Selling up ! Advice?

[barryl85]

Well, i'm getting the S4 on the 26th. I've had my fair share of help on the S3 section of the forum so thanks to all who have assisted me in getting rid of my Android virginity (hopefully I have helped others along the way).


My question to you all is, will a factory reset suffice or is there anything else I need to do before selling?

 

[Mikestony]

I would save anything on the internal or external sd card that you may need and then format both. (erase both).
But that is what I have done with my Evo's.....factory reset and erase the card.

 

[tastycaramel]

Well, i'm getting the S4 on the 26th. I've had my fair share of help on the S3 section of the forum so thanks to all who have assisted me in getting rid of my Android virginity (hopefully I have helped others along the way).


My question to you all is, will a factory reset suffice or is there anything else I need to do before selling?

If your phone is rooted, unroot it by formatting and then flashing a stock ROM to it. If your phone has something that can detect your no. of flashes you have done to it, reset it because it's a dead giveaway.

 

[barryl85]

I would save anything on the internal or external sd card that you may need and then format both. (erase both).
But that is what I have done with my Evo's.....factory reset and erase the card.

Yeah i'm going to keep the external SD card so will save all my stuff on that! I will have to make sure there is nothing else on the device ! I'm guessing the factory reset will take care of that though?

If your phone is rooted, unroot it by formatting and then flashing a stock ROM to it. If your phone has something that can detect your no. of flashes you have done to it, reset it because it's a dead giveaway.

It is unrooted although I was thinking of unlocking it if it is network locked, my friend who is on a different network is going to try his sim in it.

 

[Mikestony]

Yeah i'm going to keep the external SD card so will save all my stuff on that! I will have to make sure there is nothing else on the device ! I'm guessing the factory reset will take care of that though?



It is unrooted although I was thinking of unlocking it if it is network locked, my friend who is on a different network is going to try his sim in it.

Please read this about unlocking first.
I am not quite clear on the legality of that, but that could be a whole other discussion which may or may not be cool here.

 

[barryl85]

Please read this about unlocking first.
I am not quite clear on the legality of that, but that could be a whole other discussion which may or may not be cool here.

I'm in the UK so it is perfectly legal, I could obviously call my carrier and pay them

 

[Mikestony]

I'm in the UK so it is perfectly legal, I could obviously call my carrier and pay them

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah factory reset will get rid of all user data mate and sim unlocking it will probs make it easyer to sell :thumbup:

 

[tastycaramel]

If your phone is locked to a carrier, you can unlock it in order to sell for a higher price.

 

[barryl85]

Just hope I can figure out the unlocking procedure, i'm not greatly familiar with rooting/flashing roms/unlocking etc

 

[funkylogik]

No rooting/flashing needed mate. Just put it into a wee phone shop or look on ebay. Its just a case of entering a code when a diferent sim is put in :thumbup:

 

[barryl85]

No rooting/flashing needed mate. Just put it into a wee phone shop or look on ebay. Its just a case of entering a code when a diferent sim is put in :thumbup:

That sounds awesome! Will try a local mobile shop! Do you mean the likes of a repair shop or an actual carrier?

 

[funkylogik]

Just a lil independant repair shop mate (my town is full of them lol). They should charge less than the carrier :thumbup:
Either that or buy a code from someone trusted on ebay. Ive never done that though so cant speak from experience

 

[barryl85]

Just a lil independant repair shop mate (my town is full of them lol). They should charge less than the carrier :thumbup:
Either that or buy a code from someone trusted on ebay. Ive never done that though so cant speak from experience

There was an easy method to unlock the phone on firmware 4.1.1 but I only just found out and now i'm on 4.1.2

Probably the same method used by the sellers on ebay or phone shops!

 

[barryl85]

Well just so anyone with a Vodafone S3 is wondering your phone is already unlocked, have tried a T-Mobile sim in it and it works!

 

[funkylogik]

Nice one mate :thumbup: does it have Voda software on it? My s3 was bought as a 3 pre-pay phone but it came unlocked and unbranded

 

[davoid]

Well my 3 UK branded phone came unlocked, as did many S3's from different carriers.

I even started a poll back in the day to find out which carriers were providing unlocked phones:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/559056-using-dial-code-7465625-your-carrier-branded-phone-sim-locked.html

That code doesn't work any more to find out if your phone is unlocked because of firmware upgrades. But the poll does show that most carriers were providing unlocked phones.

It's worth just trying another sim in your device.

 

[barryl85]

Nice one mate :thumbup: does it have Voda software on it? My s3 was bought as a 3 pre-pay phone but it came unlocked and unbranded

It is Vodafone software so its quite strange, I really didn't expect it to be unlocked but its a nice bonus to have found that out!

 

[davoid]

I think vodafone have always had unlocked phones for some reason.