If you’re looking to sell your Android phone but are unsure how to go about it, this guide will help you through the whole process. Simply follow the steps below.
1. Back Up All Your Data
The first and the most important step to take when preparing your old Android phone for sale is to back up all your data. This includes your contacts, call records, messages, photos, videos, documents, notes, songs, audio recordings, game progress, and WhatsApp chats.
It’s important to take your time with this process; we’ve heard many painful stories of people losing their personal data when switching to a new phone, especially their WhatsApp chats. Fortunately, there are ways you can recover deleted or missing WhatsApp messages if you find yourself facing the same problem.
If you haven’t already bought a new phone, we strongly recommend not to sell the old one just yet. Instead, get your new phone first, import all your data to it, check if all files were moved properly, and then prepare the old one for sale. You’ll find many apps on the Play Store that help transfer data, but Samsung Smart Switch is by far our favorite—it isn’t just for Samsung phones.
2. Remove All Accounts, Paired Devices, and Screen Lock
After backing up and transferring all your data, remove all the linked accounts from your old phone. This includes your Google account, Microsoft account, WhatsApp account, social media profiles, and other miscellaneous accounts on third-party apps.
Follow the steps below to remove your Google account from your phone.
Open your device settings. Find and tap Accounts and backup. Tap Manage accounts. Select your Google account and tap Remove account. Tap Remove account again to confirm.
In the same way that you removed your Google account, remove all other accounts as well. Also, be sure to unpair all devices paired to your phone such as your smartwatch, wireless speakers, and earbuds. Lastly, remove all lock screen protection such as your password, PIN code, pattern, or registered fingerprints.
3. Remove Your SIM Card and MicroSD Card
You obviously don’t want the next owner to have your SIM card, so go ahead and remove it from the phone. While you’re at it, take out the microSD card too if you happen to have one installed, and insert it into your new phone to access your stored files.
However, if you’re planning to bundle the microSD card along with your old phone (perhaps as an added benefit to entice prospective buyers), know that leaving it installed and performing a factory reset will erase all data from the card too.
4. Perform a Factory Reset
It’s a critical step to factory reset your phone before selling it. By doing so, you’re essentially wiping off all your traces from the phone’s memory so that the next owner cannot access any of your personal info. It also makes the device run smoother since all the files and apps you downloaded will be erased, cleaning up the RAM and internal storage.
Follow the steps below to factory reset a Samsung phone. The system navigation is slightly different on other Android devices, but the steps are pretty much the same.
Open your device settings. Tap General management and go to Reset > Factory data reset. Tap Reset again. Enter your lock screen password. Tap Delete all.
A factory reset only erases the data stored natively on your device; it won’t erase the data you have in your cloud apps such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. If you use Gmail, for example, all your emails will simply show up like normal when you sign in to your Google account on your new phone.
5. Clean Your Phone’s Body
After cleaning your phone from the inside, it’s a good idea to give the outside a bit of care too. This will make the device look more presentable to potential buyers and increase your chances of negotiating a good deal.
Before you start cleaning your phone, be sure to turn it off, unplug the charger and headphone cable, and remove the back cover. Avoid using rubbing alcohol as it can harm the oleophobic coating of your display; instead, follow this guide by Samsung to clean your phone properly.
6. Gather All Your Original Accessories
If you usually sell your phone after a couple of years, make it a habit to preserve its original box, bill, charging brick, cable, and everything else that came with it. A phone is way more valuable in the resale market with its original accessories than without them.
However, if your new phone doesn’t come with a charger in the box, you might be better off just keeping the old charger to avoid having to buy one. That is unless your old charger is either incompatible with your new phone or is terribly slow.
7. Do Some Market Research
Once you’ve done all the above, your phone is ready for sale. The last step to take before you list it on a marketplace is to figure out the approximate market value of the said phone.
Sadly, Android phones don’t retain their value as well as iPhones do, so selling yours might be harder than expected. That said, Samsung phones are usually a bit easier to sell than other Android brands given the company’s reputation.
To find out the market value of your phone, you can use online tools like GadgetGone, SellCell, or BankMyCell. You can also scour through different marketplaces to see how much other sellers are asking for their phones that are similar to yours.
Don’t sell your phone to a business, but only to someone who intends to use it. If someone is buying your phone only to sell it later, they’ll probably lowball your offer to a great degree since they want to earn a profit on their investment. Selling to a user rather than a business will more likely yield you the best deal.
Prepare Your Android Phone for Sale
Selling old tech gadgets isn’t as simple as selling old furniture; there’s a lot that you need to do to ensure your privacy and security don’t get compromised. If you’ve followed all the above steps carefully, you’re ready to sell your phone. Simply list it on a marketplace and start negotiating with buyers!
