selling/factory reset question

[eddie_dingle]

Hello.
I very recently bought a used moto x 2014 pure edition that had been previously unlocked. While I was waiting for my sim card in the mail I rooted the device. Unfortunately I'm now forced to sell the phone because I have no service where I live (only cdma reception, no gsm).
I want to delete everything off of the phone and prepare it for sale. I'm on lollipop 5.1(already had been updated when I bought it), with fastboot installed, and root access. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[stanleywinthrop]

Here is what I'd do:

1. Unroot using SuperSU
2. Encrypt your phone
3. Factory reset your phone from recovery. (This ensures whatever data you had on the phone was encrypted and the key is lost.)
4. Flash the fresh 5.1 image available from Moto's website
5. As a last step oem lock from adb.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[eddie_dingle]

Thank you!

 

[eddie_dingle]

Is it absolutely necessary to flash the 5.1 image from Motorola's website? Or could I just do a factory reset and call it good?

 

[stanleywinthrop]

Is it absolutely necessary to flash the 5.1 image from Motorola's website? Or could I just do a factory reset and call it good?

The only "absolutely necessary steps" for me would be #s 2 and 3. A well known weakness of android phones is they are not by default encrypted. Selling a phone that only has a simple factory reset on a phone never encrypted would be akin to handing all your information over. The factory reset makes it harder to access that information but the tech savvy would still be able to access your private information.

Thus encrypting then factory resetting is the only way to insure a phone no longer retains your data.

I added step 4 as an extra measure. I think it might be necessary to re-lock the bootloader, but I'm not 100% sure about that.