An old phone holds more of your life than almost anything else you own. Photos, messages, saved passwords, banking apps and location history all pass through it. When you sell it, trade it in or hand it to a relative, you want all of that to stay with you. A careful sequence takes about an hour, and most of it is waiting for backups and resets to finish.
This guide follows the order that works on most iPhones and Android phones. Menu names differ between versions and manufacturers, so treat the steps as a checklist and look for the closest option on your device.
Why isn’t a factory reset enough on its own?
A factory reset removes your data from the phone, but it does not close your accounts. If you skip signing out, the phone may stay linked to your Apple Account or Google account. That can lock the next owner out through activation or theft-protection features, and it leaves your name attached to a device you no longer have.
A reset also cannot fix mistakes made before it. A forgotten cloud backup, an unremoved SIM card or a still-paired smartwatch are the usual leftovers. Doing the steps in order prevents most of them.
What should you back up first?
Start by deciding what you want to keep. Photos and videos are the obvious items, but check for other things that live only on the phone: app data, notes, voice recordings, downloaded files, two-factor codes and saved game progress.
Copy photos and videos to your new phone, a computer or a backup you control, and open a few of them there to confirm they play.
Check that your contacts, calendar and messages are synced or exported.
Move two-factor authentication apps to your new phone before you erase the old one. Many services let you do this only while the old device still works.
Write down anything stored only in a notes or password app.
Do not erase anything until you have confirmed the backup on the new device. If you have a private vault app, make sure its encrypted backup is saved somewhere other than the old phone, and that you have the recovery key. In Revault, the recovery key and an encrypted backup are what let you restore a vault on another device.
How do you sign out of everything?
Sign out of your main account first. On an iPhone, turn off Find My and sign out of your Apple Account in Settings. On Android, remove your Google account and any other accounts under Settings, then Passwords and accounts. This releases the phone from your account so the next owner can set it up.
Then deal with the extras. Unpair any smartwatch, earbuds or car connection. Sign out of messaging apps that tie an account to the phone number, and deregister services such as iMessage if you are moving your number to a non-Apple phone. Remove the phone from your account’s list of trusted devices as well, which you can do from a computer.
What about the SIM card and memory card?
Take out the physical SIM card before you hand the phone over. It carries your number and, on some carriers, stored data. If your phone uses an eSIM, remove or transfer the eSIM profile in the settings, or ask your carrier to move it to your new device.
Remove any microSD card too. A factory reset does not always wipe an external card, and it is easy to forget it is there. Keep the card or destroy it if it is old and you do not need it.
How do you erase the phone properly?
Make sure encryption is on. Modern iPhones encrypt their storage by default, and most recent Android phones do as well. On an encrypted phone, a factory reset discards the keys that protect the data, which makes the old contents unreadable. If you are unsure about an older Android phone, check Settings for an encryption option and turn it on before you reset.
Then run the reset. On an iPhone, choose Erase All Content and Settings. On Android, choose Factory data reset. Enter your passcode when asked, and let the phone restart to its welcome screen. If it asks you to sign in with an account, the reset may have been incomplete, or the account is still linked.
How can you check that nothing is left?
Look at your account from another device. In your Apple Account or Google account settings, find the list of devices and confirm the old phone is gone. Remove it if it is still there. Change your password if you ever signed in on it from a shared or untrusted setup.
Check that the phone is not still listed in your cloud backup settings or in any app that tracks devices. If the phone had a carrier or financing lock, confirm with the carrier that it is cleared before you sell, because buyers often ask. A short photo of the welcome screen is useful proof for the buyer that the phone is clean.
What if you are giving it to a child or relative?
The same steps apply, but you also decide who owns the next setup. Let the new user create their own account instead of reusing yours, and set a new passcode together. If the phone is for a child, set up parental controls or a family account before first use, so the defaults are in place from the start.
If you can’t erase the phone, because the screen is broken or you have forgotten the passcode, do not sell it as it is. Use your account’s remote erase from another device, or take it to the manufacturer or a repair shop. If you will not be able to wipe it at all, recycling it through a trusted program is safer than passing on a phone that still holds your data.