Erasing all content and settings for factory settings without deleting on ICloud

[Brad9753]

I know that if I remove for example a contact on my phone, it removes on my MBP- as it should.
Well I am preparing my 4S for sale and want to get it back to factory settings. The reset options are Reset all Contents and Reset all contents and settings. Obviously I want the second. If I remove all content though, it won't delete on the iCloud will it?
Also, I have back ups on iCloud and iTunes. What has this backed up exactly? Settings, App places on the icon screen etc?
When I receive my new phone and switch it on and log into my Apple account should all my contacts and photos etc load automatically?

Thanks all in advance!

 

[madsilencerr]

Just restore your iPhone with iTunes and you won't have problems with iCloud.

 

[jjp007]

Oh very good question!! I'm curious about how to do this too. I have my mbp, mbair, ipad, iMac and iPhone all set to synch with the cloud and don't want to lose anything if I erase everything when I sell my phone tomorrow. Thanks for any hints!

 

[DefBref]

It doesn't touch your icloud backup, because you have erased the account from the iphone, so icloud doesn't know you've erased everything because your not signed into it on the phone.

 

[jjp007]

thanks, makes sense. I thought I might turn iCloud off first to be sure but wanted to double check.

 

[Frasern1]

I erased it all and my MBA and iPad still have all my contacts etc stored in iCloud, you won't loose anything, or at least in theory you won't.

 

[Brad9753]

Ok thanks, excellent.

What about the other questions? Will I have to re arrange my apps etc? What exacly is backed up?

 

[M87]

Erasing all content and settings has no effect on your iCloud data. Go to iCloud in settings and you can see and configure what is and isn't being backed up. I don't know if you use GoodReader or not, but that particular app has a folder called Downloads that isn't backed up to iCloud, so make sure to move those files to another folder or something or they'll be lost. Every other app I use backs up all settings and user content to iCloud. Restoring from iCloud is really nice, I never connect my iPhone to my computer anymore for any reason.

Ok thanks, excellent.

What about the other questions? Will I have to re arrange my apps etc? What exacly is backed up?

If all of your apps are set to back up to iCloud, your restored phone will look exactly like it did at the time of your iCloud backup.



I'm not sure how the extra row of apps on iPhone 5 will affect things though. Maybe it will just leave that row empty?