I Want to Donate Old Smartphones

[Shel_B]

I have a few older Android phones. I understand that there are places that accept them as donations, perhaps to refurbish and donate to others, maybe to resell. Can anyone point me to a place that takes old phones, hopefully to donate to others?

 

[Zee09]

Me too...great idea.

 

[dishdude]

Cells for Cells

Recycle Cell Phones to Help Families Battling Cancer

cellsforcells.com

 

[Shel_B]

Cells for Cells

Recycle Cell Phones to Help Families Battling Cancer

cellsforcells.com

That's just the sort of situation I'm looking for. I'll look into them a bit more. Thanks!

 

[BISCUT]

About a decade ago we (police department) had an active program to take them in and it was a robust program. The original aim was battered women who were under the control of the "man." Ended with what is termed "Obama phones." Program tanked after Section 8 gave away free phones and services to those on welfare.

 

[RooflessVW]

Depending on what you have I may be interested

 

[billt460]

What about your information? Is all of that contained in the card? I remember some years back people were getting information off of old copying machines that "recorded" most every document copied. You have to be aware of the boogeyman these days.

 

[Jethro_Bob]

What about your information? Is all of that contained in the card? I remember some years back people were getting information off of old copying machines that "recorded" most every document copied. You have to be aware of the boogeyman these days.

Android phones can be factory reset from settings. Otherwise you would be giving away access to any accounts tied to it.

 

[Zee09]

Depending on what you have I may be interested

A cultured man such as yourself would look great with my as new
Motorola StarTAC

 

[Andrew1972]

They have vending machines in malls that give money for certain phones and help cycle them to another place otherwise.

 

[RTexasF]

I gave mine to a battered women's shelter. They are in need of such items and offer a statement for a tax deduction as well. The deduction didn't pertain to my situation I just wanted to help.

 

[billt460]

Android phones can be factory reset from settings. Otherwise you would be giving away access to any accounts tied to it.

The question is do they? And how can you trust who's doing it, if they do? They could be stealing your information. I don't mind helping people by donating, but I would be very leery of giving away my old phone. Especially today with so much identity theft going on everywhere.

I'm sure old phones contain a wealth of information from their previous owners. And there is only so much you can delete off of these things. Unless you're a tech master. I'm not, so mine get several rounds of ammunition put through them. Same with my old hard drives. A .30-06 works wonders on them.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

My old phones don't operate anymore with 2 g so worthless in the U.S as a phone But they do work with wifi so grate as wired music player/streamer in the car or home stereo or for home base internet browsing or 0 even as a smart remote.
I would want to recycle the Li - Ion battery if i ditched the phone.

I would guess the dollar value of something 5 years old is maybe enough to buy a small lunch at Burger King.

 

[Duffyjr]

My wife runs the Victims Advocate for our county and is always looking for old phones, 911 works on all phones, even phones without service but the issue with that is the call center can't call you back if you get disconnected or see your location. She says it's better than nothing for the less fortunate.

@Shel_B call your local court house and see if they have a Victims Advocate if interested in this type of thing or your local police station would also be able to help.

 

[billt460]

My wife runs the Victims advocate and is always looking for old phones, 911 works on all phones, even phones without service but the issue with that is the call center can't call you back if you get disconnected or see your location. She says it's better than nothing for the less fortunate.

The Federal government is now giving "the less fortunate" free phones. It's their new vote getter.....

Free Government Cell Phone Lifeline Program - Life Wireless

Life Wireless provides free government phones and cellular service for eligible customers through the Federal LifeLine assistance program. Get your FREE phone today!

www.lifewireless.com

 

[Duffyjr]

The Federal government is now giving "the less fortunate" free phones. It's their new vote getter..... That, along with summoning the cemeteries.

Free Government Cell Phone Lifeline Program - Life Wireless

Life Wireless provides free government phones and cellular service for eligible customers through the Federal LifeLine assistance program. Get your FREE phone today!

www.lifewireless.com

I believe she knows about this but sometimes they need a phone now and can't wait.

 

[wag123]

Most of these old phones are worthless, unusable since the 3g shutdown. 911 emergency calls won't work on these phones either (no signal). Even many newer phones that have 4g LTE won't work if they don't have VoLTE or HD Voice capabilities (or require connection to the network and authentication through 3g first).
Sorry to say that the trash can is about the only thing that you can donate these phones to.

 

[RooflessVW]

Most of these old phones are worthless, unusable since the 3g shutdown. 911 emergency calls won't work on these phones either (no signal). Even many newer phones that have 4g LTE won't work if they don't have VoLTE or HD Voice capabilities (or require connection to the network and authentication through 3g first).
Sorry to say that the trash can is about the only thing that you can donate these phones to.

Has he listed which phones he has? A Galaxy Note 10 is "old" but would work on most networks.

 

[mk378]

Most of these old phones are worthless, unusable since the 3g shutdown.

Those get sent somewhere with lax environmental rules where they are ground up and leached with chemicals to recover metals such as gold, palladium, tin and copper.

 

[Jethro_Bob]

The question is do they? And how can you trust who's doing it, if they do? They could be stealing your information. I don't mind helping people by donating, but I would be very leery of giving away my old phone. Especially today with so much identity theft going on everywhere.

I'm sure old phones contain a wealth of information from their previous owners. And there is only so much you can delete off of these things. Unless you're a tech master. I'm not, so mine get several rounds of ammunition put through them. Same with my old hard drives. A .30-06 works wonders on them.

They don't, it's up to you. This is for Android.

Step 1. power off phone.

Step 2. hold down volume down and the power button until the phone powers on and displays a menu.

Step 3. select 'factory reset'

Anyways, I personally think it a good idea to destroy old hard disk drives because of the way they are designed to read and write. My own opinion of solid state drives and NVMe can be safely deleted and "trimmed".