Problems related to the performance of a smartphone are very relevant these days, and any owner modern device I wouldn't want to deal with them. But, unfortunately, even anyone top flagship will begin to “glitch” after months of use. We want to make you happy, because this problem has a solution. This article will help you get rid of lags on your phone. Let's look specifically at ways to completely clean an Android phone if you plan to continue using it yourself, or decide to sell your gadget.
Step-by-step instructions for cleaning an Android device
Have your eye on a brand new smartphone, but want to sell your old one before buying? Have you given your phone a proper presentation, but can’t return it to its former functionality? You need to prepare your phone for sale. How to clean your phone completely?
All current mobile devices running the Android operating system are tied to an individual postal address. Therefore, when selling, the presence of viruses, or simply cleaning, you need to quickly clean the phone “to zero.” This goal can be achieved in several ways:
- Restore factory settings.
- Hard reset.
Reset to factory settings
How to completely erase a Samsung phone to factory settings? The method is very simple, so we recommend it first:
- Go to “Settings”, find “Backup and reset” and select it.
- In the menu that opens, select “Reset settings”.
- The system will notify you one last time that all data and profiles will disappear from the device.
After the phone restarts, you will see pure Android.
Hard reset
Important! It is necessary to fully charge your smartphone before this procedure.
Turn off your phone. Now you need a combination of control keys. There are several most common variations:
- Volume up or down key + power key.
- Both volume keys + power key.
- Volume up or down key + home key + power key.
Important! The combination should cause Recovery menu, it is controlled by the volume keys, and selected by the power button.
You need to find the factory reset item and select it. We agree with the choice and wait for the smartphone cleaning procedure to start.
There is an opinion that standard means Device cleaning is not as effective as data removal tools that are offered by different companies. How to completely clean your phone in other ways?
- Encryption. Encryption will help you preserve your personal data even when all personal data is not erased. You can encrypt your device in the settings, in the “security” section.
- If you lose your device, you can remotely delete all data using Google services. Log in to the account that is linked to your smartphone and use the “delete data” button.
- Cleaning the device not only allows you to clean the phone before selling it, but can also solve various problems with the operation of the smartphone.
- You can always create backup copy your device if for some reason you do not want to lose your personal data. To do this, go to “personal data” and select “Backup and reset”, in that menu you can enable the option Reserve copy data.
Important! All instructions given above are relevant for new versions of Android and may differ slightly on different devices.
If you need a “clean” phone for sale, then in order to speed up the performance of the device, you don’t always need to tear everything down. There are many programs that can keep your system clean.
Programs for android
You can get rid of lags and freezes. What is needed for this? Most often, installation is enough special applications, which will help clean and speed up the system.
There is a list of tips that will help you get rid of the “brakes”:
- Clear your cache regularly.
- Don't be afraid to do a hard reset.
- Keep the firmware up to date and update the software as needed.
- Don't clutter your phone's internal memory.
- Do not enable synchronization of services you do not need.
- Clean master. It has many functions and is ideal for clearing accumulated “garbage”. Equipped with its own antivirus (works online).
- 360 security. It has similar functionality, but is famous for its energy saving.
- D.U. speed booster. Ideal for “speeding up” work.
- Power Clean. Equipped with an excellent task manager.
- CM security. Keeps up with other applications and has a special antivirus with multi-level protection.
Getting rid of “garbage”
You won’t have to set up your phone as often as you will have to get rid of junk on it. Cache from surfing the Internet, the consequences of background running of applications - these are only a small part of the sources of so-called “pollution”. Let's try to analyze the cleaning process in more detail using the example of using the Clean Master program.
Clean Master is very convenient, intuitive and functional application for the cleaning internal memory phone, which can also speed up and optimize the operation of Android devices. In order to carry out the procedure, you need to launch the application itself, select “Trash” and “Clean”.
Important! The app will prompt you to do an advanced cleanup and notify you that this partition may contain important data. Be careful!
