Buying the iPhone 6? Check How to Completely Erase Your Old iPhone First

Now that Apple has introduced the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, a lot of you is likely to be trying to improve. That means a few of you may want to promote your outdated iPhone, which brings us to the inevitable activity of making certain that your knowledge is securely faraway from the system. You don’t need to hand strangers entry to your knowledge. To keep away from all the trouble, here is a information to aid you securely delete all you knowledge out of your iPhone.

According to Apple, all iPhones from the iPhone 3GS onwards include {hardware} encryption so if somebody tries to use knowledge restoration software program in your iPhone, your information will nonetheless be safe. As per Apple, all you want to to fully delete your knowledge, is use their erase features. For this to work, you want to have a passcode enabled. To do that, you want to comply with these steps:

1. On your iPhone, Go to Settings > Passcode.

2. Tap Turn Passcode On.

3. You’ll be requested to enter a passcode, after which re-enter it for verification. That’s it, the passcode is enabled.

4. The final line on the web page needs to be “Data protection is enabled.”

After that, you’ll be able to erase all of your knowledge. This is what you want to know:

Create a backup
Before wiping your knowledge, just be sure you backup your iPhone to keep away from lack of knowledge whereas altering telephones.

1. Just go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup.
2. Turn on the change marked iCloud Backup. You’ll get a warning telling you that your iPhone is not going to again up to your pc routinely. Tap okay.
3. One iCloud Backup is on, faucet Backup Now. This will begin backing up your knowledge to iCloud.
4. Please be aware that when you use iCloud Backup, then something you delete manually may also be faraway from the backup. Do not manually take away telephone numbers, pictures and many others. except you do not need to get well them in your new system.
5. In case you do not need to use iCloud or in case your Internet has low add speeds, you can even backup your knowledge utilizing iTunes. First, join your iPhone to the pc. iTunes additionally backs up all the apps you downloaded and the knowledge in these apps. iCloud affords up to 5GB of free house and past that you should have to pay. So if in case you have quite a lot of knowledge in your iPhone, an iTunes backup is the finest as a result of it’s free and would not want Internet.
6. Open iTunes. Click iPhone on the top-right, subsequent to iTunes.
7. Under Automatically Back Up, verify Encrypt iPhone backup. Now set a password on your iTunes backup. We suggest that you simply do that as a result of your iPhone backup may include delicate knowledge corresponding to passwords and private content material that you could be not need others to see. If you allow this feature, you should have to enter a password in order for you to restore the backup from iTunes. This retains your knowledge from being accessed with out authorisation.
8. Under Manually Back Up and Restore, click on Back Up Now to begin backing up your iPhone. This course of takes a while particularly if it is the first time you’re backing up knowledge. Make certain you’ve gotten time to spare earlier than you do that. It took us a bit of over 40 minutes to take a backup the first time.
9. Once important knowledge from the default apps has been backed up, iTunes will ask you in order for you to switch purchases. This mainly takes a backup of all the apps put in in your telephone, together with knowledge downloaded inside these apps. To do that, you should have to check in together with your Apple ID. We took a backup of 97 apps this fashion and after restoring, solely nearly all apps had retained a replica of information saved. One podcast app could not save downloaded podcasts and the e mail apps required re-authentication. That aside, the backup saved the whole lot, together with unread notifications.

If the iPhone is with you
Once you’ve gotten taken a backup, you’re prepared to delete your knowledge.

1. Go to Settings > General > Reset.
2. On this web page, you will see choices to reset numerous saved knowledge. To delete the whole lot, faucet Erase All Content and Settings.
3. You might be prompted to enter your passcode. If your telephone has a Restrictions passcode, which is used to block sure web sites and content material, you should have to enter that code too.
4. After this, you will notice warnings telling you that this may delete all media and knowledge. Tap the Erase button each occasions.
5. Following this, you should have to enter your Apple ID password. This step solely applies if in case you have enabled the Find My iPhone service. It’s an efficient anti-theft measure. After you present your password, your iPhone might be erased and the subsequent proprietor can activate the telephone utilizing his or her Apple ID.
6. After you get a brand new iPhone, you’ll be able to shortly restore your backup by selecting Restore from iCloud Backup or Restore from iTunes Backup as a substitute of Set Up as New iPhone.

If the iPhone will not be with you

In case you lose your telephone and need to wipe it to preserve your knowledge protected, you need to use the Find My iPhone service. This is free, and you must ideally at all times activate it.

1. The first step is ensuring the service is in your system now. On your iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud.
2. Slide the change to activate Find my iPad, and it’s on.
3. This will be helpful in case you lose your telephone, or promote it with out remembering to wipe all the knowledge. Assuming you had enabled this service, deleting the whole lot is easy. First, log in to iCloud utilizing your Apple ID.
4. Click All Devices at the high and choose your iPhone from the checklist of units.
5. Select Erase iPhone from the field that pops up on the top-right > click on Erase in the subsequent popup.
6. After you’ve got clicked on Erase, a brand new button pops up, labeled Remove from Account. Click this, to de-link that telephone out of your account and forestall the subsequent proprietor from accessing your knowledge.
7. In case you offered your iPhone with out deleting your knowledge and Find My iPhone is not enabled in your telephone, then the finest you are able to do is change the password of your Apple ID. This will not cease the subsequent proprietor from accessing knowledge already saved on the system, however it would guarantee that they can not delete knowledge out of your iCloud account. Here’s how to change your Apple ID password.
8. Visit the Apple website. Enter your Apple ID and click on Next.
9. Now you’ll be able to select between e mail authentication or answering safety questions to change your password. Choose the methodology you like, and click on subsequent.
10. You’ll be requested to confirm your start date earlier than continuing. Fill in the particulars, and click on subsequent.
11. Answer the safety questions and click on Next, or comply with the link that’s despatched to your registered e mail addresses.
12. Now you’ll be able to enter your new Apple ID password, enter it once more and click on Reset Password.

You do not have to fear about knowledge theft as soon as you’ve got wiped your iPhone. Apple makes use of {hardware} encryption on each iPhone, which ensures that even when somebody tried to get well knowledge out of your iPhone, they would not give you the chance to accomplish that.

We hope you discovered this tutorial helpful. For extra such tutorials, go to our How to part.