Surely you have ever met someone (or even yourself) who has decided to reset the factory data of an Android mobile. Restoring it means erasing absolutely all data , that is, leaving it as if it just came out of the box. This decision must be made when the device has caught a virus, if you are going to root or simply want to sell it or stop using it.
But before doing so, there are a number of things that you have to take into account to avoid possible headaches when the mobile starts up again.
Avoid disappointments in advance
Remember your Google account username and password
It seems like a little useful advice, but it is far from it. If you decide to restore the phone, the first thing you have to do is write down the user data of your mobile account, since when doing the action it will ask you to enter them. This is done so that only you or someone you trust can do it. In addition, you must take into account if two-step verification is activated, which means an additional level of protection for your data.
Backups
This is the most important step before formatting the mobile. Backups allow you to save the data you want, such as photos , contacts , documents and applications , among other options. As a Google user, the easiest thing to do is back up from Google Drive . Surely that on more than one occasion, WhatsApp has asked you to save the chats in Drive. All this and more is stored in the cloud and, whenever you want, you can retrieve them at any time and on any other device. To make a backup in Drive, you must follow the following steps:
- On your phone go to Settings, Google and inside you will see the option Make backup
- Click on Create a backup now
- When you sign the permissions and the copy is complete, all your data will be stored in Drive
If you prefer to do it differently, for photos and videos , you can always use Google Photos , an unlimited storage service that all Android devices have. The process is practically identical to Drive, in fact it gives you the option to save them here, although in this case you will not have unlimited space. Another more traditional way is to copy the files to a computer , connecting your device through a USB and transferring the files, either from the internal memory of the phone or from the external memory (if it has a memory card).
The same happens with documents and files , since you can make the backup online (Drive) or offline (through the computer). In the case of contacts, we have the Google Contacts application, which allows us to do it in both ways.
- On your phone, go to the Contacts app
- Once there, go to settings and press Export
- This action will generate a file with the extension .vcf.
- Now, choose a folder to save your contacts
- Then go to Google Contacts.
- In the settings, select Import and choose the file that you have previously saved
- Click on your Google account and wait for them to be imported.
Once done, your contacts will have been uploaded to the cloud and, when you want to recover them on another device, they will do so automatically by selecting your Google account. From the computer, the process is identical . The only difference is that you must correctly remember where you saved the file on your mobile and, when you connect it to your PC, save it in a folder on your computer’s hard drive. After this, when you reconnect the mobile you just have to drag it back to a folder on the device, although if you made an online backup it will automatically ask you to transfer the contacts.
As for the applications , Google saves all the ones you have previously downloaded. This is why, when you start the restored mobile, the apps will download automatically when you enter your account details. This is quite a plus for Android users.
Have at least 50% battery in the mobile
Many people decide to restore the factory settings due to problems with the battery, either to calibrate it or to try to get it back to the capacity it was on the first day. That said, everyone has their theory on this issue, but the truth is that if you want to reset the phone, you must have at least the mobile charged to 50% . Some experts recommend reaching 70% , but the truth is that half the battery will be enough. This is for security reasons, since if at any given moment the mobile shuts down, the safest thing is that we lose all the data and the mobile will not be able to recover them. We can also do it with lower percentages, but always with the charger plugged in.
Save passwords, a safe value
You sure have a lot of accounts with different usernames and passwords. Well, when the mobile is formatted, all data (including user data) is erased, so it is convenient to save as many passwords as possible so as not to have to create a new one. On Android devices, Google offers the service Smart Lock , which memorizes passwords, patterns or pins to access all our accounts more quickly. To access this function, which is incorporated in all devices with Android 5.0 onwards, we must do the following.
- Go to Settings.
- Click on the Google tab.
- At the bottom of everything, look for the Smart Lock section for passwords.
- Once there, you will see a section in which it says Saved passwords.
- It will send us to a different page where we will find all our accounts, as well as their corresponding username and password.
Smart Lock is not activated by default on our devices, so if you want to use it you will have to activate it as mentioned above. In addition, before accessing this function, you must establish a pattern, pin or password that it will ask you whenever you access.