Safe Data-Wipe

The day will come: your good-old Android shall get replaced by a newer model. If you no longer need the "old one", you probably want to give it away. But you certainly don't want the new owner accessing your sensible data which might have been stored on it. So what to do?

There's of course the Factory-Reset. But does it really sanitize your data in a way they cannot be (easily) restored? Unfortunately, that's not the case: though they are deleted, they are not wiped – so with the right tools, they could be restored. Admitted, that takes some little knowledge and work – but it's possible. A good counter-measure is to really "nuke" or "wipe" the storage – i.e. overwrite it with "random patterns". Corresponding guidelines are described by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in a PDF Dokument.

Secure Wipe

2020-07-25

Data Eraser cb (4.9@2,896) Ǥ 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ demo limited to 10MB/day; unlock key required (cost unknown)
Secure Erase with iShredder 6 (4.8@5,234) Ǥ 13 2 / iShredder™ 6 PRO Data Shredder (3.5@210; ~EUR 5.50) Ǥ 12 2 / iShredder™ 6 Enterprise Eraser (4.1@103; ~EUR 9.50) Ǥ 12 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Video Review 10/2013; Intro 12/2013; Vorstellung 1/2014; free version sanitizes free space only
Shreddit - Data Eraser (4.3@3,766) 8 1
Data Sanitizer (4.3@30) 4 2 LastUpdate: 2017-02-08 free space only
File Schredder (4.2@5) 5 2
Phone Factory Reset (4.1@1,030) 2 1 LastUpdate: 2018-08-26
Secure delete (3.9@3,847) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2018-11-08 / Secure delete Pro (4.4@204; ~EUR 2.25) Ǥ 6 1 LastUpdate: 2018-10-01 files + folders
Secure Bulldozer (Wipe Remove) (3.9@187) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2014-09-05
Fastwipe (3.9@85) 1 LastUpdate: 2014-03-18 sanitizes free space only
Secure Eraser (3.8@1,173) Ǥ 7 5 sanitizes free space only
Permanent Delete Files – Data Eraser (3.8@967) Ǥ 7 4
FShred - Wipe Free Space (3.8@151) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-03-26 sanitizes free space
Andro Shredder (3.7@1,686) 5 2 LastUpdate: 2018-03-20 files + free space
Safe Delete (3.7@202) 5 3 LastUpdate: 2018-04-02 safely deletes files (not wiping free space)
Safe Delete (3.7@118) Ǥ 16 3 LastUpdate: 2017-09-20 safely deletes files (not wiping free space)
Secure Wipe (3.6@2,371) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2014-06-13 sanitizes free space only
Wipe Files (3.5@14) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2016-02-22 Github; securely wipes files (but not free space)
SHREDDER : Permanent Delete - Safe & Secure Erase (3.4@578) Ǥ 10 5
Super Erase (3.4@508) Ǥ 5 3 files + folders; free space requires in-app payment (go pro)
Complete Wipe (3.3@110) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2016-06-21
SDelete - File Shredder (3.2@742) 4 1 LastUpdate: 2017-09-15 / SDelete Pro - File Shredder (3.2@12; ~EUR 2.00) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-09-17
Secure File Deletion (3.2@72) 4 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2013-04-29
Remo File Eraser (3.1@217) 2 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2015-09-13

Automated Deletion

2020-07-25

Not quite a safe wipe as described above – but still a welcome helper: automatically do a factory-reset / delete all files, if the number of unsuccessful unlock-trials exceeds a certain threshold. That at least makes it more difficult for the attacker to access your data. Unfortunately, none of the few apps in this group is available anymore.

De-Deletion (Recovering)

2020-07-21

Restore Deleted Photos and Video Files by Dumpster (4.2@333,595) Ǥ 23 18 Vorstellung 7/2014; Intro 7/2014; a recycle bin
DigDeep Image Recovery (4.2@324,542) Ǥ 12 5
Recover My Files (4.2@8,977) 10 3 LastUpdate: 2018-06-21
Restore Deleted Photos & Image (4.1@5,350) 4 1 LastUpdate: 2017-05-12
Deleted Photo Recovery Workshop (4@66,262) Ǥ 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$
GT Recovery - Undelete,Restore (4@39,218) Ǥ 17 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$
Recover Deleted Pictures (4@4,337) 5 3 LastUpdate: 2017-12-30
DiskDigger photo recovery (3.9@361,757) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ / DiskDigger Pro file recovery (3@3,110; ~EUR 3.25) 5 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ Intro 7/2019
File Recovery - Photo & Video (3.9@13,532) Ǥ 5 1 LastUpdate: 2016-05-19
RECYCLING BIN (3.9@178) 8 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2017-08-11
Data Recovery : Recover Deleted Photos (3.9@170) 10 3 LastUpdate: 2018-01-08
Recycle Bin (3.7@17,426) Ǥ 9 3
Undeleter Recover Files & Data (3.6@38,000) Ǥ 20 25
Recover Deleted All Files, Photos, Videos &Contact (3.5@657) 11 3
GT SMS Recovery (3.3@2,471) Ǥ 10 $Contains no trackers known to us \o/$ LastUpdate: 2016-06-30
dr.fone - Recovery & Transfer wirelessly & Backup (2.8@30,575) Ǥ 6 3

Further Readings:

Best Apps To Delete Unwanted Photos from Android Phones Parmanently (8/2018)
Handy verkaufen? Daten richtig löschen (12/2017 - 12/2019)
Handydaten sicher und endgültig löschen (9/2017 - 1/2018)
Gelöschte Bilder wiederherstellen (3/2015 - 1/2019)
Android bereinigen: So löscht Ihr überflüssige Dateien für mehr freien Speicherplatz (9/2014 - 12/2018)
Private Daten sicher löschen – so wird’s gemacht (7/2014)
Android zurücksetzen: So macht ihr euer Smartphone komplett platt (10/2013 - 1/2018)
Handy-Daten sicher löschen (10/2013 - 1/2018)

2020-07-25

IzzyOnDroid

Safe Data-Wipe

Secure Wipe

Automated Deletion

De-Deletion (Recovering)