www.makeuseof.com Can Data Be Recovered After a Factory Reset on Android Phones?

If you ever have serious problems with your Android device, or if you plan to sell it, you might need to perform a factory reset.

Here, we'll teach you how to perform a factory reset on Android. We'll also discuss how you can recover data after a factory reset.

What Is a Factory Reset?

A factory reset is a process you perform on a device, such as a phone or tablet. It deletes all your personal data stored on the device and returns it to the original state it was in when it left the factory---hence the "factory" reset name.

You may also see a factory reset called "master reset" or "system restore." Sometimes, people will refer colloquially to "wiping" a device, which usually means a factory reset.

Why Perform a Factory Reset?

There are a number of reasons you might want to perform a factory reset on your Android device. First, if you want to sell your device, you don't want the buyer to have any access to your data. So you should always perform a factory reset before passing your device onto someone else.

Second, perhaps you've had your device for a while and it's full of apps you don't want. Since it's performing slowly, performing a factory reset will reset everything back to a clean state and should make your device run faster. From there, you can reinstall only the apps you need.

Finally, if your device has run into some sort of software problem that you can't fix, performing a factory reset can help to resolve the issue.

How to Factory Reset Your Android Device

Android comes with an option for performing a factory reset in its settings, so it's easy to perform a factory reset.

Before you perform a reset, make sure that you have backed up all the important data on your Android device. You may also want to back up app settings, a list of your favorite apps, and ensure that media like photos, videos, and music are stored in the Google Cloud.

To perform a factory reset on a Google Pixel or other Android device, do the following:

Perform a Factory Reset on a Samsung Galaxy Device

The process for performing a factory reset is a little different on Samsung devices. On a Samsung smartphone running Android 11, this is what you need to do:

Can You Accidentally Factory Reset Your Phone?

A factory reset can have serious consequences, and as such, software developers have tried to ensure that it's not possible to perform a factory reset by accident. To perform a factory reset and wipe your data, you will need to go through several steps, and you may even need to enter your passcode before the deletion begins.

That being said, it is still possible to perform a factory reset by accident if you are messing around in your settings or aren't 100% aware of what you are doing.

If you've just performed a factory reset on your phone and think you've lost everything, then while you may not be able to reverse the factory reset, you'll be glad to hear that you may be able to recover some of your data.

Can Data Be Recovered After a Factory Reset?

After a factory reset, can your data be recovered? The short answer is yes. People often think that once they perform a factory reset, then their data is completely removed from the device and is no longer accessible. However, this isn't necessarily the case.

It is possible to recover data from a factory reset. This can be beneficial if you've accidentally performed a reset and you want your data back. But it can be a problem if you performed the reset in order to protect your data.

Android Comes With Build-In Encryption to Protect Your Data

Years ago, Android devices were not encrypted by default. This meant that even after performing a factory reset, some data was still accessible on the device's internal storage.

There are tools available that could connect to an already-reset device and extract deleted files, which could include personal data like contacts, texts, or photos. To protect your data, you needed to encrypt your device before factory resetting it.

However, since Android 6 Marshmallow, Android devices ship encrypted by default. This means that you don't have to worry about people accessing your deleted data using forensic tools. Even if tools are able to extract deleted files from your device, these files are encrypted, so they can't be read by anyone else. This is one of the many reasons why you may want to enable end-to-end encryption.

Cloud Backups Can Be a Good and a Bad Thing

However, encryption doesn't mean that your data is entirely gone. Most services now have some kind of cloud backup, where your user data is stored online. Your Google account, for example, may have synced data from your Android device.

This data can include app data, calendar, browser data (if you use Chrome), contacts, documents and other files stored in Google Drive or Docs, and your Gmail email data. If your media is automatically stored on the cloud, then this makes it easy to recover photos after a factory reset. If you need to restore this data, you can do so after a reset during the setup process.

While cloud storage is a great safety net, there are still some security concerns. Cloud security has improved drastically in recent years, but there are still steps that you can take to keep your cloud storage safe and secure.

Even so, your data may still be vulnerable due to insecurities in cloud backups. To destroy your data completely, you'll need to close all your accounts that use cloud backups.

How to Destroy Data on Your Android Device

If you want make certain that your data is not accessible after a factory reset, there are tools available that can overwrite the data on your device with garbage data. This ensures that your personal files are completely inaccessible. To do this, you can use an app such as Shreddit. This app will erase data from both internal and external storage on your device.

To use an erasing app, start by ensuring your device is encrypted. Download and run the shredding app, then perform a factory reset. This will completely wipe all data from your device. This is the best method if you plan to sell your device.

Perform a Factory Reset on Your Android Device

Using these steps, you can perform a factory reset on your Android device to delete the data from it. This can help to make your device run faster or deal with any nagging software problems. However, resetting your device will not necessarily delete all of your personal data.

If you plan to sell your device, you should take extra steps to protect your data before passing it on to someone else. Apps like Shreddit can destroy your data before you perform the reset to make sure no one can recover it.

A factory reset can be a useful way to deal with software problems on your phone. But before you choose to reset your device, be sure that you have exhausted all other options first. If you've performed a factory reset by accident, then you may be able to recover data such as pictures and files from the cloud.

Sophia is a features writer for MakeUseOf.com. After graduating with a degree in Classics, she started a career in marketing before setting up as a full-time freelance content writer. When she's not writing her next big feature, you'll find her climbing or riding her local trails.

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