How to Delete Everything from My Cell Phone and Leave It Like New

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Everything is stored on your phone, including financial information, social media logins, and photos—personal information that you obviously don’t want to end up in the wrong hands.

The host of Rossen Reports and national investigative correspondent for NBC News, Jeff Rossen, demonstrates how to secure your data by completely cleaning your Android or iPhone in the video above.

Mobile Phone

  1. Select Settings from your home screen.
  2. Select General.
  3. Click Reset after you have scrolled all the way to the bottom.
  4. Select Erase All Content and Settings.

Before Selling, Let’s See How to Remove All Data from Your Phone Forever

Before selling your device, you should manually erase as much data as you can from it. While a factory data reset can be helpful in this regard, it might not be sufficient on its own. On Android or iPhone devices, a basic factory data reset may not always be enough to remove all data; in such cases, your files, messages, and even images may be readily restored by the new owner. We advise you to remove all applications from your device before doing a factory reset.

  1. Get rid of passwords that are saved in your apps and browsers. Take them out of related accounts.
  2. Take out your external storage device and SIM card.
  3. Take off your Google account’s login. Choose your accounts by going to "Settings" > "Users and Accounts."
  4. Take out any credit cards connected to your Android device.
  5. Turn off the factory reset protection (FRP) feature. Android device protection, also known as FRP, is installed on Android phones running 5.0 Lollipop or later.
  6. Secure your information. Your phone may not be completely erased by a simple factory reset, making it possible for all of your files to be readily restored.
  7. Put fake data in. You can upload junk data onto your Android phone before doing a factory reset to add an additional layer of security.
  8. Make sure you erase all of the data from your iPhone before trading it in.
  9. You can accomplish this by doing a factory reset, but you can also manually erase all of your personal data from the iPhone.
  10. Turn off and sign out of services like Apple Pay, Wallet, and iMessage, as well as the Find My Phone function.
  11. Exit the applications that save your login credentials, such as Gmail and Facebook, and ensure that they don’t keep them.
  12. Get rid of any passwords that your browsers have saved.
  13. Take out your device’s serial number from your Apple account profile.
  14. Before wiping your iPhone, make a backup of any files and private information you wish to preserve.
  15. Click "System" > "Settings" and select "Erase all data (factory reset)."
  16. The device should then be deleted from your Google account. Navigate to your Google account and select the Recently Used Devices section.

However, What Exactly Does a Factory Reset Erase?

Restoring a computer, smartphone, or other device to its original state from the factory is possible through a factory reset. This entails wiping off all of the user-modified settings, apps, and data on the device. When you factory reset a device, all stored data is deleted in an effort to return the software to how the manufacturer originally intended. This returns the device to its initial state. Almost everything on the device, including accounts, settings, apps, and personal data, will be gone after a factory reset. It’s crucial to remember that a factory reset does not remove any firmware or software updates that have been applied to the device. Since a factory reset erases all data and settings, including any malware or viruses that may be on the device, it can be a useful method for getting rid of viruses from a device.