That old phone in your drawer or the laptop you are about to sell still remembers a lot about you — saved passwords, photos, emails and accounts. Hand it over without wiping it properly and you are giving away a key to your digital life. Our GetMyPassword team explains how to securely wipe and dispose of an old device, so nothing of yours leaves with it.
First, back up and sign out
Before wiping anything, back up what you want to keep to the cloud or another device. Then sign out of your accounts — especially your Apple ID or Google account — and turn off Find My / activation lock. Skipping this can leave the device locked to you and useless to the new owner, or worse, still tied to your accounts.
Wipe it the right way
- Phones: after signing out, do a factory reset from settings, which erases your data.
- Modern computers: make sure the drive is encrypted, then reset or reinstall to wipe it.
- Remove SIM and memory cards, which are not erased by a reset.
- Deauthorize apps like banking, password managers and streaming before resetting.
Why a simple delete is not enough
Dragging files to the trash does not truly erase them — they can often be recovered. A factory reset on a phone, or wiping an encrypted drive on a computer, is what actually makes your data unrecoverable. Encryption is the quiet hero here: on an encrypted device, a reset scrambles the key and your files become permanent gibberish.
A device you no longer control is only as private as the wipe you gave it. Sign out, encrypt, factory reset — in that order — and the next owner inherits a clean slate instead of your accounts.
A final safety net
If you are ever unsure whether an old device was fully cleared, treat its saved logins as exposed: change those passwords to fresh, unique ones with our password generator, and check that you have signed it out remotely from your account’s device list. For anything truly sensitive, physically destroying an old hard drive is the surest disposal of all.
Frequently asked questions
How do I securely erase a phone before selling it?
Back up your data, sign out of your Apple or Google account and turn off Find My, remove the SIM and memory cards, then perform a factory reset from settings. This erases your data and unlinks the device from you.
Does a factory reset really erase everything?
On modern, encrypted devices, yes — a factory reset discards the encryption key, making your data unrecoverable. On older unencrypted devices, enable encryption first or overwrite the storage to be safe.
What should I do before recycling an old computer?
Back up your files, sign out and deauthorize apps, ensure the drive is encrypted, then reset or reinstall to wipe it. For highly sensitive data, physically destroying the old drive is the most certain option.