Things Worth Auditing Before Reusing an Old Device

Why Auditing Matters Before You Pass a Device Along

Pulling an old phone out of a drawer and handing it to a family member, or repurposing a laptop as a shared home machine, feels straightforward. In practice, old devices carry a surprising amount of personal information — saved passwords, signed-in accounts, cached messages, and granted permissions that were set up years ago and never revisited.

This isn't just a concern when selling a device to a stranger. Even handing a device to someone you trust can expose financial accounts, private messages, or cloud storage if the setup isn't properly reviewed first. The checklist below walks through the categories most worth your attention, in a logical sequence that mirrors how devices actually hold onto your data.

If you're preparing a device to leave your hands entirely, the complementary guide on preparing a device before it leaves your hands covers the final steps — including factory resets — in more depth. This checklist focuses on the audit itself.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

A few things will make this process smoother. Have your current device nearby so you can transfer or note down any credentials before removing them from the old device. Know your primary email and cloud account passwords — you'll need them to sign out of services cleanly.

Work through the categories in order. Accounts and sign-ins should come first because many other steps — like disabling Find My or removing payment methods — require being logged in to complete them properly.

Once you've completed this audit, if the device is going to a new user, the setup checklist for new devices is a useful handoff resource so they can configure it properly from the start.

Permissions, Security, and Ongoing Habits

App permissions are one of the most overlooked aspects of device audits. An app you installed three years ago may still hold access to your location, microphone, or contacts — and if that app is staying on a shared device, those permissions may now extend to whoever uses it. Our guide on evaluating app permissions thoughtfully explains how to think through what's reasonable to leave granted versus what should be revoked.

For ongoing security awareness, it's also worth reviewing the everyday habits that quietly make devices less secure — many of the vulnerabilities covered there are especially relevant on devices that have had multiple users or long periods of inactivity. And once the device is back in active use, the device maintenance checklist provides a routine you can follow to keep it running well going forward.