When it’s time to improve your telephone, you possibly can considerably lower down on the price of a brand new handset by both buying and selling in or promoting your previous one. Before you half methods together with your older smartphone, although, it’s essential to run via some fast and easy checks to be sure you’re taking your whole information with you and never leaving your digital accounts uncovered.

Ideally, you need to run your previous and new telephones alongside one another for just a few days till you’re sure that every part is operating easily in your newest handset and also you don’t want the one which’s simply been changed any extra. But no matter your scenario, run via these checks and you need to be fairly effectively coated.

1. Back up every part

No one needs to lose any information whereas switching telephones, however the shift to streaming providers means that is simpler to keep away from now. Sign again into Netflix and Spotify (for instance) in your new gadget and every part will probably be there, precisely as you left it.

It’s price going via your key apps to ensure every part is backed as much as the cloud or a unique gadget. In explicit, take into consideration your treasured images and movies (Apple Photos, Google Photos or providers like Dropbox can handle these). If you employ a podcast participant, test that you simply received’t lose your home or your downloaded episodes.

iPhones and Android telephones include built-in backup providers that handle loads of this for you: Check out the official Apple and Google help paperwork for full particulars, but in addition do your individual audit on what’s in your telephone and what wants transferring.

2. Move your two-factor authentication codes

Using your smartphone as a two-factor authentication gadget is a great concept—it means different individuals can’t get into your accounts with simply your usernames and passwords. However, this further safety measure may cause points if you’re switching units.

Essentially, your telephone would possibly effectively now be the important thing for moving into all types of accounts, out of your social media apps to your e-mail shoppers. If you employ an app to generate two-factor codes, then it’s essential to get this app arrange in your new telephone to be sure you can keep on moving into your accounts as regular.

How this works will fluctuate barely relying in your two-factor authentication app, so test the app for particulars. Apps equivalent to Authy and Google Authenticator provide simple guides for getting your codes transferred throughout.

3. Sign out of your accounts

This isn’t strictly mandatory on sure apps, however it’s a good suggestion to signal out of and deactivate as many apps as you possibly can earlier than leaving your previous telephone behind, so as to ease the transition over to your subsequent gadget.

Certain apps have restrictions on what number of units you should use them with—music streaming apps that solely allow you to obtain tracks to a restricted variety of devices, as an illustration. Meanwhile, some paid-for apps put limits on what number of occasions they are often put in, so that you need to cancel your previous set up earlier than including a brand new one.

Before you signal out from in all places, be sure you know all of your passwords—you’re going to want them to signal again in once more. Hopefully, it is a job that you simply’ve given to a devoted password supervisor, so the transition should be a smooth one.

4. Transfer your chats

We’ve talked about backing up, however it’s price speaking about chat apps individually: your non-public conversations are prone to be vastly essential to you, and also you don’t need to depart them behind if you transfer on to a model new smartphone.

Apps like Twitter and Facebook Messenger and Google Chat hold every part within the cloud. With Apple iMessage, your chats are backed up and synced to a number of units via iCloud. If you’re a Signal consumer and you’ve got each your new and previous telephones obtainable, you should use the built-in account transfer feature.

The course of varies from app to app, however be sure you’re utilizing probably the most up-to-date info—WhatsApp is one app the place the method retains evolving, however there may be now a complete chat backup and restore feature obtainable.

5. Run a manufacturing unit reset

Last and in no way least, it’s best to run a manufacturing unit reset to place your previous smartphone again to the state it was in if you first bought it—however solely after you’ve checked off every part that we’ve talked about within the listing above.

This means nobody else will be capable to get into your accounts or entry your information, as a result of your whole recordsdata and apps and logins will get wiped: Everything from the main points of the wifi community you’ve bought arrange at residence, to the looking historical past in your gadget, to the wallpapers you’ve downloaded, is erased from the native storage.

On Android, from Settings decide System, Reset choices and Erase all information (manufacturing unit reset)—that’s for Pixels, however different Android units may have related choices. From iOS Settings, choose General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, and Erase All Content and Settings.