Purchased Used iPhone - How to Best Fully Wipe It Clean

[Gmas]

Found a great deal on an 8 Plus from someone who was upgrading to the X. It looks as though the person wiped it clean themselves ( I also asked and they confirmed). For peace of mind though, I'd like to wipe it clean myself and set it up as though it was fresh out of the box.

What is the best way to do this? Is going through through the Settings Menu > General > Reset the best way? Is it a more complete and thorough wipe if I go through iTunes and reinstall iOS again? When I had issues with my old 6, I took it into the Apple Store and they reset it this way...through iTunes.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated! Excited to get using it

 

[deany]

Just some bacterial wipes will clean your iPhone.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Was the phone reset to original activation when you got it? If so, you should be fine, just pop in your sim and start the initial setup process.

 

[jr866gooner]

You could enter recovery and plug into iTunes. This will cleanly download the os,wipe the device and then install iOS pure.

 

[ayetta]

Basically, you want to do a restore through itunes and put your iphone in what's known as, "Recovery Mode". This is the most secure and complete process when it comes to wiping a phone clean (i.e. vs. erasing it in settings)

1. Open itunes
2. Connect your new phone intended for reset
3. Might ask you to pair or trust it. I just usually pressed cancel after doing this upcoming step...
4. To boot your phone into recovery, and initiate the restore process, hold the power + volume down button to force reset your iphone (must be plugged in and have itunes open at the same time)
5. Keep holding both, and don't let go until you reach recovery mode (even during the apple logo at boot...just keep holding...you'll reach recovery, and it's very noticeable so I won't elaborate more)
6.itunes asks you to check for updates and restore once it detects iphone in recovery mode. Click that option (restore option)
7. Let itunes download the iphone update package (usually 1-2 gigs)
8. It's automatic from there.
9. Once it's done, You'll have the option to set it up through itunes. I usually just disconnected at this point, and then set it up manually. And then selected the option to "set up as new" (or restore from a saved icloud backup)

Hope that helps. Search Apple Support for a page discussing "restore, erase, or reset iphone"...they list the steps. Good luck.