When you sell a Tesla, or trade in a Tesla, what happens to all that personal information your Tesla has stored about you and where you drive?

Everything—recent phone calls, streaming logins, navigation history, garage-door settings, driver profiles, WiFi networks, paired phones, and more—could be visible to the next driver of your Tesla if you do not clear it out first. Whether you are trading in, returning a loaner, or selling your Tesla privately, wiping the car’s data before handoff should be near the top of your to-do list.

In today’s post, we’ll walk you through the process for wiping your Tesla with a factory reset and removing or transferring the car in the Tesla app. We’ll also talk a bit about what to do in a loaner or rental Tesla if you don’t have access to the factory reset option through your own Tesla account.

Quick note before you reset anything: We are not Tesla, and a factory reset is meant to erase personal data from the vehicle, and removing a Tesla from your account is meant for ownership transfer. Neither one should be done casually. Before selling, trading, transferring, or wiping a Tesla, make sure the sale is actually finalized, you have your key cards/key fobs available, and you understand that removing the car from your Tesla account can temporarily cut off app access, phone key access, Supercharging/payment access, subscriptions, and ownership controls.

Why Would You Factory Reset a Tesla?

A Tesla factory reset is used to clear personal data from the car and return many vehicle settings to their default state. Factory resetting your Tesla is important for at least four different scenarios:

  1. Trading in your Tesla
  2. Selling your Tesla
  3. Returning a loaner or rental Tesla

OR

  1. Fixing a stubborn software or settings issue

We separate out this last reason—fixing a glitch—because it doesn’t really have anything to do with protecting your personal information. Clearing out your Tesla’s memory and restoring factory settings can occasionally help in troubleshooting, but it should not be your first move every time the touchscreen acts weird.

Note: Before you factory reset your Tesla to try to fix a glitch, make sure you have tried the other Tesla reboot and reset options available. A touchscreen reboot or power cycle is usually a much better first step than wiping the car.

How to Clear Your Data and Factory Reset Your Tesla

To fully remove your data when selling or returning your car, you’ll usually need to take two separate actions:

  1. Factory reset the vehicle from the touchscreen
  2. Remove or transfer the vehicle from your Tesla account in the Tesla app

These are related, but they are not the same thing. The factory reset clears personal data from the car. Removing or transferring ownership changes who controls the vehicle in the Tesla app.

Tesla Factory Reset: Touchscreen Menu

To do a full factory reset on your Tesla, use the main touchscreen menu inside the car to navigate to:

Controls > Service > Factory Reset

At this point, you should be prompted to log in to your Tesla account with your email and password. The screen will prompt you one more time to confirm the action, because you can’t undo a factory reset once it’s complete.

Once you confirm the reset, your Tesla may power down, restart, and reboot. This may happen more than once; sometimes the car will have to reboot a few times before the reset process has finished.

The factory reset should wipe personal data from the car, and your driver profile should no longer be visible on the touchscreen. If you are now going to transfer your Tesla to someone else—whether to a private buyer, dealer, third party, or Tesla—you’ll need to remove or transfer the Tesla from your account.

Note: If you don’t have a Tesla account associated with this car, which can happen with a loaner, rental, or vehicle that was not properly transferred to you, check the section on loaner cars below to remove information manually.

Remove or Transfer a Tesla from Your Account: Tesla App

Warning: Removing a Tesla from your app is typically NOT part of fixing a software glitch unless Tesla Service specifically tells you to do so. If you remove a Tesla from your account, you may need to re-submit ownership documentation to Tesla to get your car added to your account again. Confirming ownership and re-adding a Tesla to your account can take several days.

Here are two things to consider before you remove or transfer a Tesla from your account:

  1. You may not be able to use a Tesla Supercharger if your vehicle has already been removed from your Tesla account. Removing a Tesla from your account can remove the vehicle’s access to your payment information.
  2. You won’t be able to use your phone as the key to your Tesla. Make sure you have located the key cards or key fobs for your Tesla and have them on hand before you remove or transfer the car.

