How to Wipe Personal Data Before Selling iPhone

Updated Jun 05,2018 | by Bennie

If you get a new iPhone, you might be ready to trade in or sell your old iPhone. Before you trade it in for cash or credit, you first need to make sure that you've wiped your iPhone in a right away and deleted all of your personal data, including contacts, emails, apps, messages, photos, videos, files, and other personal staff to reduce the risk of personal data falling into the wrong hands. Remember, your whole life is on that phone!

In this article, you will know how to thoroughly scrub your iPhone before selling it.

How to Fully Wipe iPhone's Personal Data

When you plan to wipe your iPhone, please do not delete your data like contacts, photos, documents, or any other important data manually while you're still signed in to iCloud with your Apple ID. If you do, your content will be deleted from the iCloud servers and all of your devices signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.

Then, how to completely clear the no longer used iPhone's personal data? Please follow the steps below:

Step 1. Unpair your Apple Watch if you paired one with your iPhone. Here is how to unpair your Apple Watch.

Step 2. Back up your iPhone. Settings > Apple ID (your name) > iCloud > iCloud Backup or Backup based on different iOS version you are using -> tap on Back Up Now.

Step 3. Sign out of iCloud. Settings > Apple ID (your name) and select Sign Out. Select Sign Out again, then select Delete from My iPhone. In the process, you will be asked to enter your Apple ID password.

Step 4. Sign out of iTunes & App Store. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Apple ID > Sign Out.

Step 5. Turn off Find My iPhone. Go to Settings > iCloud and select Find My iPhone. Then toggle off Find My iPhone.

Step 6. Turn off iMessage (if you are switching to a non-Apple phone) and other services. Go to Settings > Messages > toggle the iMessage option off. You may also want to sign out from any other linked services and apps including Facebook or Twitter.

Step 7. Start the wipe process. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. You may be asked for your device passcode or Restrictions passcode, please enter it. Then tap Erase.

Based on the size of the data you wipe, the process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.

Use iPhone Manager to Delete iPhone Data All at Once

IOTransfer can transfer, back up, and delete iPhone data like photos, music, videos, iBooks, contacts, podcast, voice memos, and apps. Compared to manually delete iPhone data, IOTransfer offers a better and safer way to manage iPhone data without iTunes or iCloud.

Let's take photos as an example to show you how to wipe them from your iPhone.

Step 1. Download IOTranfer for free and install it on your computer. Then run it.

Step 2. Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB cable. Tap on 'Trust' if your iPhone asks for permission.

Step 3. Go to MANAGE tab. Click Select All to select all photos and click "Export" to back up your photos to your computer.

Step 4. Once the photos were successfully transferred to your computer, in the result window, please check the checkbox before Delete from iOS device after transfer and then click OK. Then the photos will be deleted from your iPhone.

Step 5. You can also click OK directly and then go back to Manage tab > Select all photos > click Delete to delete all photos from your iPhone.

Please refer to the steps above to wipe other personal data like music, videos, iBooks, contacts, podcast, voice memos, and apps from your iPhone.

With IOTransfer, it helps you wipe the personal data more thoroughly. No matter how you wipe your personal data, you must be sure to remove all personal data completely from your iPhone and leave nothing behind before handing it over to the next user.

See also: How to Wipe All Data from Your iPhone

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