How to wipe your phone, laptop or tablet before you sell it

When the Switch is turned off, hold the volume up and down buttons and then press the power button to turn the console on. This should bring up a recovery display that lets you perform a factory reset without deleting save files.

For a full reset, turn your Nintendo Switch on and head to the System Settings menu. Go to the bottom of this menu and select System. At the very bottom of this screen you’ll find Formatting Options, which has the factory reset control we are after.

Kindles

Prepping a Kindle to sell on is a little different to most other gadgets. While there is a “reset” option in the Settings menu under the Device Options sub-menu, the most important part of the process is elsewhere.

You need to “deregister” it. This untethers the Kindle from your Amazon account. The Register Device control lives in the Your Account area in Settings.

Perform both a reset and deregister to get your Kindle back to its box-fresh state. Can’t find the Settings menu? Tap towards the top of the screen, then tap Settings and All Settings in the pop-up that should appear.

Sonos speakers

Resetting a Sonos speaker is not quite as important as wiping a laptop, but it’s a good idea if you want to sell a speaker on and avoid the buyer complaining they can’t get it setup.

Unplug the speaker and hold either the Join, Play/Pause or Mute as you plug the power cable back in. The buttons needed depends on which is actually on the speaker — this varies by model.

Continue holding the button for a while. When the process is complete the on-speaker LED should flash green.

Garmin Forerunner and Fenix watches

Garmin’s reset process may vary a little depending on your model, but it should be similar across Forerunner, Fenix, Vivoactive and Instinct lines.

Long-press the “up” button or use the touchscreen to navigate to the Settings menu. Select System and scroll down to Reset. Choose Delete Data and Reset Settings in this menu to fully reset the wearable.

Huawei and Honor smartwatches

Huawei and Honor watches use the same software. The reset procedure is very similar across models, bar the companies’ basic fitness bands.

In the Settings menu you’ll find a Reset entry that lets you set the watch back to its original state. But you may need to get the battery to a certain charge level before it will run.

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