After factory reset, is there a way to get my account names used on my Nexus 7 (2012) ?

[thenomad]

After a lengthy battle with my N7's battery life, (Story here if interested) I decided to get a new one.

I listed my old one for sale on craigslist, (clearly stating the battery condition) and someone is very (but very-very) interested. And I am willing to part with it. I am planning to wipe out the data using the factory reset option.

My question is: Can this new owner dude, extract anything out of this device, as far as my usernames that I used to get my gmail and/or other mail apps ? Can he find any piece of information that ties this tablet to any of my accounts ?

The reason I am asking this is, my main google/gmail account that my tablet was registered under, was the same address I use for all my banking, bills etc. and in a day like today, when Target stores surrendered 40 mil+ credit/debit card accounts to unscrupulous people, one can never feel very safe. I don't want my username and/or email address to reveal itself at any point in time in the future and give the new owner a way to try hacking into my accounts.

I want to know, even if there is a way to recover any of the email addresses I have used to get and put data to and from google.com

Thank you

 

[El Presidente]

A factory reset should be all you need, it wipes the data partition (basically everything you ever changed or put on the tablet).

If you want to be ultra safe, you could reflash the factory images, wiping every partition and reinstalling the entire OS from scratch.

If you're worried, it's probably not a bad idea, just for peace of mind (and it's relatively easy to do).

 

[thenomad]

A factory reset should be all you need, it wipes the data partition (basically everything you ever changed or put on the tablet).

If you want to be ultra safe, you could reflash the factory images, wiping every partition and reinstalling the entire OS from scratch.

If you're worried, it's probably not a bad idea, just for peace of mind (and it's relatively easy to do).

And the inevitable, follow-up question: Is there a link that you can refer to, describing how to do this re-flashing factory images, as I have never heard this terminology before ?

I am afraid, in the name of *improving user experience* (read as we want to spy on you by associating different accounts you used on a device) google might bury some personally identifiable information, somewhere in the NVRAM *for their use ONLY* and we all know what can go wrong with that. Right ?

So, looks like I will take your advice and do the reflashing, when I get home tonight, but meanwhile, if you can point me to a tested-and-true procedure for this, I'd be in your debt. Thanks.

 

[El Presidente]

Happy to oblige!

We have a pretty good guide here: http://androidforums.com/android-sy...e-how-flash-nexus-factory-image-manually.html

Looks a lot, but it's easier than it reads.

Alternatively, you could use one of the toolkits. Wug's is a good choice: Nexus Root Toolkit v1.8.0 | WugFresh

That's probably one of the easiest toolkits I've ever seen, install it and it lays everything out for you.

Which ever method you choose, you'll need to unlock the bootloader first (which the toolkit can do for you).

Any questions, just ask.

 

[WoohooGuy]

Officially Google provides these steps -

https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2668187?hl=en

As other people have suggested, if you are really concerned you can use an easy to use toolkit like Wugs NRT.

If you never unlocked or rooted the device all you should have to do in Wugs NRT is click the unlock button, follow the prompts, then simply lock the device again when done.

That will trigger a complete system wipe Google implemented as a security feature to protect user data by mandating a very robust system wipe and restore in the event the devices were unlocked by someone with nefarious intentions.

 

[socrates0]

Doing a factory is enough to wipe out your personal details as a precaution change the password of your google a/c (just to be on the safe side, I did that when I got rid of my last android phone)