Just sold Model 3 and didn't factory reset

[erea]

I just sold my 2018 LR Model 3. A guy flew in from out of state to buy it and I didn't factory reset it before handing it over to the new owner. I removed the vehicle from my Tesla account and added the new buyers name and email to transfer it, but here is my question:

Since I didn't factory reset it, will my information and data (Homelink, home/work navigation, Spotify, etc.) still be in the car?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tam]

Since I didn't factory reset it, will my information and data (Homelink, home/work navigation, Spotify, etc.) still be in the car?

Yes. All data mentioned above and more are intact.

Most people are not crooks so you should be fine statistically speaking.

 

[erea]

Yes. All data mentioned above and more are intact.

Most people are not crooks so you should be fine statistically speaking.

Good to know. Is there any way to remove all of that without factory resetting from the vehicle?

 

[Marty3SR+]

You could change your password for Spotify, or if you have lots of devices making it a pain, wait to see if he tries to use it.

It's pretty easy to change the code to make the homelink not work. At least for garage door openers, don't know about any other devices as I've never used it for anything else, if possible. But that would give you peace of mind in case he drives to your home using navigation and tries to break in - pretty unlikely, though.

 

[Randy-12]

You can always ask the guy to factory reset it.

 

[Tam]

Good to know. Is there any way to remove all of that without factory resetting from the vehicle?

You can reset your HomeLink: For Chamberlain, climb up a ladder, and hold the learn button for 6 seconds. You then need to re-program your remote controls and any cars with HomeLink. I imagine other brands should have a similar procedure too.

You can reset the passwords for online services like Spotify...

You cannot reset others like Navigation favorites/history because that requires someone to do that in the car.

 

[jjrandorin]

Good to know. Is there any way to remove all of that without factory resetting from the vehicle?

You can take steps to do a few things that people suggested to individually change things, and the new owner could also go through and delete stuff, but there is no way to delete all that en masse without factory resetting the car (at least none that I am aware of).

 

[ElectricNerd]

We bought our ‘21 M3SR+ from Vroom back in March. The previous owner didn’t factory reset and even worse their registration info was still in the glove box. Home was still set to their home address as well. I promptly factory reset it and shredded their registration info as I would hope someone else would so the same if the shoe were on the other foot.

 

[jjrandorin]

We bought our ‘21 M3SR+ from Vroom back in March. The previous owner didn’t factory reset and even worse their registration info was still in the glove box. Home was still set to their home address as well. I promptly factory reset it and shredded their registration info as I would hope someone else would so the same if the shoe were on the other foot.

What that really shows (at least to me) is that any claim that any car dealer makes about "We will reset everything" is not true. The above is not an isolated incident, as I have also experienced this helping my sister buy a used vehicle, and also same for my daughter (not teslas, regular ICE vehicles).

In one case, registration was in the glove compartment, and navigation system still had recent locations, home address etc (ford). In the other case, no registration in the the glove compartment, but navigation still showed home address, recents, etc.

This was 7 and 6 years ago, respectively, but car dealers "dealer prep" certainly didnt include anything to do with computers.

 

[RayK]

What that really shows (at least to me) is that any claim that any car dealer makes about "We will reset everything" is not true. The above is not an isolated incident, as I have also experienced this helping my sister buy a used vehicle, and also same for my daughter (not teslas, regular ICE vehicles).

In one case, registration was in the glove compartment, and navigation system still had recent locations, home address etc (ford). In the other case, no registration in the the glove compartment, but navigation still showed home address, recents, etc.

This was 7 and 6 years ago, respectively, but car dealers "dealer prep" certainly didnt include anything to do with computers.

Echoing the same thing here... I bought a used 2011 Nissan Murano several years back. I did not find any registration or printed personal information but the GPS was still loaded with previous destinations and home location. Erased it, after looking at the home address on Google Maps .

edit: Note: vehicle was purchased from an independent used car dealer but it had been to Nissan service at least three times between it being sold by the original owner and before it was in my hands (CARFAX data). Plenty of opportunity to reset / remove any personal info but they left it to me to do it.

 

[Andy7]

A story from each side.

I bought a used Infiniti G35 sedan from a dealer and it had the original owner's warranty-type card in the glove box with his name and address. I didn't realize until I owned it for a week or two that they had been smokers and I was never able to get the smell out. So, I went to their house and stole all their cigarettes (kidding). And I am very sensitive to the smell of cigarettes, so I don't know how I missed it when test driving it; perhaps the dealer had a magical smell-covering chemical. I tried everything I could, multiple times, and never got the smell out, so I sold it in a year.

When I bought the Model 3, 2.5 years ago, I traded in a Subaru Legacy and in my excitement at getting the M3, I completely forgot to reset the electronics (at least I remembered to take my EZ Pass). I was worried for a while, but nothing happened because of my error.

 

[PaulSu]

I recently sold my 2019 Model 3 SR+ and I did a factory reset prior to handing it over. However, I do recall that when I went into the Tesla portal to remove the car from my account, I seem to recall it asked to reset the car again. Have you removed the car from your account?

 

[erea]

I did remove the car from my account and put in the email address and name of the buyer to transfer it. I also wondered if it would remove my settings after completing that.