Apple iOS device reset - Dismantling an old phone to be sold
Thursday, May 30. 2019
Every one of use will eventually end up in a situation where old mobile device is upgraded to a new one. Most of us can manage getting the new one working without problems. There are backups somewhere in the cloud and the new device will have the intial setup done from the backup and everything in the out-of-the-box experience will go smoothly.
But what about the old one? You might want to sell or give or donate the perfectly functioning piece of hardware to somebody who wants it more. But not without your data, accounts and passwords!
Apple support has this HT201351 article What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. It instructs you to do a full erase of the device, but doesn't go too much into the details.
Personally, I've struggled with this one a number of times. So, I decided to record the full sequence for me and anybody else needing it. Here goes!
Start with Settings, General. In the bottom of General-menu, there is Reset. That's your choice. For curious ones, you can go see the menus and choices without anything dangerous happening. You WILL get plenty of warning before all your precious data is gone.
In Reset, there are number of levels of reseting to choose from. You want to go all the way. To erase every single bit of your personal data from the device. To get that, go for Erase All Content and Settings.
You will have two separate warnings about your intent to destroy your data. Even if you pass that gateway, there is more. Nothing will be erased until a final blow.
The final thing to do is to inform Apple, that this device won't be associated to your Apple ID anymore. For that, your password will be needed. This is the final call. When you successfully punch in your password, then the big ball starts rolling.
When you see this, you're past point-of-no-return.
It takes a while to erase all data. Wait patiently.
When all the erasing is done, the device will restart and it will go for the out-of-the-box dialog. This is where new user needs to choose the user interface language, network and associate the device with their own Apple ID.
