If you want to wipe your device, all you have to do is take out the SIM and the microSD cards, right? Only if you want to change your middle name to “Rube.” Taking out the SIM card simply disrupts communication with the network. Smartphones are portable PCs. Before you sell or trade in your cellphone, here's how to erase your data on an iPhone or Android. Before you sell or trade in your cell phone, you'll want to erase your data. IE 11 is not supported.
- How To Clean Your Mobile Phone Memory
- How To Clear Phone Memory
- Mobile Phone Memory Stick
- How To Clean Android Memory
- Memory Mobile Phone
- How To Clean Up Memory On Computer
There are two types of cache and cookies that your Android phone saves. The first is cached data your mobile browser saves, and the second is cached data your mobile apps save. Both of these can significantly take up space on your device when left to collect. They also require two different methods to remove them. If you clear the browser and app cache on your Android phone periodically, you could help eliminate performance issues on the device.
Your new smartphone was made for you: It’s shiny, fast, functional and so much more fun than your old one, which was 11 months old and starting to show signs of gigabyte arthritis. Still, it still has plenty of life left and you’re willing to donate it out of the goodness of your heart (and the tax benefit). Or maybe you're trying to make a few bucks by selling it. Either way, you don’t want anyone to access your mobile banking transactions or text gaffes, hence your journey to learn how to wipe your smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Don’t count on swiping a toggle in your settings to wipe your iPhone, Android device or iPad. Be wise with data deletions and don’t rely on a return to factory settings as a panacea for your protection.
Why you should be paranoid about wiping your phone
Identity theft expert Robert Siciliano did a little experiment with 30 devices he bought from Craigslist. He wanted to see just how savvy people were at wiping their devices before getting rid of them. He was bewildered by what he discovered. Some people fell way short of doing even cursory cleaning. Even the mobile devices that had been “wiped” were easily hacked. Siciliano found “bank account information, Social Security numbers, child support documents, credit card account logins and a host of other personal data.” Just because that was 2011 doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to you today.
It’s harder than you think to securely delete cell phone data
If you want to wipe your device, all you have to do is take out the SIM and the microSD cards, right? Only if you want to change your middle name to “Rube.” Taking out the SIM card simply disrupts communication with the network. Smartphones are portable PCs. The internal memory holds way more data than your old flip phone did.
How to wipe your device
There are many things you can do to help minimize risk before you sell or donate your mobile device. If you want to wipe it completely, the following suggestions are a starting point:
Back up the device before any procedure.
Download a remote wiping app. Here are lists of popular apps for wiping iPhones and Android devices.
Clear the internal memory.
Follow the manual factory reset instructions.
Get software that – among other things – includes a SIM card lock.
Record your phone’s unique ID number for future reference.
How To Clean Your Mobile Phone Memory
For more complete instructions on how to delete cell phone data by type, follow these steps for iOs and these steps for wiping Android-based devices.
Be vigilant about your mobile security
If you’re like most people, you’re likely not taking care of mobile security like you should. Start now by taking basic steps to protect the information on your phone before it gets lost, stolen or you decide to place it on the great e-heap of misfit tech toys. For example, set a secure PIN and update your smartphone when security fixes are available.
Remember that even by taking all the proper steps – and there are much more than the list above and vary device to device – it still may be more prudent to use your outdated smartphone, tablet or another mobile device for target practice or as a paperweight. Even “hobby hackers” can weasel their way through your wipe. Is your identity really worth a few bucks?
Running out of storage space on your Android mobile phone? Here’s how to delete unnecessary junk and free up plenty of space for your apps and media, in just a few easy steps.
If your Android smartphone’s storage is filling up fast, don’t panic. There are loads of quick and easy ways to get rid of unnecessary junk and free up loads of storage space on your mobile, without resorting to deleting photos and apps that you might eventually need.
Here’s our quick and easy guide to freeing up your mobile’s memory.
How To Clear Phone Memory
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Check how much storage remains
To find out how much storage you actually have left on your Android mobile, head to your phone’s settings and then scroll down to ‘Storage’.
