5 things you must do before you shift to a new Android smartphone

If you’ve just bought a new Android smartphone and are raring to ditch the old device for this new one, hang on a moment. There are certain things you still need to do on your old device that’s good for security and will also help you set up the new device easier.

Here are five very basic things that you need to do to your old device before you move onto your new one. Make this a habit every time you change to a new phone and you will save yourself a world of trouble.

Backup WhatsApp on Google Drive

Before you reset your old device, you need to back up your WhatsApp messages on Google Drive. For this, go to WhatsApp, open ‘Settings’, click on ‘Chats’, then click on ‘Chat backup’ and then backup to Google Drive. Then you need to click on a backup option that’s not “Never”. Finally, pick a Google account you want to backup your chats on.

Mind you though, while chats on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, the same does not apply to the chats backed up on Google Drive.

Back up all important data and files

Make sure you back up all important files and data like photos, videos, contacts etc. You can back them up on an external storage or on Google Drive.

Log out from all accounts

You can do this manually, which is a little tedious, or you can do it by just resetting the device to factory settings.

Reset your smartphone to factory settings

This is also called “formatting” or “hard reset”. Doing this to your device essentially removes all log-in information, passwords, photos, videos, contacts etc and wipes the phone clean of all apps that you might have installed. The only apps that remain are the apps that came pre-installed in the device.

To do this, go to “Settings” and search for “factory settings” or “reset”. Once you click on this you will be asked to confirm the action.

Once your phone has been “formatted” it is as good as new. If anyone else wants to use the device, he/she will have to set it up fresh.

Finally, make sure you remove your microSD card

This is common sense, to be honest. You cannot set up your new phone without your SIM card, so you will remember to remove that. But if your new smartphone has more than enough storage or doesn ot come with a microSD slot, there are chances that you might forget about your microSD card if you were using one on the old device.

If you have data stored on the microSD card, you will need it for sure so make sure you take it out. Even if you don’t need it, it’s best to remove it and keep it safe somewhere.