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How do i permanently delete recovery files.

A

Androidman002

Lurker
So i stumbled upon a thread saying even though you factory reset your android device people can still recover your files ,photos, texts, calls, contacts etc. It made me feel really paranoid as i do have sensitive info. My question is "how do i delete everything "PERMANENTLY" without anyone being able to recover 0% of my data? I will eventually be giving phone away but not right now. I tried factory reseting and dowloading undelete and couldn't find any old files, which is good but is it really gone?? Can someone please help. Thank you.
 
I forgot to add, i want to delete everything. LIKE EVERYTHING!! And start as if i just got a new phone without finding any files being recovered.
Thanks i appreciate everyones help.
 
Don't forget to remove your SIM card and microSD card, delete your Google account, then do a Factory Reset. Unless you have a really dated phone (2012ish or earlier) the internal storage should already encrypted by default (so enable it if is that old). If someone were to attempt to use some kind of consumer-grade recovery utility, even if you didn't do a Factory Reset the data residing on encrypted storage media will just appear to random, unreadable bits anyway.

--- As for reading somewhere that it is possible to recover your data, yes it is but the facility doing this needs to have the necessary equipment, computing resources, and trained staff, involving several millions of dollars, to maybe get some data. Unless you're actually being investigated by some governmental body, whomever might be the next recipient of your old phone a) won't be able to do much as far as recovering all or any of your old info, and b) probably won't bother to restore old data as they just want to use the it.
It's much, much more likely your personal data will be compromised by your online social media services, not from an old smartphone.
 
But also like i said in my thread, i want everything deleted and put in past. So i will not be backing anything up and will be created new Google account etc. So just a fresh start without possibility of recovering any data.
 
Androidman002 said:
But also like i said in my thread, i want everything deleted and put in past. So i will not be backing anything up and will be created new Google account etc. So just a fresh start without possibility of recovering any data.
Click to expand...

Well provided your whatever it is device has encrypted internal storage, which is the default since Android 6.x AFAIK. Once it's reset and the encryption keys erased, any data was on there is basically just digital white noise. Which can't be recovered, unless you got a supercomputer and 100,000 years to spare or something crazy like that.

If you got an older device and Android version, may not be encrypted by default. I think just overwriting and completely filling the storage with more data, should ensure that non of the old data can be recovered.
 
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I'm not sure what version i have but just to be safe i will encrypt from the settings. Sorry to bother and sound like a newbie but i never been good at these things, so i just wanted to be safe. But thank you for your help.
 
But if you read the thread you'd see that if the storage volume is encrypted then even if you ran a data recovery procedure able to recover internal storage (which most can't, despite claims) you'd then need to crack the encryption. So unless you are worried about someone with the resources of GCHQ or the NSA that is good enough.

And if you are worried about them, I suggest taking a chisel to the NAND chips (I can think of more dramatic solutions, but that is simple and foolproof).
 
As you know that factory reset does not delete the data permanently form phone, so in this situation, what to do and how to delete files becomes a headache for users. However, there is nothing to worry as you still have the best option to wipe Android data completely. I would suggest you to use a powerful recovery software like Android Data Eraser. This is a professional tool that easily deletes data from phone without recovery option.
 
Since storage has been encrypted by default for the last few years anyone who doesn't have a really old phone doesn't need to worry. A reset wipes the encryption key (which is in a separate secure store) and so file recovery won't get you very far anyway.

No apps that employ people to push them needed.
 
hmorgan405 said:
As you know that factory reset does not delete the data permanently form phone, so in this situation, what to do and how to delete files becomes a headache for users. However, there is nothing to worry as you still have the best option to wipe Android data completely. I would suggest you to use a powerful recovery software like Android Data Eraser. This is a professional tool that easily deletes data from phone without recovery option.
Click to expand...


So is it a tool for erasing data or recovering data, or is it both, or is it snake-oil?
 
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