Wipe out data before phone goes for repairs

Most of us have experienced a broken or malfunctioning phone at some point. We either replaced it or took it to a repair shop.

Without precautions, the staff at the repair shop will likely see information stored on the phone.

Are you comfortable with someone prying on your contacts, photos, videos, documents, and messages on your phone? 

In the absence of safeguards, you may be giving away too much personal information.

Back up your data before you take your phone to be repaired; it is good practice to do so routinely, not just when you take the phone to be repaired.

Since you can't go through all your messages, contacts, photos, videos, and everything else on your phone to decide what to back up, it's safe to back up everything.

Android and iPhone users can back up their private data through a cloud service or computer.

Apple recommends connecting a phone to a secure Wi-Fi network, going to settings, and tapping iCloud to back up iPhone data.

After that, turn on iCloud backup and click "Back Up Now." The phone should remain connected to Wi-Fi during the backup process.

You can also set up automatic iCloud backups so that a copy goes to your cloud every time you save something on your phone.

There are several options available to Android phone users when it comes to backing up their data.

The Google Drive app allows users to automatically upload data from their phones to their Google accounts.

Using Google Drive, Google Play, and Google Photos, you can safely store copies of your files and folders.

Users of Android phones can also connect their phones to a computer using a USB cord and drag files from their phones to their laptops. Then, click "Transfer Files" on your computer and use the transfer window to find the files to transfer.

To help speed up backing up, Android users can also download the Google Backup and Sync app on their computers.

You should also remove your phone's external memory cards and SD cards. Those contain information that should not be accessed by unauthorised persons.

When you have backed up all the data on your phone, you can delete all the files. For iPhone users, go to the Settings app, tap "General," then "Reset," and tap "Erase all content." The phone will go back to its factory settings.

Android users can erase their phone's data by first tapping the Settings app, then "Reset" or "Backup & Reset" option on the phone. Once repaired, you can restore all your data back to your phone.

Don’t sell or give out your phone without cleaning out the data. You don’t need me to tell you that the information on your phone is too personal. Protect it.

Mr Wambugu is an informatics expert. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Samwambugu2