3 ways to back up data and protect your old smartphone, computer or tablet

If you’re getting rid of your old laptop, smartphone, tablet or other gadget you need to protect your private data before parting with your unwanted hardware.

Are all your photos stored somewhere safe? Are you sure your laptop’s new owner can’t get at your banking spreadsheets?

Disposing of old hardware can be a privacy minefield, but staying safe isn’t difficult if you know what you’re doing.

Listed below are three ways you can back up data and protect your old smartphone, computer or tablet.

Back up all your important data: Firstly and perhaps most obviously, you need to get your files off your old devices and on to somewhere new—preferably in two new separate places (like another computer and the web) to make sure if one backup fails you’ve got another in place.

If you’re already using apps and services that are based on the web, like Gmail or Netflix, then you can relax a little—all your content will be waiting for you on the new device the next time you sign in.

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Unregister apps and software: A lot of applications out there—Microsoft Office, iTunes, Photoshop, Spotify—keep a record of how many devices you’re logged onto at the same time. If you try to register a brand new computer without unregistering the old one first, you might get a nasty surprise.

To be fair to the likes of Microsoft and Adobe, they make it fairly easy to manage your active devices, but the best approach is to make sure you completely sign out of old phones, tablets, and computers.

Securely wipe your old devices: With all your data safely stored elsewhere, and all your apps and services safely deauthorized where necessary, the last step is to completely wipe your devices and remove all trace of your activities so your files can’t be recovered.

On phones and tablets, this is pretty straightforward. On iOS, open up the Settings app then head to General, Reset, Erase All Content and Settings. This will wipe your iPhone or iPad and return it to the state it was in when you first got it (the opening setup screen for iOS, in other words).

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