What to do when selling your phone?

Each year, smartphone technology develops and people turned the phone into an “everything machine”. Texting, gaming, working, calling, banking, and much more are what we do with it, including data we don’t want others to see. Your current phone is still working but want to buy new and sell the one you’re using? How would you feel if the person who bought your stuff accessed your information? You have some options to keep your data secure after you sold it. Don’t skip any step in this guide.

The screen is broken?

This is an unfortunate circumstance for people who thinks it no longer works. Messages and photos are likely to be visible if new owner replaces screen and guesses your password correctly. Using a strong password is yet another reason why you should do so. On Xiaomi devices you can wipe the phone on recovery mode. Several ways for you to format your phone can be found here.  If you can’t see anything on your screen recovery method is the one for you.

It really deleted everything?

It’s unlikely new owner recovers your data through some software because every ROM comes with encryption these days but you should ensure it’s gone anyways. After you formatted it fill your phone with files as much as it can. Create copies of your existing files repeatedly or record a video. Data will be written to every sector of the storage helping to make the data unrecoverable. For faster filling of your phone’s storage, select the 4K or higher frame rate recording option. As long as your phone has already been encrypted, only formatting it should be enough however, in order to ensure it is unrecoverable, this step must be performed.

Mi Account Removal

Once the phone is formatted your Mi Account will remain on your phone. Sign out of “Mi Account” through the settings menu if the display is functional. Use this guide.

Google Account Removal

Google may lock the phone after the phone was reset needing your Google account and password to unlock the phone.

A phone locked by Google after formatting

  • Open system settings and tap Accounts.

  • Tap Google.

  • Find the account and remove it.

 

Don’t forget to remove SIM and SD card

Don’t forget important data and your phone’s SIM card in your phone.

There’s nothing much left before you selling the phone after Mi Account removal and formatting. Now it’s on you to sell the phone. If you’re selling online make sure the buyer is trustful. We recommend you to sell it face to face. Make a good deal and sell it, good luck.

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