In this tutorial, you will understand the myths & facts to get the answers to your most common query: Does a Factory Reset Delete Everything on a phone:
Most people factory reset their device to make the software work as well as make the device new. Or, you will need to factory reset your device before selling it or giving it away to someone else.
Factory resetting will delete everything, every byte of data, every update, and everything you have saved on your system. It will be like new, except for the hardware issues that develop over time, like scratches and dents.
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Does Factory Reset Delete Everything: A Complete Guide
Sometimes, my inquisitive mind keeps questioning me- does a factory reset delete everything? does a factory reset delete everything on a laptop or phone? Surely some of you must have thought about it too at some point.
In this article, we will be answering this question for you.
If you are reselling or disposing of your device, your first instinct is to reset it. Have you ever asked yourself if it’s enough or if a factory reset deletes everything on your phone or computer? What does a factory reset delete?
Let us answer that for you even if you haven’t- it doesn’t. Yes, you read it right. Factory reset doesn’t delete everything from the device.
How Do We Know This
The University of Hertfordshire conducted research along with Comparitech, the details of which can be found here.
They bought 100 secondhand phones through eBay to see if they could extract recognizable data from their previous owners.
They did forensics on these devices that ranged from high-end smartphones to conventional ones without internet ranging from Android to iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and more. These forensics use publicly available tools that anyone can download from the web.
19% of those phones had data from the previous owners, of which 17% could be used to identify those previous owners, like private emails, photos, contacts, texts, important documents, bank account details, personal calendars, and browsing histories.
If these devices land in the wrong hands, even when factory reset, the data can be recovered, if tried hard enough and can be used for committing a range of crimes. Some crimes like identity theft, extortion, targeted phishing, and extortion can be carried out with those devices.
The researchers tried to create an exact copy of those devices and among 100, they couldn’t replicate the memory of 28 devices. These 28 devices were predominantly older devices that were incompatible with their tools.
There was evidence of a factory reset in 74% of successful image devices (52% of all purchased). 26% of the successfully copied devices (19% of all devices purchased) had data of the original owners, and in 17% of the total sample devices, they were able to retrieve identifiable information that could be used to pin down a previous owner of the device.
The Myth and The Fact
So does a factory reset erase everything? As opposed to popular belief, the data isn’t removed from the phone’s memory, SD card, or hard disk even after deleting a file or resetting it to a factory setting. Even after that, your data could be easily recovered with common software tools.
There’s a concept called indexing in Operating Systems. Indexing is used to keep track of the location of a saved file on the device. Every file on your device has a pointer that tells the Operating System where’s the data. When you delete the data, your OS deletes the pointer and marks the space as available.
However, the files can still be recovered until the OS rewrites new data over the sectors that are marked empty now. You can use a simple file recovery device to recover the deleted data. Someone asked me Does a Factory Reset Delete Everything on Windows 10? We hope they get their answer now.
Why Doesn’t Factory Reset Delete All Data
Now that we have answered the question- does a factory reset remove all data, we are going to go ahead and tell you why it doesn’t. This goes back to when hard drives were extremely slow, and the creator of Operating Systems found it easier to mark the space free instead of deleting the content.
Some will write new content eventually so, they find it redundant to write random numbers or zeros on top of it. This process was also meant to avoid the wear of Flash Memory which comes with a restricted number of writes in its lifespan.
It is an advantageous modus operandi, only assuming you still have the controls on your device. This practice also gives you a chance to recover your lost data. However, not ideal if you are disposing of or selling your device.
How to Completely Erase the Data
Does a Factory Reset Delete Everything on Mac? No. Even though a factory reset doesn’t completely erase the data, it doesn’t mean it can’t.
Here’s how to completely wipe your device’s data:
Encrypt Your Device Before Factory Resetting
Encrypting the data will scramble it all. If someone tries to recover the data after you have reset it to the factory setting, they will need to enter a specific set of keys to unscramble the data.
Encrypting a Windows Laptop
Here’s a screenshot from Windows 11 OS of encrypting your device. The process is more or less the same for all Windows versions. However, if you, for some reason, don’t find the same option, just launch the device search and search for Device encryption, privacy, or security options.
#1) Launch the main menu.
#2) Select Settings.
#3) From the list on the left-hand side of the panel, select Privacy and Security.
#4) From the options, select Device Encryption.
#5) Slide the option to On.
Encrypting Your Android Phone
Most smartphones come with previous encryption. Here’s how to check if your phone is pre-encrypted:
#1) Go to the Settings.
#2) Tap on Password and Security.
#3) Select Privacy.
#4) Go to Encryption and Credentials.
#5) You will see if it is encrypted.
If your phone is not encrypted, here’s how you can encrypt your device. Always plug in your smartphone to charge before starting the encryption. For some reason, it will not encrypt if not put in charge.
#1) Go to the Settings.
#2) Select Security.
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#3) Tap on Encrypt Phone.
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#4) Select a Screen lock type.
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#5) Tap on Encrypt Phone
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#6) Re-confirm the lock pattern or pin
#7) Tap on Encrypt phone again
Encrypting an iOS
iOS devices are known to be extremely secure but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take necessary precautions from the side.
To enable data encryption of your iOS device, follow these steps:
#1) Go to settings.
#2) Select Touch ID/Face ID and Passcode.
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#3) Enter the passcode you have already set up for your device security.
#4) Go to the bottom of the page to see if data protection is enabled.
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#5) If it is not enabled, it means your passcode is not turned on.
#6) Make sure you have the device security feature turned on with a passcode
#7) Check data protection again.
Once you have encrypted the device, you can factory reset it to erase your data.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can you get anything back after a factory reset?
Yes, you can recover much-lost data after a factory reset if your device is not encrypted. Even if it is and you know the passcode, you can still recover data using a few data recovery tools that are easily available online.
2. What gets erased with a factory reset?
Anything you have changed, added, or upgraded after you have bought the phone gets erased with a factory reset.
3. Will the factory reset delete my photos?
Factory reset doesn’t delete data. It deletes the markers pointing to where your data was and marks the space available. You can use data recovery tools to recover photos and other data easily until you or someone overwrites data on the space marked available.
4. How do I permanently delete data from my phone?
From the settings. Encrypt your device and then factory reset it. Now, even if someone tries to recover the data, they will need your passcode to decrypt it. You can also load a fake file that can cover your phone’s entire memory to ensure your data is completely gone from the device.
5. Does a factory reset delete contacts?
Everything in your phone’s memory will get deleted, including contacts. However, if you have backed it up on your cloud account or SD card, it will remain with you.
Conclusion
Does a Factory Reset Delete Everything on the iPhone? Does a Factory Reset erase everything on Android? No, and no.
Now you know that your data doesn’t get erased after a factory reset and we have also explained how you can keep the data safe even after a factory reset. Your data can be restored after a factory reset if no one has overwritten any data on your device.
If you are selling your device, you can also load fake data on your device big enough to occupy all its memory to make sure your data is gone or you can hire an expert to do so to make sure your data remains safe.