What a factory reset on Android erases, and what it leaves in the cloud

People reset phones for two opposite reasons: to make sure nothing is left before selling, or to fix a problem while keeping everything. Both go wrong for the same reason, which is not knowing exactly what a reset touches. The short version: it wipes the phone completely and the cloud not at all.

What a reset erases

The official help puts it plainly: a factory reset erases all your data from the phone. That includes:

• every app and its data,
• photos, videos and downloads in the phone’s storage,
• your gallery app’s locked folder, if it isn’t backed up,
• private space and everything inside it,
• vault apps and their contents,
• accounts, settings and saved Wi-Fi networks.

Modern Android phones encrypt their storage, and a reset discards the keys. Recovering old data from the chip afterwards isn’t realistic.

What a reset leaves alone

• Your cloud accounts. Photos already backed up stay in your cloud photo library. Anything synced, such as contacts, notes and files, stays in those services.
• A removable memory card, on many phones. A card used as portable storage often survives a reset with its files intact. Some phones offer to erase it too; others don’t. Check before you hand the phone over, or take the card out. See vault apps and SD cards.
• Copies elsewhere. Photos you sent in chats, emailed or copied to a computer.

Resetting to fix a problem

If you want your data back afterwards:

1. Back up to your account. Most settings and many apps restore from it, but the help notes that all apps and their data are uninstalled, and only what’s in your account comes back.
2. Export from vault apps yourself. Vaults and private space are usually kept out of the phone’s backup by design. Use each app’s own export or backup. See does deleting a vault app delete the photos.
3. Know your account password and screen lock. After a reset, the phone asks for them to prove it’s you. The help suggests waiting 24 hours if you changed your account password recently.
4. Charge to at least 70% and connect to Wi-Fi. A reset can take up to an hour.

Resetting to sell or give away

Here the goal is the opposite: nothing private should survive.

1. Export what you want to keep, including vaults, locked folders and private space.
2. Delete private photos from the cloud if you no longer want them there, and empty the cloud trash. See deleted photos on Android.
3. Remove the memory card or erase it.
4. Sign out of your accounts, then reset. Signing out first stops factory reset protection from blocking the new owner.
5. Remove the phone from your account’s list of devices.

Before selling your phone has the full checklist, and the selling your old phone scenario covers trade-ins and shops.

Factory reset protection

If a phone is reset without your screen lock, for example through the recovery menu, it asks for the account that was last on it before it can be set up again. That makes a stolen phone far less useful, but it also catches out people who reset a phone they mean to sell. Signing out first avoids it.

Silo, coming soon to iPhone and Android, keeps its vault only in the app’s own storage, so a reset erases it along with everything else. Export everything first, or, once Silo’s encrypted backup arrives with launch, restore the vault on a new phone with your recovery phrase.