Using the Clean Master program as an example, you got acquainted with maintaining cleanliness mobile devices Oh. Nobody forbids you to use something else software. The interface on such programs will not let you get confused and will help you complete the task.
Video material
This article should help you clean your Android device of unnecessary information and erase files you no longer need. We hope that now you can easily solve the problem of Samsung phone freezing or give it a factory “state” with characteristic performance. If this article did not help solve your problem and fix the operation of the device, we recommend that you contact your nearest service center or consult a qualified professional.
All modern portable digital devices under Android control are linked to personal mail or profile in in social networks. Therefore, if you decide to sell your beloved Android smartphone or tablet, but you don’t want personal data, photos or videos to become available to the buyer, then in such cases you need to quickly and easily clean it. It will also help if you pump up a whole bunch unknown applications, a virus was installed. This can be done in several ways, without resorting to using any programs:
- Reset to factory settings
- Perform a hard reset
1. How to reset to factory settings on android
This method is quite simple and we recommend its use. To do this, you need to enter the “settings” menu. The choice then depends on android versions. For Android 4.x and higher “Restore and reset”. For older Android 2.x – “Privacy”. In the available menu, select “Reset settings” with one click.
Reset example on version 5 of Android
After this, the system will notify you again that all data, as well as linked profiles, will be deleted from the phone. You need to confirm the action by clicking “Reset phone settings”. After rebooting the phone, Android will be completely cleaned. That's how simple and fast it is, unlike the next method.
2. How to reset settings on Android (hard reset)
Attention use this method may cause the Android system to malfunction. Use only if the first one does not help.
This method of cleaning Android is really effective when, after installing the application, a message appears about paid unlocking of the device or you forgot the pattern key.
First, you need to fully charge and then turn off the phone. Next, you need to enter the “Recovery” mode. You need to press and hold a certain key combination. Each manufacturer has its own set of keys. We will give the most common options and look at an example Samsung phone Galaxy.
- Volume up (or down) key + power key
- Both volume keys (up + down) + power key
- Volume up (or down) key + home key + power key
You must keep them pressed until a dark screen appears with text in the upper left. This is the “Recovery” menu. You can move around it using the up and down keys, and select the power button.
We move down to the item “wipe data / factory reset” and confirm by pressing the power key. On the next screen, confirm the choice “Yes – delete all user data” in the same way. The procedure for cleaning the phone and returning to factory settings will begin. You will return to the initial menu, where you will need to select the “Reboot system” item to reboot the phone.
We hope the material on completely cleaning Android devices was useful to you. If you have questions, you can ask them in the comments.
For many, a tablet or smartphone is not just a means of communication, but also a storage of personal files and data: a notepad, diary, task manager, photo album and even wallet. What secrets do people not trust with their devices: from intimate pictures and correspondence to confidential papers and passwords from bank accounts.
It is not surprising that Android allows you to copy personal information to the cloud for convenient transfer to new gadgets and completely erase it on old ones. Lifehacker's instructions will help you cope with these tasks. It's based on pure Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, but if you're using a different version of the system, these tips will also work. Although some menus and options may vary slightly.
Gadgets running Android 5.0 and newer OS versions automatically copy most of the user data and settings to Google servers. These are the interface parameters and Wi-Fi networks, contacts, list installed programs and even internal data from some of these programs. This feature greatly simplifies the transition to a new device. You simply connect your account to it - and copies of old data are downloaded there from the Internet.
To use backup, you must enable it in settings. To do this, find the section responsible for recovery and reset. Open it, select Google account to store data and settings, and then enable backup and auto-recovery.
Next, connect to the Internet and wait 30 minutes for the backup to occur. IN Android process duplicates settings and data Google applications, synchronized with the account you selected. The system will also copy data to the cloud third party programs, whose developers have implemented support for backup via Google. You can quickly restore all this on a new gadget.
If your device has an outdated Android system or you are not sure whether the backup covers important files, make copies of them manually.
