Question - want to sell iPhone 4 unlocked on eBay, but remove all personal info

[calvin2376]

My question seems to be one that a lot of people would have, but despite all my searching I have not been able to find an adequate answer and I was hoping you could help. I'm going to try and be as detailed as possible.

I have a jailbroken AT&T iPhone 4 on firmware 4.3.1. I want to sell this phone on eBay and upgrade to the iPhone 4S.

I want to sell the phone jailbroken and unlocked (to get more money for it), but I also want to ensure I've removed all personal information first. I've jailbroken/unlocked phones before, but I've never done it with the intention of also keeping all personal info off the phone.

I've seen a few other threads attempting to answer this question, but the answers are very general and not detailed enough, for example:

- Remove SIM card
- Restore iPhone to factory settings
- Jailbreak & Unlock (more valuable)
- Sell on ebay and advertise Jailbreak & Unlocked

Can someone help me understand the specific steps I need to take, from the moment I get my iPhone 4S to the moment I sell my iPhone 4?

I presume step 1 is that I plug my iPhone 4S into my computer and activate it on my number.

What is my next step involving my iPhone 4? It seems there are two ways to remove my personal info: to restore it or to use "Erase All Content and Settings". I imagine that both those steps effectively undo my current jailbreak and I have to plug the iPhone into the computer to do anything with it.

Can I restore my old iPhone 4, removing all info, then jailbreak it, even if I've already activated my 4S on my number? Where is my SIM card through all this?

Ideally I'd like to sell an unlocked iPhone 4 with none of my data on it that the buyer can just plug in, activate and go. Sorry for sounding like a complete newbie, but I hope someone who's done this before can explain it in detail.

 

[MaxBurn]

How was it unlocked? Assuming old baseband. If that's the case I would do pwnage tool to create an 4.3.3 IPSW that won't update baseband and will pre jailbreak it. Then just DFU mode restore the phone with that, when the phone displays connect to itunes unplug it. Ready to sell, pre jailbroken and no itunes/apple account associated on the phone which is what you want to sell it. If they want the unlock direct them to ultrasn0w in cydia after they have the phone sync'd with their itunes/apple account.

 

[calvin2376]

How was it unlocked? Assuming old baseband. If that's the case I would do pwnage tool to create an 4.3.3 IPSW that won't update baseband and will pre jailbreak it. Then just DFU mode restore the phone with that, when the phone displays connect to itunes unplug it. Ready to sell, pre jailbroken and no itunes/apple account associated on the phone which is what you want to sell it. If they want the unlock direct them to ultrasn0w in cydia after they have the phone sync'd with their itunes/apple account.

Thanks for the response. My phone is currently jailbroken, not unlocked. I've been out of this for a while, can you elaborate on this:

"do pwnage tool to create an 4.3.3 IPSW that won't update baseband and will pre jailbreak it"

I'm on Windows and my baseband is 04.10.01, does that make a difference?

Does this article outline the steps to accomplish the above? http://www.limera1n.cc/2011/05/433-ios-jailbreak-iphone-4-3gs-ipod.html. Can I still do this on Windows?

 

[MaxBurn]

You can't unlock that baseband, you will have to sell the phone locked.

For windows replace pwnage tool with sn0wbreeze to accomplish the same pre jailbroken ipsw.

IMO you want it pre jailbroken and untethered so you can ship the phone while on the connect to iTunes screen. 4.3.3 is best for that right now.

 

[calvin2376]

You can't unlock that baseband, you will have to sell the phone locked.

For windows replace pwnage tool with sn0wbreeze to accomplish the same pre jailbroken ipsw.

IMO you want it pre jailbroken and untethered so you can ship the phone while on the connect to iTunes screen. 4.3.3 is best for that right now.

So I have no way to unlock this phone prior to selling it? That sucks. Thanks for helping me with this though.

To pre-jailbreak it, I'd want to follow these steps presumably? http://www.limera1n.cc/2011/05/jailbreak-433-ios-untethered-sn0wbreeze.html

And if I did that, I would restore the phone using the custom 4.3.3 firmware and then when the phone says Connect to iTunes unplug it and that's that?

Is it even value-added to pre-jailbreak an iPhone before selling it? It seems the money is in unlocked phones. Will I get more money for a pre-jailbroken iPhone that can't be unlocked than I would for just a regular restored iPhone 4?

 

[sfphoto]

You may need to do more if you really want to sell a 'clean' phone.

After deleting what you think is everything check out your Calendar and try writing a email to someone you know. You may find that the autocomplete feature still fills in your contacts even though your contact file is empty.

A search for "/private/var/mobile/library/addressbook" should yield detailed instructions on how to do this if you phone if jailbroken.