What to do with your old Android phone before selling it: 5 easy steps

Are you wanting to give away or sell your old smartphone or tablet that you no longer use? Did you just get a new Galaxy Note 4 or Nexus 6 and suddenly don’t need your old HTC One? Do you know what you have to do beforehand so as not to pass on your details to someone else? Today we’ll explain how to clean up your device as if it was brand new before it changes hands! We’ll also suggest some places to offload that baby if you do decide to sell an old Android phone.

If you’ve got an old phone you no longer use, why not sell it? Here’s how.

No matter who your old phone or tablet goes to, you should always give it to them wiped, mostly to protect your own privacy, but also to make their setup of it that little bit easier. To remove all your data, there are several things that you should not forget.

Make sure you don’t forget your SIM card!

1. Take out the SIM card

The first thing to do when preparing an old phone for a new home is to get your SIM card out. Even if you’re getting a new SIM card with your new phone, your old SIM card has lots of your contacts saved on it, so you don’t want to go leaving it in an old phone you’re getting rid of. You might need a SIM ejection tool to remove the SD card tray, but if you don’t have one, never fear, because we’ve already shown you how to open the SIM tray without a tool

Don’t forget to safely unmount your microSD card before removing it.

2. Unmount/remove the memory card

If you have a phone with a microSD card slot, then the next thing you’re going to want to do is remove the SD card. Just look for the slot on the edge of your phone or in the back, behind the battery cover. Before you remove the card though, you might want to copy as many photos, apps and documents as possible to your SD card so you can pop it straight into your new phone.

You can factory reset your phone from within the settings menu.

3. Erase your data

The next thing to do once you’ve got all of your necessary cards out of the old phone is to wipe your data from the phone itself. There’s two simple ways to do this: either go into your Settings and look for the backup/restore section, or you can do it manually with hardware buttons. This process differs slightly depending on which device you own and what kind of recovery you have, so hit the AndroidPIT forum to search for how to hard reset your particular device if you want to do it that way. Make sure you have a full backup or have finished transferring your apps and data over to your new phone before you take this step.

The following data is deleted:

• Google account settings
• Configuration data and applications
• Installed apps
• Music
• Photos
• Other user data
• Linked accounts (Facebook  Dropbox, Twitter etc)

Giving your phone a bit of a clean up may help your cahnces of selling it.

4. Give it a clean

Once the insides of the phone are clean, the next thing you should do is give it a bit of a clean outside too. There might not be much you can do about scratches on the screen or general wear and tear, but you can sell it off without grubby fingerprint marks all over the display. If you really want to impress a potential buyer, you could apply a screen protector and replace the battery cover with a new (and very cheap) one: this will perhaps make your old phone look a little newer than it really is, and help you offload it.

Try to round up all the bits that originally came in the box to sweeten the deal.

5. Rebox it

If you’re a good little Android owner, then you would have kept the box and bits and pieces that came with your old Android phone. Smartphones come with all kinds of goodies: from USB chargers and cables to headphones to SIM tools to spare earbud rubbers. The more of this stuff you can get back in the box (even if it’s not the original equipment) the more likely your old phone is too look newish and well looked-after.

You might think a broken screen means the end for your phone, but you can sell parts of it, or let someone else repair it and donate it to charity.

What to do with an old phone?

There are lots of different things you can do with an old phone: gift it to a friend or family member, donate it to a worthwhile charity that breathes new life into old smartphones like Cell Phones for Soldiers or Green Citizen, you can recycle it (via CTIA’s Go Wireless, Go Green initiative, for example, or the EPA), sell off parts of it, trade it in for a new upgrade or try to offload the entire thing to another loving owner. This is probably the easiest and most cost-effective way of getting rid of an old phone, but it’s worth noting that donating, recycling or gifting your old phone also comes with some good karmic juju.

eBay is the king of the secondhand markets for old electronics. © eBay

Where to sell an old phone?

Ok, ok, I know, screw the darn karmic juju, you say. You want to see the cold hard cash instead. If you’ve decided to sell your phone, there’s a few options: if the phone is in good condition (and you still have the box), the best place to sell anything secondhand is eBay. Get some nice pictures, fill in lots of details and upload that old Android to the used marketplace. You also have the option of other sites like Glyde, Swappa or Craigslist. Beyond selling it online, you also have pawn shops, EcoATM, Cash Converters, electronics markets, garage sales, classifieds, and even the big retailers quite often have buy-back or trade-in offers.

Let us know if you managed to sell your old phone or what you do with your old phones once you get a new one!