure that you backup your data from the phone before trading in or selling it. A majority of phones can be backed up with third party (or vendor) software and a USB cable to your home computer. We’ll write some more on Android backup specifics in a later blog post. This post is geared towards the wiping of your Android device:
- Navigate to ‘Settings’ on your phone or device
- Tap ‘Security’
- Tap ‘Encrypt device’ which will take up to an hour (NOTE: you might realize that this is not specifically wiping your Android device at this time. This is a precautionary step that will help to ensure that your data is not easily restored when you go to perform the wipe of the device)
- After the phone is encrypted, tap ‘Settings’
- Tap ‘Backup & reset’
- Tap ‘Factory data reset’
- ….then finally, tap ‘Reset phone’. This will reset your phone to factory defaults and wipe the encrypted data in the process.
That’s it! You’ve now successfully wiped your Android smartphone or device!