One thing to note is that it is not necessary that the steps suggested by us will apply to every phone. This will depend on your device’s manifest and Android version.
micro SD card
The first thing you have to decide on is the microSD card. If you have a microSD card in your old phone, then you can use it in your new phone as well. By doing this most of the data such as photos and videos will be migrated easily.
If your new phone does not have a microSD card slot, or for some reason you do not want to use your old card, then you should delete all the data by formatting your SD card. However, before that make a backup of all your photos and videos.
1. Connect your phone to computer via USB cable. If you have a Mac, first of all install the Android File Transfer application on it.
2. Open My Computer on your PC or Finder on your Mac.
3. From here go to SD card and copy all the files and save them on your computer.
4. Once all the data is copied, you can remove your phone from the computer.
Now you can format your memory card.
1. On your phone go to Settings and select Storage.
2. Scroll down and tap on Erase SD card. After this you will get a warning message saying that by doing this you will lose all your data.
3. After that tap on Erase SD card button to proceed. If your SD card is password protected, you will need to enter the PIN to proceed.
But some people can recover your files from a formatted SD card, and the easiest way to deal with this problem is by “layering”. Add some more data to your formatted card, then delete it, and repeat this process a couple of times. By doing this your original data will be lost forever.
For example, if you formatted your 2GB microSD card, connect it again to your computer. Copy the file of about 2 GB on it. And delete this file immediately. Repeat this process two to three times. It won’t take you more than 10 minutes to do this, and you can easily sell your card.
how to backup data
First of all make sure you don’t lose your contacts and photos. One of the good things about Android is that you need a Google account to set up the phone, and with that, your device’s backup starts. Follow this process to make sure it is happening or not.
1. Go to Settings on your phone. There select Backup & reset.
2. You will be able to see the option of Back up my data. Make sure it’s ticked.
3. After that go back to the previous page. Scroll down to the Accounts option then tap on Google.
4. You will be able to see your Google Account which was used to set up the phone. There will also be a green sync symbol next to it. Now tap on Account.
5. Make sure that all options are selected. After this, calendar, contacts, email and photos will be automatically backed up to Google+ through your Google Account.
6. By the way, not all versions of Android do photo backup on their own. We checked the 2011 Samsung Galaxy Note model but it didn’t have this option. At the same time, this option is in the Moto E launched last year. If your phone does not have this feature, then you will have to create a backup on your computer via USB.
7. Back up the rest of the media files to your computer by connecting the phone to the PC via a USB cable. You can back up the files to your computer by following the instructions given in the SD card section.
Under this option, the application data of many of your apps will also be backed up. This backup requires your apps to be registered with the Android operating system, it is also possible that many of your apps may not support this feature. We suggest that you back up the application data of your favorite apps manually.
delete everything
Now that you have backed up all the data, you can feel free to delete the data from your phone. You can delete the data by following the steps given below.
First of all, completely format the SD card by following the tips suggested above. If you want to keep using that SD card in future also, then keep it safe.
You can also delete everything from your phone through factory reset, but some people can recover deleted data as well. If you want to ensure that no one can recover the deleted data, you must enable hardware encryption. Most people can ignore points 1 and 2 and start straight from the third point.
1. Go to Settings. Select Security and tap on Encrypt phone. This process takes a long time, so you should connect your phone to the charger.
2. Tap Encrypt phone once again. Some people have found that this process does not start all at once. In that case, you will have to try a few more times.
This process takes about 1 hour, so you will have to wait by keeping your phone on charge. Once this is done, you should reset the phone.
3. Go to Settings and select Backup & reset. Then choose Factory data reset. In the next screen tickmark the Erase phone data box. In some phones, you can also delete data from the memory card, so read the instructions carefully before tapping any button.
4. After this a warning screen will appear. Tap on Reset phone to proceed.
5. This process may take some time. After this your phone will reboot to the state you bought it in. You will be instructed to select a language and sign in once again.
Congratulations, you have deleted all the data from your Android phone.
Restoring Your Files on Another Phone
If you have followed the above-mentioned tips completely during the backup then you can get back the old data very easily. If you use your old microSD card in the new phone as well, then movies, music and photos will be transferred easily.
When you get a new Android phone, you sign in with the same Google account so that you can get the old contacts. For the rest of the data, you can copy the backup made on your computer to the phone via USB cable. For this the above suggestions have to be followed.
If you’re switching to an iOS device, you can still sync your Google Account to back up contacts and calendars. You can transfer backed up media files through iTunes.