In here you’ll see an exact breakdown of how much space you’re using and what is taking up that space. This is broken down into apps, photos and videos, audio (music, podcasts and so on), downloads and cached data. If you spot that one particular section is hogging loads of space, then it’s time to do something about it.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Delete any apps you no longer use
Apps are usually the biggest drain on your storage space, so head to your Android phone’s settings and then scroll down to ‘Apps’ and give it a tap.
In here you’ll see a list of all of your downloaded apps, with an indication of how much space each one is taking up. The bigger that number, the more storage you’ll get back if you delete it; so it’s time to work out if you really need that ‘Hilarious Farty App’ or if it can go straight into the bin.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Backup your photos to the cloud
The essential Google Photos app allows you to store your snaps and home-made videos in the cloud for free, and it comes as standard on most Android phones now – but if you don’t have it (only likely if your phone is already over a year old), then head to the Google Play store and get it downloaded.
With that done, tap the menu icon in the top left of the Photos app (which looks like three horizontal lines) and choose ‘Settings’. Finally, tap ‘Backup & sync’ and make sure that this is turned on. Any photos that you snap on your phone will automatically be saved to Google’s cloud service, so you can safely delete them from your mobile to free up space.
Read next: Ten quick ways to get better mobile battery life
Of course, we highly recommend checking your Google Photos account from another device first, just to make sure that they’re 100 percent backed up. After all, you don’t want to accidentally lose that photo of your mate Brian lying face-down in a puddle of his own stomach contents after too many Drambuies.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Ditch the downloads
These days it’s actually reasonably affordable to grab an All You Can Eat (AYCE) data contract, which allows you to download media to your heart’s content at no extra cost – provided you don’t roam abroad, of course.
That means you can happily delete all of the music and videos from your Android Phone and just stream your entertainment instead. Services such as Spotify, BBC’s iPlayer Radio and Netflix offer a massive catalogue of online content, which you can stream as much as you like for a small monthly charge. Just remember that you won’t be able to take advantage when travelling abroad, unless you’re covered by something like Three’s Feel At Home service.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Messaging hogs
If you use third-party messaging apps on your Android mobile, these could also be eating up your valuable storage space.
For instance, WhatsApp users should try going into one of their popular conversations and tapping the Media/Group Media option in the settings. This will bring up all of the photos that have been sent back and forth in the conversation, which can be deleted en masse to free up more space. Thankfully these pics do get automatically deleted as time passes, so you should only bother with this step if your mates send a lot of photos.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Clear your Android phone’s cache
After using a phone for a few months, chances are you’ll have at least a gig of cached data cluttering up your Android handset’s storage space. This is just garbage saved to your phone by apps and your web browser, to speed up operation, and can be safely blitzed to free up storage space.
In the Android settings menu, head to Storage and then tap the ‘Cached data’ entry. This will prompt you to delete all of the cached data. Tap ‘OK’ and it will all be erased – for now. Check back again soon and it’ll be back, ready to be re-deleted.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Clear old downloads
If you save a lot of documents, photos and so on to your phone, they’ll appear in the Downloads section of the Storage menu – or in the Downloads app. Give this a tap and you’ll see everything you’ve downloaded and how much space it all takes up. You can delete them directly from here.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage with a microSD memory card
Mobile Phone Memory Stick
How To Clean Android Memory
Many Android phones allow you to add extra storage, in the form of a microSD memory card. The microSD memory card slot is usually found in the same tray where your SIM card sits.
Memory Mobile Phone
These memory cards are affordable and a great way to get a huge chunk of bonus storage, for your photos, videos and other bits. Check out Amazon for a huge selection of cards.
How To Clean Up Memory On Computer
Phones from 2016 that don’t support microSD memory cards include the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, and the OnePlus 3 and 3T. In these cases, you’ll need to check out the next section instead.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage via third-party accessories
If you’ve harvested all of the spare storage space that you can, but your Android phone is still pretty full, you could consider adding extra storage using accessories such as a special phone case with a built-in memory card slot. Alternatively, you can stream your media from home with a NAS device.
Check out our guides to adding extra storage to your phone:
Comments are closed.