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How to Erase Your Old iPhone or iPad Before Selling It or Trading It In

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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If you got a new iPhone or iPad for Christmas, you may have an old one that you're ready to sell or trade in to get a bit of extra cash. You'll want to make sure to adequately erase everything on it to get it ready for its next owner.

There are only a few steps to follow so it take you just a few minutes to clean up an old iOS device. Here's what to do:

Unpair Your Apple Watch

If you're selling your iPhone and have an Apple Watch linked to it, you're going to want to unpair it first.
  1. Make sure your iPhone and Apple Watch are close to each other.
  2. Open up the Apple Watch app on the iPhone.
  3. Choose the "My Watch" tab.
  4. Select the Apple Watch you want to unpair and tap the "i" button.
  5. Tap "Unpair Apple Watch."
    unpairapplewatch.jpg
  6. Tap a second time to confirm.
  7. You'll need to enter your Apple ID password to turn off Activation Lock.
Turn Off Find My iPhone

Most trade-in sites won't accept your old iPhone or iPad if Find My iPhone isn't disabled, and if you sell an iOS device with the feature still turned on, the new owner won't be able to use it, creating a huge hassle for both of you.

Find My iPhone needs to be turned off because it's tied to Activation Lock. A phone that's linked to your iCloud account through Find My iPhone can't be used by anyone who doesn't have your Apple ID and password.
  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap on your name to open your account settings.
  3. Tap "iCloud."
  4. Scroll down to "Find My iPhone."
    findmyiphoneoff-800x571.jpg
  5. Tap it.
  6. Tap the toggle to turn it off.
To turn off Find My iPhone, you'll need to enter your Apple ID password as an extra security measure, which is designed to keep someone who has your unlocked iPhone from turning the feature off.

After Find My iPhone is off, it's time to erase everything on your iPhone. Before you do this, make sure you have an iCloud backup and that there's nothing stored on your device that you're going to miss.
  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Choose "General."
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu.
  4. Select "Reset."
    eraseiphonepart1-800x571.jpg
  5. Choose "Erase all Content and Settings."
  6. You'll need to enter your device passcode if you have one set.
  7. Tap Erase iPhone, then tap it again to confirm.
    eraseiphonepart2-800x571.jpg
  8. If you didn't already turn off Find My iPhone, it will be turned off at this juncture and your device will be removed from your iCloud account.
Your iPhone will switch over to an Apple loading screen as the erasing process starts. It will take a few minutes for the device to be fully erased, but once it's done and boots up again, your old iPhone or iPad is clean, unassociated with your Apple ID, and ready to be sold.

Article Link: How to Erase Your Old iPhone or iPad Before Selling It or Trading It In
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/erase-your-old-iphone-or-ipad/
  • Like
Reactions: artfossil
What we really need is this article for Android. As lots of users will be changing to iPhone and coming here for the first time etc
 
  • Like
Reactions: iGeek2014 and tridley68
jonnysods said:
I would login to your Apple ID and make sure to remove the device as sometimes they stay in your My Devices list.
Click to expand...

This.. Sold my series 0 recently on craigslist only to be contacted by the panicked buyer. All worked fine after I removed it from my iCloud account.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Demonknight
Most "things" are done easily on Apple devices, this is not one of them, it should be made so easy that if you reset your iPhone all settings are automatically reset, so also iCloud/messages and anything related to your account, this means all logins to Apple should be offline.
 
justperry said:
Most "things" are done easily on Apple devices, this is not one of them, it should be made so easy that if you reset your iPhone all settings are automatically reset, so also iCloud/messages and anything related to your account, this means all logins to Apple should be offline.
Click to expand...
Typically that's how it works.
 
iLoveiTunes said:
This.. Sold my series 0 recently on craigslist only to be contacted by the panicked buyer. All worked fine after I removed it from my iCloud account.
Click to expand...

I was trying to activate a hand me down iPad and apple were asking for the passcode on a device I sold ages ago. Then I found the hoops to jump though!
 
i was told this method does not exactly securely erase your info off the devices and information can be retrieved from it using special software
 
MacBH928 said:
i was told this method does not exactly securely erase your info off the devices and information can be retrieved from it using special software
Click to expand...
What special software? And are we talking about a device that as never protected by a passcode, for example? Because one that had a passcode would have the information encrypted, so even retrieving it somehow wouldn't do any good as it would be encrypted.
 