You shouldn’t remove or transfer a Tesla from your account until the sale is finalized and you are actually handing the car off to the next owner or third party. Don’t remove or transfer a Tesla that you still legally own and still need to control.

To remove or transfer a Tesla from your account, open the Tesla app and follow the current app flow:

Menu > My Products > select vehicle > Remove or Transfer Ownership

Follow the on-screen prompts to remove the vehicle or transfer ownership to the buyer. You may need the buyer’s name and email address, and Tesla may require additional documentation depending on the situation.

Once you’ve removed your Tesla from your account, any Tesla subscriptions associated with that car may be canceled or stop being associated with your account. Removing a Tesla from your app severs the link between it and your personal/financial information. You should still be able to see some documentation and information related to the removed car in your Tesla account history, but the next user of the Tesla won’t have access to your personal account info.

If a buyer is adding a Tesla without a seller-initiated transfer, Tesla may review ownership documentation before completing the transfer. Tesla commonly says this process can take 3-5 business days, though timing can vary.

How to Manually Remove Data from a Loaner Tesla (or Any Tesla)

Tesla loaner and rental vehicles can also store a decent amount of your data and should be cleaned up before you return them. With loaner access added to your Tesla account, you may be able to do a factory reset before handing it off. However, unless you accept the invite to add the loaner to your profile, you may not have access to wipe the loaner as easily as a Tesla that you own.

Fortunately, a lot of your data can be removed manually by going through the Tesla menu and deleting sensitive information. This is not a perfect replacement for a full factory reset, but it is much better than handing the car back with your phone, garage, streaming, or navigation data still visible.

Let’s walk through some of the sensitive data that you should remove:

Phone Keys

If you’ve added your phone as a key in the Tesla app, remove it before returning the car. Depending on the model and software version, this may be under Controls > Locks. Remove your phone from the list of approved keys for this Tesla.

Bluetooth Devices

To remove access to your contacts and call history, go to the Tesla’s Bluetooth settings, select your phone, and remove or forget the device. If contact syncing was enabled, this is one of the most important manual cleanup steps.

Garage Doors

If you’ve used HomeLink or another garage-door integration to store garage device information on your Tesla, go to Controls > HomeLink or the relevant garage-device settings, select the device or devices you want to remove, and delete them.

Streaming Services and Other Third-Party Accounts

Log out of any streaming service accounts, music apps, video apps, browser sessions, or other third-party services you may have used in your Tesla. Some logout options can be annoyingly buried inside the individual app, so it’s also smart to use a Log Out of All Devices option from your main account for each service when available.

If you use other third-party Tesla apps or services, such as TeslaFi or similar tracking/analytics tools, remove vehicle access there as well.

Navigation and Trip Information

While you can’t clear out all travel information manually in the same way a factory reset can, you can remove visible navigation history. Go to Navigation and delete recent destinations, favorite destinations, and saved locations such as Home and Work.

Depending on your Tesla software version, this may involve swiping on recent destination entries, pressing and holding an entry until a delete option appears, or editing saved locations directly.

Driver Profiles, WiFi, and Other Settings

If you cannot factory reset the car, also check for saved driver profiles, seat/mirror/steering settings, WiFi networks, calendar syncing, browser history, and any personalized app settings. Remove as much as the interface allows before returning the vehicle.

And that’s it! Whether you want to reset your Tesla Model 3 before handing it off to a new owner or have a Model X that’s just glitchy enough to give a factory reset a try, these steps should help keep your Tesla running smoothly and your personal data safer.

Selling Your Tesla? Here Are Two Options

Ready to sell a used Tesla and wondering where to start?

Listing your Tesla for sale has never been easier. Simply register for a free account, and build your listing.

You can also request an EV Cash Offer at the same time, with the same account!