iPhone 3GS - wipe all content and settings was far too quick

[0dev]

It's meant to take an hour or two, but took about five minutes. I don't think it's properly wiped the phone. I need to ship it today, so can anyone tell me why it isn't wiping fully?

I went to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

It's meant to take an hour or two, but took about five minutes. I don't think it's properly wiped the phone. I need to ship it today, so can anyone tell me why it isn't wiping fully?

I went to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

Why is it meant to take an hour or two? I wiped my 3GS in under 5 minutes. If you are back at the "Plug-in iTunes" screen then you are good to go.

 

[0dev]

Why is it meant to take an hour or two? I wiped my 3GS in under 5 minutes. If you are back at the "Plug-in iTunes" screen then you are good to go.

Isn't it meant to zero out all of the data as of 3.0? That would take a lot longer than five minutes and is much more secure.

 

[chargit]

it doesnt take an hour or two but 5 minutes is pretty quick. normally 20-30 minutes is about all it takes. and Ive done tons of them. just do a search through your phone to see if your info is gone. if it is then ship it!

 

[0dev]

It is all gone, I'm just wondering why it hasen't been wiped properly.

 

[chargit]

your missing the point....it has been wiped correctly. there is nothing on your phone that should cause you any issues anyway. if there is then you shouldnt be selling it! if your still not believing this then do a restore in iTunes. but depending on the device and how you sold it then they may not be able to jailbreak or unlock it.

 

[0dev]

I just know fraudsters do data mine eBay phones and I've used mine for internet banking and such, that's all, and I was pretty sure that the erase all content option overwrote the data with zeroes.

I'll do a restore just to be safe.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Isn't it meant to zero out all of the data as of 3.0? That would take a lot longer than five minutes and is much more secure.

It doesn't zero out the data. That, indeed, would take a long time.

 

[0dev]

It doesn't zero out the data. That, indeed, would take a long time.

I did a bit of Googling and found out that, on the iPhone 3G or any iDevice prior to it, the data was zeroed out, but newer iDevices have hardware encryption, so the OS just forgets the encryption key.