C DM said:
What special software? And are we talking about a device that as never protected by a passcode, for example? Because one that had a passcode would have the information encrypted, so even retrieving it somehow wouldn't do any good as it would be encrypted.
Click to expand...

I am just saying what I heard... HDDs and SSDs do not really delete the information stored on them. You can retrieve them unless you securely erase them (writing the whole storage several times over) or physically destroying the storage medium.
 
MacBH928 said:
I am just saying what I heard... HDDs and SSDs do not really delete the information stored on them. You can retrieve them unless you securely erase them (writing the whole storage several times over) or physically destroying the storage medium.
Click to expand...
That's where encryption plays a big role as well.
 
MacRumors said:



If you got a new iPhone or iPad for Christmas, you may have an old one that you're ready to sell or trade in to get a bit of extra cash. You'll want to make sure to adequately erase everything on it to get it ready for its next owner.

There are only a few steps to follow so it take you just a few minutes to clean up an old iOS device. Here's what to do:

Unpair Your Apple Watch

If you're selling your iPhone and have an Apple Watch linked to it, you're going to want to unpair it first.
  1. Make sure your iPhone and Apple Watch are close to each other.
  2. Open up the Apple Watch app on the iPhone.
  3. Choose the "My Watch" tab.
  4. Select the Apple Watch you want to unpair and tap the "i" button.
  5. Tap "Unpair Apple Watch."
    unpairapplewatch.jpg

  6. Tap a second time to confirm.
  7. You'll need to enter your Apple ID password to turn off Activation Lock.
Turn Off Find My iPhone

Most trade-in sites won't accept your old iPhone or iPad if Find My iPhone isn't disabled, and if you sell an iOS device with the feature still turned on, the new owner won't be able to use it, creating a huge hassle for both of you.

Find My iPhone needs to be turned off because it's tied to Activation Lock. A phone that's linked to your iCloud account through Find My iPhone can't be used by anyone who doesn't have your Apple ID and password.
  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap on your name to open your account settings.
  3. Tap "iCloud."
  4. Scroll down to "Find My iPhone."
    findmyiphoneoff-800x571.jpg

  5. Tap it.
  6. Tap the toggle to turn it off.
To turn off Find My iPhone, you'll need to enter your Apple ID password as an extra security measure, which is designed to keep someone who has your unlocked iPhone from turning the feature off.

After Find My iPhone is off, it's time to erase everything on your iPhone. Before you do this, make sure you have an iCloud backup and that there's nothing stored on your device that you're going to miss.
  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Choose "General."
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu.
  4. Select "Reset."
    eraseiphonepart1-800x571.jpg

  5. Choose "Erase all Content and Settings."
  6. You'll need to enter your device passcode if you have one set.
  7. Tap Erase iPhone, then tap it again to confirm.
    eraseiphonepart2-800x571.jpg

  8. If you didn't already turn off Find My iPhone, it will be turned off at this juncture and your device will be removed from your iCloud account.
Your iPhone will switch over to an Apple loading screen as the erasing process starts. It will take a few minutes for the device to be fully erased, but once it's done and boots up again, your old iPhone or iPad is clean, unassociated with your Apple ID, and ready to be sold.

Article Link: How to Erase Your Old iPhone or iPad Before Selling It or Trading It In
Click to expand...

Hey Op!

One IMPORTANT part you've COMPLETELY forgotten!

ApplePay!

For those of us that use ApplePay on our iPhones (especially) and our iPad's or Mac's should HEAVILY consider FIRST Removing our Credit and Debit Cards!

- Reason 1: You cannot re-add (along with TouchID/FaceID access) your debit bank card or credit cards to a third iOS device BEFORE disavowing previously registered same cards on previous devices. You'll notice this when you add your cards that verification FAILS. This is due to having only a VERY limited number of iOS devices associated.

Please update these guides to includes this. MAJOR oversight by the premier Mac Fan forums ... but hey us fans, we got your back!
 
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