See what your phone gives away about you, and clean it up
Cellarise is a Windows app that checks your Android phone over a USB cable and shows you, in plain English, which of your photos record where they were taken, which apps can use your location, microphone and camera, and which Wi-Fi networks and devices your phone remembers. The check is free. Cellarise Pro cleans up what it finds.
Windows 10 and 11 · Android phones with USB debugging · Your results stay on your PC
Who it’s for
- Selling, trading in or passing on a phone. A factory reset is the right last step (see our guide). Cellarise helps before that: it shows what’s on the phone, and what you’ve already shared from it.
- Keeping your current phone private. Many apps were given access years ago and never reviewed. Cellarise shows which ones still have it and when they last used it.
- After a change in your life. If you want to know what your phone reveals about your movements and contacts, Cellarise gives you a clear list you can act on. It can’t tell you whether someone is monitoring your phone, and doesn’t claim to.
What Cellarise checks
- Photos that reveal a location. Many phone cameras save the exact GPS position in each photo. Anyone you send the original file to can see where it was taken. Cellarise reads the photos in your camera, Pictures and Downloads folders, including photos still in the gallery Trash. Videos and HEIC photos are counted but not yet scanned.
- Apps with location access: whether they can see your precise location, whether they’re allowed in the background, and when Android last recorded them using it.
- Microphone, camera and more: apps that can use your microphone, camera, contacts, text messages, call history, photos, calendar and physical-activity data, and when each last used that access.
- Saved Wi-Fi networks. Network names often point to homes, workplaces, hotels and venues.
- Paired Bluetooth devices: cars, earbuds, speakers and trackers.
- System records: location entries in Android’s rolling system log, and the phone’s most recent position fixes.
- Phone safety settings: whether USB debugging, Developer options or wireless debugging are switched on.
For a manual review, see which apps use your microphone, camera and location.
How it works
- Download Cellarise and open it on your Windows PC.
- Connect your phone with a USB cable. Cellarise walks you through switching on USB debugging, a standard Android setting, with the exact taps for your phone’s brand. If something isn’t right—a charge-only cable, a missing driver, the “Allow USB debugging?” prompt—it tells you what to do.
- Read your report. The check takes about a minute and changes nothing on your phone.
- Clean up (Pro). Tick what you want removed, review a preview of every change—what it does, what you’d lose, and whether it can be undone—then confirm.
- Check the result. Cellarise scans again and shows what changed.
- Finish safely. One click switches USB debugging and Developer options back off. This is free.
What Cellarise Pro does
- Removes the location from your photos without re-compressing them. The picture, its date and other details stay the same, and a backup is kept on your PC so you can restore the originals.
- Removes app access to your location, microphone, camera, contacts and more, app by app. You can allow it again in Settings at any time.
- Wipes an app’s stored data when you choose to, with a clear warning that you’ll be signed out.
- Forgets saved Wi-Fi networks and clears the system log.
- Shows every item found, with a map of the places your photos reveal. The map loads only if you ask for it.
- Step-by-step help for what can’t be removed automatically, and a personal action plan.
- On phones that are already rooted, Pro can also erase Android’s record of when apps used your location and unpair Bluetooth devices. Cellarise never roots phones.
Free and Pro
| Included | Free | Pro US$49 once |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy check of your phone | ||
| How much your phone is exposing, by category | ||
| Switch USB debugging back off when you're done | ||
| Every photo, app, network and device found, with details | ||
| Map of the places your photos reveal | ||
| Clean-up with a preview of every change | ||
| Check-up scan showing what changed, and photo restore | ||
| Step-by-step help for everything else, and an action plan |
One payment, no subscription. Pro unlocks in the app straight after purchase, and your licence key is emailed to you.
Test mode only. No real money is charged.
Your privacy while using Cellarise
The check runs entirely on your PC; your results, photos and app list are never uploaded. Cellarise contains no analytics or tracking. It only connects to the internet when you buy or activate Pro (to confirm your purchase), or if you choose to load the photo map; no scan data is sent in either case. It uses Android’s own USB debugging and doesn’t install anything on your phone.
What it can’t do
Without root access, no app can read inside other apps’ private storage, so an app’s own history shows up only as the size of its data; Cellarise explains how to deal with it. Cleaning reduces what’s stored on your phone. It isn’t a forensic wipe, and it can’t remove copies already held by Google, app companies, mobile carriers or car makers; Pro shows you where to manage those. It can’t tell whether someone is monitoring your phone. Android only, not iPhone (yet).
Requirements
- Windows 10 or 11 PC.
- An Android phone and a USB cable that carries data, not charge-only.
- About five minutes the first time, then about a minute per check.
- Tested on recent Android versions; works with most Android phones that support USB debugging.
- Some phones need their maker’s USB driver on Windows. Cellarise tells you if so.