You can remove your SIM card either before or after a factory reset, as the reset only wipes the phone's internal storage, not the SIM card itself, but removing it beforehand is often recommended for clarity, especially if selling or giving the phone away, to prevent any potential data confusion or account issues, though the SIM data (like network info) stays safe on the card. For digital eSIMs, you'll get prompts to remove or keep it during the reset process.
What should I do before I reset my Android phone?
Remove everything
It's ideal for a fresh start or when you are giving away or selling your PC.
The Fate of Your SIM Card
This data is stored separately from your phone's internal storage. During a factory reset, the iPhone's operating system and internal data are wiped, but your SIM card retains its information and connection to your carrier.
Short answer: switching SIM cards does not delete data stored on the phone itself, but it can change access to phone number--linked services and removes contacts or data stored on the SIM card itself. Subscriber identity (IMSI), network authentication credentials and phone number.
In summary, while MOBILedit Forensic offers powerful capabilities for data extraction and analysis, a factory reset on modern Android and iOS devices effectively prevents recovery due to encryption and secure erasure mechanisms.
“Data is completely gone after a factory reset.”Many users assume that a reset permanently erases all information. In reality, as discussed in previous sections, residual data may persist in unallocated storage, system partitions, or encrypted fragments.
Every time you initiate a factory reset, you're taking a calculated risk with the information stored on your device. While resets are meant to wipe and restore systems to their original state, one major drawback is the potential for critical data loss, particularly if a proper backup isn't in place.
eSIM profiles remain intact after the device is reset to factory settings. Choose this option if you plan to continue using the device. Selecting this option will factory data reset device and remove all cellular plans associated with your phone. Removing a cellular plan doesn't cancel your service.
A factory data reset erases your data from the phone. While data stored in your Google Account can be restored, all apps and their data will be uninstalled. To be ready to restore your data, make sure that it's in your Google Account.
Erase Your Personal Information
To erase all the data and information from your phone — including your contacts, text messages, photos, videos, search history, and browsing history — restore or reset it.
After a factory reset, the encryption key is deleted, rendering the remaining data unreadable. While not infallible, this makes data recovery extremely difficult.
There is a serious threat that your data can be stolen, leading to implications such as identity theft, financial losses and legal issues. Many mobile users perform a factory reset to delete everything off their devices before selling them, but a factory reset doesn't really delete everything.
While SIM cards don't store a lot of data, they can contain your phone number and potentially some linked account information. By removing the card, it eliminates the possibility of any information being accidentally or purposefully accessed.
On Android, the default setting now is for you to save your contacts to the cloud (and messages on your phone) - but you do have the option to also save a copy of your messages and contacts on your SIM card.
Your SIM card holds the key to your mobile number and network access—but contrary to popular belief, it doesn't store everything on your phone.
A hard reset is performed by completely resetting a device to its factory settings. Performing this kind of reset will permanently erase all the data on the device.
For example, performing a factory reset can't remove hackers from your online accounts or destroy malware that has attached itself deeply in your device's hardware or system files. A factory reset can: A factory reset cannot: Remove the bulk of standard viruses and malware.
Yes, you can recover data after a factory reset on your Android phone. If you have a backup, restoring your data is straightforward. You can use local backups, Google Drive, or Google Photos for this purpose. Without a backup, you can still recover data using specialized recovery tools like Recoverit and Dr.
It is true that some data may technically still exist on the device even after a factory reset because a factory reset does not overwrite the data; it merely marks the space as available for new data. This means that specialized recovery tools can potentially recover some of the lost data.
A factory reset is a process that restores your computer or device to its original factory settings. This means that all of your data, apps, and personal settings will be erased from the device, and it will be restored to the same condition as when it was first purchased.
To permanently delete files from a Windows computer and make them unrecoverable:
How to Reset Your Android Phone Without Losing Your Data