Preparing your Samsung Galaxy Phone for Sale or Trade

You will need to remove your Google account from any Samsung Device before resetting the device itself to Factory Defaults .

But be careful on newer devices – those running Android 5.0 or later – it is easy to also activate something called 'Android Device Protection'.

This is essentially a 'kill switch', created to reduce phone theft. If you factory-reset your Galaxy without removing the Google account, you'll be asked for it once the reset finishes - and if you can't remember it - your phone becomes a doorstop.

You'll have to remove the account from your phone if you want to sell it or trade it in, as the phone will be pretty much unusable with the Android Device Protection lock turned on.

How to remove the Google Account

You might need to turn off your phone's security before removing the Google account, so follow these steps first.

 

1. Start off by going into your Apps.

 

2. Tap on Settings.

 

3.Once in Settings, tap the Lock screen and security section.

4.Tap on Screen lock type.

 

5. Type in your Pin, pattern or password.

 

6. Tap on Swipe at the top.

 

7. Tap Remove Data.

8. Tap Remove.

Once you've taken off your security, you should be able to remove your Google account.

 

9. Go back to the main Settings screen, and tap Cloud and accounts.

 

10. Tap on Accounts.

11. Tap your Google account.

 

12. Tap the three dots in the top-right corner.

 

13. Tap Remove account.

14. Tap Remove account again to confirm it.

 

Your Google account will have been removed from your Samsung Galaxy phone