Connect your phone to your computer in file storage mode and view the contents of the gadget in Explorer. Save important pictures, music, books, videos and other information from your device to your computer. As alternative option you can duplicate the information in Dropbox or another.
In the future, you will be able to manually copy information saved on your computer or in the cloud to a new device.
3. Remove SD and SIM cards
Your phone number It is gradually taking on the role of a universal identifier for a wide variety of services, so it would be a shame to lose it. After demonstrating the capabilities of the smartphone to the buyer, do not forget to take out your SIM card. The same goes for the memory card, especially if your device was sold without it by default.
If you want to leave the memory card to the new owner as a bonus or because it was included in the standard package, be sure to erase it before selling it. To do this, open your phone settings and find the corresponding item in the storage section.
After backing up your important data and clearing your memory card, you should delete all data from your device. The fastest and reliable way to do this is to return to factory settings. As a result, your phone or tablet will be the same as it was when it arrived at the store.
To perform a reset, connect the device to a power source and use the appropriate option in the device settings. For example, on pure Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, the required item is located in the “Recovery and reset” section and is called “Factory reset”.
After the reset, your phone will reboot, and you will see that it has become pristine and immaculate.
But if you tinkered with the firmware, this will not return the factory version. In this case, you may need to flash the device with factory firmware, which can usually be found on the manufacturer's website.
When all of the above steps are completed, you can transfer the device to a new user without fear for personal data.
Some people change their smartphone or tablet almost as often as they change their clothes. Clearing the device's memory would seem to make it impossible to view the data stored on it. However, it is possible to recover deleted files.
File deleted - check
On most devices, deleting files simply means telling the system that the next time you need to save more data, you can do so in the location where the deleted file was previously located.
However, until a new data write operation is performed, the contents of the file remain on the device in the form of memory bits. Such a file can be restored. IT specialists define this “standard” file deletion as logical data deletion.
There is also another type of data deletion, which involves changing the used bits, thus creating "spam" in the contents of the disk. Data deleted this way cannot be recovered, but the deletion process itself takes longer.
Dangers of standard data deletion
Mobile phones are “highly personal” devices. Their use involves storing data that should not be disclosed to anyone other than the owner, for example, contact details of friends and family, films and photographs (including very intimate ones), a detailed calendar schedule, places where the owner lives in this moment time, logins and passwords for e-mail and social media accounts, content, SMS and much, much more.
In the case of selling a smartphone or tablet, the so-called logical data reset can lead, at best, to a shameful situation of disclosing personal information; at worst, the former owner of the device can become a victim of blackmail, identity theft, or actual theft of money from a bank account.
Restoring settings does not delete data
Research conducted by IT security company ADISA found that Apple devices and BlackBerry, after performing a reset, the physical removal data, which prevents their recovery in the future. For Android devices, despite performing a factory reset, still it is possible to recover most of the data.
What is this connected with? According to experts from ADISA, the reason for this may be the fact that OS, such as iOS, uses a built-in encryption mode. In this case, it is sufficient that the encryption keys are deleted during a factory reset. While in devices with Android encryption data is not used by default. Therefore, even after performing a factory reset multiple times, you can still recover your data.
How to prepare a smartphone for sale
According to research conducted by security experts, a factory reset can erase all data stored on your Apple device.
What should Android mobile device users do? The easiest way is device encryption, before restoring factory settings. Given that the encryption keys are protected by a password set by the user, even if a reset attempt fails, an attacker must perform a brute force attack (an attack based on checking all possible combinations to find the password) to gain access to deleted files. It is worth remembering that what more complex password, the more difficult it will be to pick it up.
Device with Android system can be encrypted using standard function: Settings → Safety> Encrypt device.
The factory reset function is available after entering settings: Settings → Archive and reset → Reset data.
The last step before selling the device is to remove the SIM card and SD card.
The average phone serves its owner for about 2-3 years, then it is usually given to relatives for use or put up for sale. And along with it, the secrets of the former owner fall into the wrong hands.
