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Recommended process for wiping/restoring an iPhone for sale

T

trilla12

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 21, 2008
19
0
So I plan to sell an old iPhone 3G. I've read the forums dealing with this method, and my best guess (as far as the order in which things should be done), based on what I've read, is the following...

My plan is to:

1. Restore iPhone to factory settings
2. Update to latest iOS
3. Erase all data and settings
4. Remove SIM card
5. Once again, restore to factory settings

Does this seem out of order? Am I missing any steps? Am I doing too much?

Please advise. Thanks!
 
Why cant you just go to settings and "erase all contents and settings?"

One step instead of all those.
 
I can, but I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. Will the buyer be confused if the phone arrives with no SIM card?:confused:
 
No they wont be confused. You dont need to send them your deactivated or old sim. They will have no use for it and wont be able to activate it anyway.
They will have to use their own or get a new one from their carrier.
 
I restored an iPod touch once and sold it, about 30 minutes later the buyer called and said that he couldn't download apps because the old iTunes account was still on it. I told him how to delete it, but just be sure that your iTunes account is deleted. I know I restored properly also.
 
Thanks for the info, I pretty much just did steps 3 & 4, and hopefully that's fine. You can't do much after you remove and destroy your SIM...

3. Erase all data and settings
4. Remove SIM card
 
I think the erase all is rather through, it is what happens if do a remote wipe and I read somewhere it even overwrites the memory locations a couple times to ensure data can't be restored. I believe it takes a couple minutes.
 
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