Erased iPhone to sell, but watch still works. Security question

[NovemberWhiskey]

I just sold my phone today, and wiped my phone twice prior to selling (Settings/erase all content and settings).

I thought this would unpair the watch as well, but when I got home from the sale, I noticed the watch was still working, and still had my Apple Pay credit cards as well as all the apps installed. I even got imessages through the watch (I believe through wifi).

Some apps do show that the phone is not connected (Kakao), but others work just fine.

Do I have to worry about security issues on the sold phone? I did get a notice that one of my cards was removed from Apple Pay, but not the other one.

Also, does anyone know if Apple Pay on my watch will still work without being paired to a phone? I need it to buy a new phone.

 

[BradWould]

I just sold my phone today, and wiped my phone twice prior to selling (Settings/erase all content and settings).

I thought this would unpair the watch as well, but when I got home from the sale, I noticed the watch was still working, and still had my Apple Pay credit cards as well as all the apps installed. I even got imessages through the watch (I believe through wifi).

Some apps do show that the phone is not connected (Kakao), but others work just fine.

Do I have to worry about security issues on the sold phone? I did get a notice that one of my cards was removed from Apple Pay, but not the other one.

Also, does anyone know if Apple Pay on my watch will still work without being paired to a phone? I need it to buy a new phone.

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201351

On Apple's support page it lists unpairing the Apple Watch as the first step in preparing an iPhone for sale. That being said, I did the exact same thing when I sold my iPhone 6 (other than the fact that I don't have Apple Pay). After worrying about it for awhile and checking online for anything I could find I realized that, chances are, everything is fine. The phone was completely wiped back to factory settings. I can't see how there would be any way personal info could have survived that.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Like the other poster said, you failed to unfair your watch.

You will, I think, need to take your credit card with you to but that new phone.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Apple Pay works outside of the iPhone and doesn't require you to be online.

You can do an erase all content and settings on the Watch in order to pair to the new iPhone.

 

[gsmornot]

I just sold my phone today, and wiped my phone twice prior to selling (Settings/erase all content and settings).

I thought this would unpair the watch as well, but when I got home from the sale, I noticed the watch was still working, and still had my Apple Pay credit cards as well as all the apps installed. I even got imessages through the watch (I believe through wifi).

Some apps do show that the phone is not connected (Kakao), but others work just fine.

Do I have to worry about security issues on the sold phone? I did get a notice that one of my cards was removed from Apple Pay, but not the other one.

Also, does anyone know if Apple Pay on my watch will still work without being paired to a phone? I need it to buy a new phone.

Your watch and your phone are inclusive of each other for Apple Pay. Your watch has its own ID. You could going forward setup Apple Pay on your watch only if you like. The tie in with the phone is a convenience to save you from the longer entry since it has already been done making Apple Pay faster to setup on the watch.

Now that your phone is gone you will have some issues to deal with, if you call them issues. You didn't unpair your watch which means you didn't make a current backup of the settings and data. When you get your new phone you will need to reset your watch to default and pair again. It will look like a new device. You might have from a previous backup an older configuration but you will most certainly lose a period of Activity data. You will need to either setup again or verify again your Apple Pay. It will not survive the reset process.

Your watch is currently acting in the way it would any other time you are away from your phone. If you had setup Numbersync prior to resetting your phone your watch would be able to make and receive calls in addition to sending and receiving messages. Bottom line, your watch will be able to pay for your new phone as long as you do not reset it before you do. It's device ID is registered with your bank at the moment. You should have logged out of iCloud on your phone prior to the reset, not sure if you did. If not, your phone will still be associated with your Apple ID but that is another matter.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Now that your phone is gone you will have some issues to deal with, if you call them issues. You didn't unpair your watch which means you didn't make a current backup of the settings and data. When you get your new phone you will need to reset your watch to default and pair again. It will look like a new device.

Not necessarily. The watch is actually continually backed up to iPhone and will have everything up to the day the last iPhone backup is made, assuming the OP restores from this backup when he gets the new iPhone and pairs it to the Watch after performing an erase all content and settings.

Many people are under the false impression that a backup is made only when you unpair. It's actually continually backed up in the background but it's not visible until after a restore. The OP will, however, lose all activities since the last iPhone backup was made.

 

[Cowboy1629]

Not necessarily. The watch is actually continually backed up to iPhone and will have everything up to the day the last iPhone backup is made, assuming the OP restores from this backup when he gets the new iPhone and pairs it to the Watch after performing an erase all content and settings.

That will also depend on his last backup. If it was an auto backup to iCloud it could be a day or too before he sold the iPhone when it backed up. Mine hasn't been real reliable since iOS 9 came out. If he was backing up to iTunes and it wasn't an encrypted backup he may not have anything to restore to.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

That will also depend on his last backup. If it was an auto backup to iCloud it could be a day or too before he sold the iPhone when it backed up. Mine hasn't been real reliable since iOS 9 came out. If he was backing up to iTunes and it wasn't an encrypted backup he may not have anything to restore to.

"Not hav(ing) anything to restore to" isn't accurate if it was backed up to iTunes and it wasn't encrypted. The OP will only lose health/activity data if the backup wasn't encrypted, but he'll still be able to restore other Watch settings, including watch faces, etc.

 

[Cowboy1629]

"Not hav(ing) anything to restore to" isn't accurate if it was backed up to iTunes and it wasn't encrypted. The OP will only lose health/activity data if the backup wasn't encrypted, but he'll still be able to restore other Watch settings, including watch faces, etc.

Your right I'm wrong.

I figured he was wasting to restore all of his data from the Watch to his new iPhone which wouldn't be possible if he didn't have an encrypted backup in iTunes or got lucky with having a current or a backup from iCloud.

Excuse me if I wasn't clear enough. Most people are wanting to restore their activity data since that's the one that gets lost if not backed up correctly.

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Thanks for all the responses. I don't care too much about backups or setting up the watch as new. I am only concerned about security problems, like the new owner being able to use my Apple Pay info, etc.

I also did not know about having to sign out of iCloud prior to wiping. Why doesn't Apple do this automatically when wiping the phone??? After the first wipe, I reactivated the phone, and checked, and there was nothing on it. The phone did not show my icloud info. Then I wiped it a second time just out of paranoia.

Today (1 day later), I signed into iCloud via web browser, and sure enough, it still showed my iphone as a device in my icloud account. I deleted it right away.

I have iCloud photo sync on. Is there anything to worry about?

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Excuse me if I wasn't clear enough. Most people are wanting to restore their activity data since that's the one that gets lost if not backed up correctly.

While true, there's a multitude of Watch settings (including clock faces, glances, customized settings for specific apps if not mirroring iPhone settings, etc.) that one will want to restore to even if they don't care about or use the activity app. Otherwise, it can be a hassle to set them up from scratch.