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Looking to sell my old iPhone, is a factory reset all I really need to do?

T

Thehawkwholived

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 7, 2011
4
0
Never sold a phone before and people say I’m wasting my money by just keeping them in a draw (I still have my original iPhone from 2008).

Long story short, I’m a CPA so I have texts, photos, documents, etc.. that shouldn’t be seen by anyone but me on my phone. How do I make sure this information can NEVER be seen by anyone else who I sell it to? Is it really as simple as just clicking erase all content and settings and handing it over? I keep reading that there are programs out there that can break iPhone encryption. The last thing I want is to get into trouble because some random person saw a contract that was confidential and this causes me more of a headache than the couple hundred bucks I’ll get for the phone lol. I can’t tell you how many times my peers have gotten into legal trouble (more threats than action) over running their mouth about our athlete clients. I don’t need that hassle.
 
Last edited:
Thehawkwholived said:
Never sold a phone before and people say I’m wasting my money by just keeping them in a draw (I still have my original iPhone from 2008).

Long story short, I’m a CPA so I have texts, photos, documents, etc.. that shouldn’t be seen by anyone but me on my phone. How do I make sure this information can NEVER be seen by anyone else who I sell it to? Is it really as simple as just clicking erase all content and settings and handing it over? I keep reading that there are programs out there that can break iPhone encryption. The last thing I want is to get into trouble because some random person saw a contract that was confidential and this causes me more of a headache than the couple hundred bucks I’ll get for the phone lol. I can’t tell you how many times my peers have gotten into legal trouble (more threats than action) over running their mouth about our athlete clients. I don’t need that hassle.
Click to expand...
You might find this support article helpful for all the steps that should be done:

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Use these steps to transfer information to your new device and, if applicable, remove your personal information from your old device.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
Yes, you're pretty much set if you follow tips from the link @WildSky provided. When erasing the iphone, choose to "Erase All Content and Settings"and wait for it to finish, then don't finish the set up after that (don't sign in with icloud, etc). Basically, you can turn off the phone when you see phone saying "Hi" in many languages after reset
 
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Went to the local Apple store the other day with my father who had a broken iPhone 6s (battery expanded, still working) He bought a new SE2 and left his old 6s for recycling and the apple lady not only did a factory reset of his old phone but ran some separate eraser software afterwards to positively make all data left unreadable.
 
here's what I don't understand – if I activate my new phone but want to keep my old phone still active just in case for say a week how can you have two phones active on the same line? I'm with AT&T I'm assuming the old phone will only work on Wi-Fi once the new phone is active?
 
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