Don’t want your personal photos, documents, contacts, letters, website history, call logs and SMS to end up in the hands of strangers? Read how to completely clean your Android and iOS phone before selling it.
Deleting data from Android
Android smartphones store user information in three places: in their own memory, on removable media (SD cards and SIM cards) and in linked accounts. If about removable media the owner usually remembers, then the rest is very often left without due attention. Resetting to factory settings, which is most often limited to before sale, does not erase everything. Once you dig deeper, your confidential data is no longer just yours.
So, to properly prepare your phone for sale or transfer to a new user, do the following:
- Remove SIM and SD cards.
- Copy necessary information from the device's memory to another medium.
- Sign out of all applications and Internet services that you used on your device.
- Delete remaining contacts, SMS, mail, web browser history.
- Delete all accounts associated with your phone, not just your main Google account.
- If you have root rights, remove them.
- Clear your memory with complete data destruction tools.
- Restore your device to factory settings.
Logging out of accounts
The first and second points, as a rule, do not cause any difficulties for anyone, so let's start right away with the third and fourth.
Take the time to launch every application and web resource on your phone where autologin is configured (automatic login) and press the exit button. Especially in applications that will remain on the device after a factory reset. This measure may seem unnecessary to you, but it is better to spend 10 minutes than to later rely on the decency of the new owner.
Cleaning contacts, SMS and browser history
Launch the application " Contacts", mark everything that is here (after removing the SIM cards, only what is stored on the phone will remain here) and tap the trash can icon.
Do the same with saved SMS and website browsing history in the browser, which will remain on the phone after recovery.
We delete email accounts and correspondence
Launch the application " MailGmail", open the list of those registered in it mailboxes and press " Account management».
Touch the first line account, go to the menu hidden behind the three dots and select “ Delete" Do the same with the other accounts, leaving one linked to Google Play. You will need it to further clean your phone.
Deleting accounts is convenient because it works on almost any Android smartphones, regardless of modification and firmware version.
Remove Root rights
To remove root rights(if they do not come from the factory, which happens on some very Chinese gadgets) they usually use the same application with which they were obtained.
Removing root rights in the Kingroot application.
If you have difficulty finding the option “ Unroot"in your application, use the instructions for it or the universal utility . The utility will help you check whether the deletion was successful. But, unfortunately, the developers of both do not guarantee their successful operation on all devices.
After removing root privileges, reboot your phone.
Clearing the device memory
Before the final step - restoring the phone to its factory state, it is very advisable to erase all personal data from the storage so that it cannot be restored.
Below is a partial list free applications from Google Plat Market that successfully cope with this task:
We do a rollback to factory settings
Hurray, we're almost there! All that remains is to return the device to its condition as after purchase. To do this, go to its settings and open the “ Recovery and reset" Tap " Reset».
Once again, make sure that the page that opens next lists all your accounts remaining on the device. To complete the operation, click " Reset your phone».
If this reset method suddenly becomes unavailable, you can perform it from the Recovery menu. It opens by pressing a combination of buttons, individual for each brand of device, with the phone turned off (to clarify what exactly to press, it is best to look at the instructions for the device). The option is called wipe data/factory reset.
After restoring factory settings, the smartphone is ready for sale.
Deleting data from iOS
Exemption from custom iPhone data and iPad is easier and faster. Of course, their owners also need to remember to remove the SIM card and copy valuable data from the device’s memory to the cloud or other media, but the rest is literally 3 touches of the screen.
So, to reset an iPhone based on iOS 11-12 to the state it was after purchase, do the following:
- Open settings and go to the " Basic».
- Tap " Reset" at the bottom of the screen. Enter Apple password ID if prompted.
- Select the option " Erase content and settings" If necessary, update your iCloud backup.
- If you don't need a copy, just click " Erase" and wait for the operation to complete.
That's all. Your iPhone is also ready to pass into the hands of a new owner.
Also on the site:
New again: how to clean an Android or iOS phone before selling it updated: October 6, 2018 by: Johnny Mnemonic
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