Backing up an Android phone before a reset
A factory reset wipes the phone. The built-in backup brings most of it back, but not the files you saved yourself or codes that lived only on the device.
A factory reset is the usual cure for a phone that has slowed to a crawl, and the usual last step before selling one. Google’s reset page puts it plainly: the reset erases all your data from the phone. What comes back afterwards depends on what was backed up before.
What the Google backup keeps
According to Android Help, as read in October 2026, the phone backs itself up to your Google Account automatically. The list covers apps and app data, call history, contacts, device settings, and SMS and MMS messages. RCS chats are included if you use Google Messages, and photos and videos if you use Google Photos. Backups count against the 15 GB that comes free with a Google Account.
To check it, open Settings, then Google or Google services, then All services if the phone shows that list, then Backup. Backup details shows what is included, and Back up now starts a fresh copy. Google allows up to 24 hours for a backup to finish.
What it leaves behind
- Your own files. The backup list has no entry for downloads, PDFs or other documents saved on the phone. Copy them to Google Drive or to a computer over a USB cable.
- Some app data. Google’s wording is that not all apps can back up or restore all their settings and data. Open the apps you would hate to lose and look for their own backup or export option.
- Authenticator codes. Google Authenticator keeps codes in your Google Account only if you sign in to the app. Codes stored without an account stay on the phone and go with the reset. The app can move them by hand through Transfer codes and Export codes, and other authenticator apps have transfer options of their own.
The order to do it in
- Run Back up now and wait until it reports a finished backup.
- Move your authenticator codes, or make sure each account protected by them has another way in, such as backup codes.
- Copy your own files off the phone.
- Confirm you know the Google Account password and the screen lock. A protected phone asks for one of them during setup after the reset, and Google warns that without them the device cannot be used at all. If you changed the Google password recently, Google asks you to wait 24 hours before resetting.
- Charge to at least 70 percent and keep the charger connected, since a reset can take up to an hour.
- Reset from the Settings app. On a Pixel the path is System, Reset options, Erase all data (factory reset). Other makers word it differently, and their support sites give the exact menu.
If the phone will sit in a drawer
A backup does not last forever. Google One Help says that if a device goes unused for 57 days, its backed-up data, apart from photos and videos, is erased, and that turning backup off deletes the backups. Restore it to the new phone soon after the reset, and keep in mind that a backup made on a newer version of Android cannot be restored to a phone running an older one.