Lately smartphones have become an important part of our lives and living without it for even a single minute seems to be unimaginable. It carries our photos, videos, music tracks, emails, banking information, conversations and many more, always.
However, the best companion does not live with us forever. With shortened upgrade cycles from mobile manufacturers to smartphones it is short lived with one owner. We do think of replacing the existing with new, probably in about two years from buying it to possess better model which will be equipped with the latest technology and some more useful features.
The excitement leads us to move towards buying a new smartphone and forget to remove every bit of data from the old phone. The situation becomes sticky when the phone is sold or given to someone.
Below are some easy ways what to do before you sell off your old phone or donate it to someone:
Android
With Android things are a bit easy as it is an open mobile operating system. After you buy a new handset it is suggested to sync all the apps to Google account. Head to the Settings and thereafter to the Accounts section to do so. Find your Google account and tap to get settings for syncing. Apart from photos, videos, music tracks and important documents you can also sync Chrome data, Calendar and contacts too.
Data will be automatically backed up and to ensure whether those are safe open the Backup and thereafter the reset section which could be found under Settings.
Android also has an automatic restore data feature so everything is installed by its own, and believe me even the apps are reinstalled.
After taking the backup successfully you need to start clearing process before disposing the phone. Head to Settings > Backup > Restore and then hit the Factory Data Reset. Click on the option of erase internal storage and the phone will reboot into a fresh device.
iOS
Similarly you need to erase all the data from your iPhone before disposing the device. First take a backup of the device on iCloud or to your PC with the help of iTunes. Just take a note here that if you have paired Apple Watch with it, you need to unpair before starting the backup process. This will get rid of any issues while pairing the wearable with your new iPhone.
After you have taken the backup of your iDevice, you need to clear all the data. To do, first sign out of your iCloud account from Settings. Tap on your displayed name and thereafter hit Sign Out. You need to submit your Apple ID and password to Turn Off.
Go back to the Settings once again to remove the data completely. Select the General option and then hit the Reset button. Hit Erase All Content and Settings here and it will be done.
If your new device is an Android, you need to turn off the iMessage too before resetting the device. This will avoid incoming messages on it.
