Is data recoverable after resetting Android phone?

People often think that once they do an Android factory reset, the data will be completely erased from the device and no longer accessible. However, this is not always true.

It is possible to recover data after resetting the device. This can be beneficial if you accidentally performed a wrong reset and you want your data back. But it can also be a problem if you perform a reset to protect your data.

Android comes with built-in encryption to protect your data

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

There are tools available that can connect to a reset device and extract deleted files, which may include personal data such as contacts, messages or photos. To protect your data, you need to encrypt your device before doing a factory reset.

However, as of Android 6 Marshmallow, Android devices are encrypted by default. This means you don't have to worry about people accessing your deleted data with computer forensic tools. Even if these tools are able to extract deleted files from your device, these files are encrypted, so anyone else won't be able to read them. This is one of many reasons why you might want to enable end-to-end encryption.

Cloud backup is dual

However, encryption does not mean that your data is completely gone. Most services these days have some kind of cloud backup, where your user data is stored online. For example, your Google account may have synced data from an Android device you own.

This data can include app data, calendar, browser data (if you use Chrome), contacts, documents, and other files stored in Google Drive or Documents, and your Gmail data. If your media content is automatically stored in the cloud, this will make it easy to restore your photos after the reset. If you need to restore this data, you can do it after the reset during setup.

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

Even so, your data can still be vulnerable due to unsecured cloud backups. To completely erase data, you need to close all accounts that use cloud backup.

How to destroy data on Android devices

If you want to make sure that your data is inaccessible after performing a factory reset, there are tools available that can overwrite data on your device with junk data. This ensures that your personal files are completely inaccessible. To do this, you can use an app like Shreddit. This app deletes data from both internal and external storage on your device.

To use the eraser app, start by making sure your device is encrypted. Download and run the app then do a factory reset. This will completely erase all data from your device. This is the best method if you are going to sell your device.

Factory reset on your Android phone can make your device run faster or deal with any nasty software issues. However, resetting the device does not necessarily erase all of your personal data.

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

Factory reset can be a useful way to resolve software problems on the phone. But before you choose to reset the device, first make sure that you have exhausted all other options. If you accidentally perform a factory reset, you can recover data like photos and files from the cloud.

David Pac

Update 05 April 2022