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I have a rooted MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic) that I want to sell to help defray the cost of my new phone. I have been running CyanogenMod on the phone. My problem lies in the fact that I don't really want to stick somebody with the slightly buggy way the phone runs now. I could just slap the stock rom back on it but I don't hear very good things about it and I'm pretty sure the fact the phone is rooted will still prevent new updates to the phone from HTC.

So, what I'm asking is: What should I do to make this phone easily usable by whomever might end up with it? Is there a mod that is going to be super user friendly that won't require constant tweaking on the part of the user? Or is there a way for me to return the phone to vanilla stock?

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  • 5
    Are you sure you want to put it back to the stock OS? When I was looking to buy a spare Android phone on eBay a few months ago, I noticed that pre-rooted phones tended to sell better and for more money than ones running the stock OS. I guess there's buyers out there that want a rooted phone but don't want to take the risk (or go through the hassle) of rooting themselves.
    – GAThrawn
    Commented Nov 9, 2010 at 11:31
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    Related: android.stackexchange.com/questions/4623/…
    – Flow
    Commented Dec 18, 2012 at 10:48

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I would keep the phone rooted, with the sale option of restoring to stock rom (if that's what the customer wants). Or you can give the phone back with a stock rom with root. Clockwork should let you do that.

Make sure you factory reset the phone before you give it to them (rooted or not) and format the SD card too.

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    Oh, yes. Formatting the SD card is important.
    – ale
    Commented Nov 9, 2010 at 16:03
  • Bryan, I know you use CyanogenMod, do you have any input on his question about whether there's another mod that will be a little more novice friendly?
    – Matt
    Commented Nov 9, 2010 at 18:15
  • @Matt Personally, I haven't used any other mods than CM. Plus the htc-magic might have different mods that I cannot load on my Droid or G1. I can't provide much input on that area
    – Bryan Denny ♦
    Commented Nov 9, 2010 at 18:40
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    If there's anything particularly private on the SD card, don't assume that formatting it will stop anyone seeing those private files. I've recovered files from formatted disks and cards a lot of times (and earned quite a bit of gratitude and beer for saving them) superuser.com/questions/6810/best-undelete-tool-for-ntfs-fat When in doubt keep the card or destroy it, don't pass it onto anyone else.
    – GAThrawn
    Commented Nov 10, 2010 at 0:58
  • you can overwrite the whole card with other files.
    – Louis Rhys
    Commented Dec 10, 2010 at 16:42
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If I was buying a used device, I would expect that a factory reset would have been done to it. Either way, I'd probably do a factory reset myself anyway, just because.

Unless, of course, I rather wanted a rooted phone.

I think a factory reset is the better option. You wouldn't want someone to stumble upon some of your personal data.

In any event, it's best to make sure the buyer knows exactly what they're getting.

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  • I was planning on wiping all my data and replacing my sd card anyway. I was more wondering if I should keep it on cyanogen or if there was a better rom to offer.
    – sarge_smith
    Commented Nov 9, 2010 at 18:17
  • Factory reset won't wipe custom recovery / engineering bootloader.
    – Broam
    Commented Aug 4, 2011 at 21:30

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