sell your used phone safely

Selling your old phone is always a good deal. It will allow you to pocket a few extra euros in order to be able to offer you a new device, at the cutting edge of technology. There are, however, a number of things you should consider before handing over your phone to a new user or business. Certainly, it will take you a little while, but it is important to protect your privacy.

Back up your data

Your phone probably contains a lot of your personal data :

• Contacts;
• Pictures ;
• SMS;
• Mails;
• Agenda, etc /

The first thing to do when you want to sell your phone is to save all those informations. Most of your data might already be stored on the cloud. In this case, if you use services such as Google Photos, Gmail or Google Contacts, your data in these applications may already be synchronized with the cloud. Otherwise, go to the settings for each app and make sure cloud backups are turned on.

You can also back up all your data via Google Drive or migrate them via third-party applications like G Cloud Backup. If you do not want to worry too much about these applications (which are nevertheless very practical), before phone recovery, you can also plug your phone into your computer and manually copy all your files.

Log out of your accounts

The technological developments in the field of telephony are very common. This is why consumers often sell, resell and trade in phones. The approach is also supported and encouraged by the State, in particular with government measures for recycling electronic equipment established by the latter. You have several options if you want to get rid of your used phone. Be careful, because often, when reselling a phone, the previous owners accidentally leave their account Google, Facebook or Dropbox connected to the device.

To prevent someone from going through your stuff, go to the “Settings” menu on your phone and go to “accounts”. You will then see a list of all the accounts you have signed into on the device. Tap on each one and choose ” Delete account “.

Unpair devices

Electronics Bluetooth such as wireless earphones and smart watches will stop working with your old phone, once it is out of reach. However, to make sure it’s okay to pair them with a new device, unpair them from your old phone. Access the settings of your smartphone, then in “Connected devices” and press forget.

Reset the phone to factory settings

Once you have completed all of the above steps, as a precaution, erase all your data and your browsing history by performing a factory reset. This option may be in a different location depending on the phone model.

Be careful, once you have chosen this option, all your data will permanently disappear from your phone. This operation consists of returning your phone to the state in which you bought it. Make sure you only do this after copying everything you need to your old phone.