Tech

How to sell a second-hand smartphone without giving your personal data to third parties

Selling a second-hand smartphone requires something more important than physically cleaning it. The versatility of smartphones has made them the most widely used electronic devices and the amount of personal and professional data they store is enormous. And you must make sure that you do not give them to third parties.

The last third of the year is a good time to renew your mobile phone, taking advantage of the back-to-school sales campaigns and the previous ones carried out by large retailers to lead to Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday. And it is that the sale of the used mobile is a good option to cheapen the purchase of the new one.

And the sooner the better because the loss of value is high as the new generations are launched. Apple’s iPhones are the ones that best maintain their price, but even they drop in price and a lot. In addition, companies specializing in reconditioned pressure downwards.

How to sell a second-hand smartphone… safely

Once the renewal and sale of the used one has been decided, you can assess the promotions of the manufacturers that offer delivery to make buying new ones cheaper. We already told you that they are usually not very generous and direct sales from user to user may be the most profitable. In all cases, a series of tasks to safeguard data privacy. We remind you.

second hand smartphone

data copy

The first thing we must do is create a backup of all the data on the terminal. This includes photos, videos, documents, messages, contacts and more. There are several ways to do it. Personally, I like to do a complete copy to a PC or external drive, both from the internal memory of the terminal and from the microSD (if we have it installed) in case there is any problem in the change of terminal or in the subsequent synchronization to the Cloud services that we are surely using.

We must also ensure that these cloud services are up to date with the latest changes and files added to the terminal. This includes general online storage services such as Dropbox or OneDrive or those specialized in photography such as Amazon Photos.

The same with the rest of the applications that we use. Most have their own backup system and are usually synchronized regularly, but make sure of it. One of the most used, WhatsApp, creates automatic backup copies of the chat history (and content) connected to Google Drive, but it must be managed by the user in the configuration.

Both Android and iOS have a backup tool integrated into the general settings and it is another point that we must check to make sure that they have made a final backup of the data. On Android, you’re probably using a Google account and this makes it easy as it automatically saves important contacts, calendar, Gmail, Play Store apps, and even other settings like wallpapers, language, etc. time zone etc Manufacturers like Samsung offer their own ‘Cloud’ in case you want to make the copies there.

As for the rest of the applications, there are free tools to make a backup of them. Personally, in a device change, I prefer to install the apps “by hand” taking advantage of cleaning, but if you are interested in something more automated, tools like Titanium Backup are one of the best, although it requires that the terminal be rooted. There are several such general applications and also others for specific tasks like saving all SMS. An example is SMS Backup & Restore.

Data transfer

If you have purchased the new mobile before disposing of the old one, you can try to transfer all the data. However, it is not easy to transfer external app data between Android devices. There is no official solution from Google for this and although some OEMs do offer it generally does not usually work well with other brand devices before the customizations implemented.

If you are going to switch between Samsung devices, you can make use of the Smart Switch Mobile app. Other manufacturers have theirs like OnePlus, which offers the OnePlus Switch software. The results tend to be unpredictable and even with terminals of the same brand there are errors when it is done (as is usually the case) on different models and versions of Android.

If you don’t want complications or errors, you can opt for a clean install, make a good backup of files, data and apps where appropriate, and then start up your terminal from scratch. On most consumer smartphones it will be a matter of a few minutes.

second hand smartphone

Deletion of data

After a good season working in a SAT, I must tell you that I have found everything. And in this case I mean equipment or components (oh! those hard drives) delivered with all kinds of personal and professional data. It is not uncommon to buy a second-hand mobile and check that the internal memory has installed apps and usernames and passwords to access different services. Or the microSD full of images, some compromised…

If the mobile falls into the hands of someone unscrupulous and you haven’t erased all the information, you can get into a big deal. We must eliminate absolutely everything before selling it so as not to leave our personal information in the hands of third parties. In addition to files, this includes user accounts and subscriptions to streaming services, cloud storage, etc.

Removal of any link

If your old terminal is Android, it is very likely that it has the Factory reset protection (FRP). It is an additional layer introduced by Google as a security measure, which prevents the terminal from being reset in situations of theft or loss of the terminal. Obviously, you have to remove that protection before selling a smartphone so that a third party can use it. To do this, you’ll need to remove all Google accounts signed in to the device. Go to the Settings tool > Accounts, select and delete the Google account that you first used to sign in to the device.

Factory reset

Once you have finished safeguarding your data, you must reset the terminal to its factory state to finish disassociating yourself completely from it. This will remove all accounts, files, and data from internal storage and essentially put the software back into an unused state. In this way, when the new owner of your phone has the device in his hands, he will configure it from scratch just as we will do when we buy the new mobile.

SIM and microSD

Once the software tasks are completed, it is time to remove the SIM card that we are going to use in the new terminal and also the microSD memory card if it is installed. Personally, I don’t like giving the microSD with a second-hand smartphone for the data security reasons mentioned in previous points.

If you are going to include it as part of the second-hand mobile make sure you put a good low-level format on it. There is quite effective specialized software with which you can recover data from memory cards where the data has simply been deleted from the explorer.

Now yes: external cleaning and shipping

It would be necessary to carry out a thorough cleaning of the terminal. You have to do it always and in times of COVID and other bugs much more. If we keep the original packaging (as is recommended), we only have to keep the mobile, the charger, the accessories that came as standard and additionally what we have purchased separately such as covers, cases or screen protectors. It is also convenient to add the invoice if the terminal is still under warranty. If the battery is removable, it is better to include it outside the smartphone.

Do not include used headphonesIn this case for health reasons. The buyer will already have their own. If you want to include them, they always have to be new, unused models. Also, both basic wired and entry-level wireless headphones are pretty cheap.

It is time to take some good photographs of the smartphone and the accessories to hang them in the places where we put them on sale. If it is in good general condition and the price is reasonable, we will have an opportunity to sell that second-hand mobile. Giving it away to discount the purchase of a new model is another option, although manufacturers are not usually too generous and it will usually be more profitable to sell it to another user. if you’re gonna do it do not waste time because the loss of value will be constant every day that passes.

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