How to Delete Old Data from Your Android and iOS Devices

Smartphones have become the most common and widespread tool for communication, entertainment, and productivity. These tiny devices hold most personal and professional data for individuals and are an irreplaceable tool. This makes them very alluring to anyone looking to misuse data and invade your privacy.

Keeping this in mind, it is very important to understand how exactly you can delete old data and what its presence on your device entails, from outdated apps and cached files to notes, photos, and unused documents that occupy your device’s limited storage. Each of these files not only clogs your memory but also stays there at risk of getting leaked or snooped, especially in case you lose your device or send it to the repair shop for repair.

Here we will take a closer look at why this unused personal data could be so valuable for others as they breach customers’ privacy, and how we can better avoid it.

The Value of Data

Personal data has become highly valuable nowadays because of its usage in targeted marketing campaigns. Data brokers collect data of individuals and create profiles that portray interests and allow these campaigns to exist.

This feels very predatory, especially because more often than not, your data is collected without your knowledge. But this is far from the most dangerous misuse of your data, as it is a key player in identity theft, spam, and scams.

Because of this, it is really important to erase personal information from the internet as well as your devices. There are data removal services through which you can minimize the amount of data available online while improving your digital privacy.

Although you can use a lot of methods readily available to delete old data from your device, and prevent it from ever getting out there in the hands of data brokers. This combined method ensures that you will have a smaller digital footprint and be an unwanted target for scams and other malicious practices.

Creating a Backup of Your Data

Before we guide you on how to delete your data, first, we will always recommend that you take your time to properly analyze your data before deleting it permanently. Although this is going to require extra effort, but will prevent you from accidentally deleting any important app or data, while giving you an opportunity to back up your data.

Just by implementing these backup strategies, you will be able to prevent headaches and frustrations later caused due to the deletion of important apps or any data associated with it.

For the systematic backup, you can utilize services like Google Drive or iCloud, both of which come preinstalled on your device, depending on which mobile operating system you are using. Both of these services are cloud-based and really effective in keeping your data secure and constantly backed up.

In spite of the cloud storage availability, we will also recommend you to have a localized storage system and backup manager, and it can be set up either on your existing computer, or you can add a personal local storage where you can manually create a backup every month.

When you opt for keeping a backup on your personal and locally accessible devices, this eliminates your need for dependency on third-party cloud services while maximizing the safety of your data.

Now that you have backed up your files and know which data is safe to delete, it’s time to remove all the old data from your smart devices. This will prevent these files from being susceptible to data leaks and clear out our device’s storage as a bonus. In turn, this speeds up your device significantly.

To do this, we can simply use the built-in storage tools on our respective devices to ensure security. Let’s explore the ways you can delete old data on Android and iOS devices.

How to Delete Old Data on Android and iOS

Deleting old data is a fairly simple but tedious process that can be done in a few ways. Let’s explore the possibilities.

Most of the time, using the built-in tools provided by the device manufacturer works really well in deleting any existing data on your Android or iOS device.

Clearing App Data on Android

To delete app data on Android devices, you will always have one go-to method you can use, i.e., through the app data option located within the app info.

To access this, you will need to follow these steps:

On your Android phone, go to Settings
Scroll down and select Apps
You will see a full list of apps. From here, you can select the app for which you want to delete data
Tap Storage to access the next menu
Tap the Clear Data option to delete all the data stored by the app
If a confirmation window pops up, simply agree to clear all data

This process effectively resets the app to its original state as if it were just downloaded. Effectively, it deletes all settings, accounts, and the data associated with the app, along with any data that was locally collected and stored.

Clearing App Data on iOS

When it comes to clearing app data on iOS, as compared to Android, you will find two main options, and you can follow either based on your needs and intent.

Offloading App

The first option is offloading the app; this is preferred when you want to retain the user data but want to free up the storage space. This option simply uninstalls the app from your device while saving its app data, allowing you to reinstall it at a later date, and it will work just as it was.

To offload apps, you can simply follow these steps:

Go to the Settings app
Scroll down and tap on General
Scroll down and select iPhone Storage
Here you will see a list of apps. You can go through each app individually and select the ones you need to offload
Once selected, simply tap the Offload App option
Confirm the action, and you are done

Deleting App

The other method available to iOS users is to completely delete the app, which will automatically delete all the data associated with it. This is the best way to not only completely remove all data associated with the app, but it will also delete the app itself.

To delete any app, you can simply follow these steps:

Go to the Settings app
Scroll down and tap on General
Scroll down and select iPhone Storage
Here you will see a list of apps. You can go through each app individually and select the ones you need to offload
Once the app is selected, simply tap on the Delete App option
Confirm the deletion, and you are done

All of these processes are simple yet quick to perform and easily accessible, which allows anyone to easily clear data from their mobile devices.

Other Advanced Steps to Permanently Delete Old Data

Here are some other advanced steps one might want to take when it comes to permanently deleting old data from an Android or iOS device.

Repeat Factory Reset: For someone who has stored extremely sensitive data on their phones, some experts recommend performing a factory reset multiple times (e.g., 2-3 times), which further scrambles any residual data.
Overwrite Data (Advanced): For ultimate security and safety of your data (e.g., if you’re disposing of the phone and want to prevent forensic data recovery), after the first factory data reset, you can fill the phone with dummy data (e.g., large video files), and then perform another factory reset. This will overwrite the sectors where your original data was stored with new, meaningless data.

Concluding Thoughts

Our smartphones have undoubtedly become an extension of ourselves and our identity as they store tons of data, including photos, videos, credit card details, addresses, contact details, browsing history, passwords, and whatnot. Protecting this data has become essential for us as it can pose a serious privacy risk if left unchecked.

It is always important to take your time to create a backup of your essential data, keep security settings updated, and clean your old data to better protect your personal information from leaking, being stolen, or being misused. Your privacy and your peace of mind depend on it.