I just bought a new 3G Apple iPhone and now want to give my old iPhone to my brother-in-law. He’s even ready to pay for it. Problem is, I want to wipe it clean so he gets a pristine phone. How do I do that?
When I bought my fancy new 16GB Apple iPhone 3G phone I too had an older iPhone (an ancient, tiny 4GB original first wave iPhone) that I wanted to jettison, so I can completely understand your plight. Mine was also going to a friend, but I still really wanted to wipe it clean rather than have him poking through my pictures and address book.
Further, having my iPhone applications on the phone would just cause heartache anyway because he wouldn’t be authorized to use them so almost 30% of what was on the iPhone would be dead and just wasting space. Not so good.
Here’s how my phone looked when I started this process:
You can see custom apps, custom bookmarks, a restructured home screen (notice that I have Twinkle on the bottom bar rather than Safari) and 57 messages in my Mail inbox that I haven’t read as of yet.
To wipe everything, I went to Settings:
If you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see what we want: Reset:
Once you’re into the Reset area you’ll see that there are rather a lot of choices:
To start, I chose “Reset All Settings”, which prompted me for a security code:
Luckily I knew it (if you don’t have parent restrictions set up I don’t think you’ll be prompted) so proceed to the warning prompt:
With a small, quiet prayer to the patron saint of gizmos, I pressed “Reset All Settings” and waited.
After a few seconds I was taken back to the home screen, but it was just a bit different:
So that reset the icon locations, etc, but notice that it didn’t actually delete my inbox, nor, after some investigation, did it clear my address book, SMS text message history, etc.
To clear out my email settings, I went to Mail, Contacts, Calendars on the Settings menu:
Again, scroll to the very bottom and you’ll see the “Delete Account” option:
I tapped on that button and, no surprise, got a confirmation window:
Yeah, I really did want to delete all of this personalization, so I again tapped “Delete Account”.
Next time I got to the home screen there was no mail:
Further, the contacts list was wiped and the calendar was erased too. But those pesky apps were still hanging around, which I didn’t want either.
I could have gone into the Safari settings and also erased that data selectively, as shown here:
But in fact, it was time to go to the big guns, to do what I should have done in the beginning, skipping all the little sub-reset functions that had wasted my time. Before when I went to Settings –> General –> Reset I should have picked “Erase All Content and Settings” rather than “Reset All Settings”.
This time that’s what I’ll do:
Another short prayer to the patron saint of gadgets and I tapped on “Erase iPhone”.
This time it took quite a bit longer, but when it was done, the phone was completely clean, like pristine out-of-the-box clean:
In fact, when I plugged it into my Mac and checked with iTunes it showed up as a brand new phone too:
And that, as they say, was that.
Hello,
Grandmother here, I have an iPhone 6 and I want to send it back,I can’t get it cleared out, they are going to charge me 200.00! And if that’s not bad enough I can’t remember my Apple ID. Please help me! My new phone has been set up and I am afraid that if I clear the old one out that will clean the new one out. I am too old for this!!
Thanks,
Diane
Thanks. Shame I didn’t scroll to the bottom of the post first. Went through all the stages, then came to ‘erase I phone’. Could have saved myself some time!!
thanks for easy to follow instructions
my iPhone 3 gs was recently stolen on a job site out of the front seat
of my pickup while i was working
3 weeks later i got it back when i caught a homeless guy trying to charge it
on an outside plug at the same building
i have since purchased a new iPhone 4,but want to keep this one as a spare
or for a friend just in case,but do not want them to know all my personal stuff
Thanks Dave so easy to follow your insructions. Managed it first time.
Thanks Dave
Was so easy to do thanks for the help!
That was very helpful, thank you.
Great help! Thank you Dave. I wiped out my phone a minute ago after I found your article. And just want to make sure it’s 100% formating of my phone.
hi dave
u might be the right person to ask for help i have a iphone that was last synced in april but i sold that computer i have a new computer now.my problem is i have a iphone 3gs i usually delete my sms often but this time i need some sms back i search i phone its there i cannot read all of them completely as they limit me i need some of the messages urgently and i dont know what to do how can i restore them or copy them on my computer so i can save them or print them ,someone told me if i sync my phone i will loose all the sms on iphone memory forever
plase help
jay
Hi! Could you tell me what should I do if I dont have delete account option available? I lost synch in my mailbox want to delete account and add again ( as server is shows wrongly).
Hi,
I am using iphone 3G.Two days back i given reset option( Erase all contents and settings). from 2 days it is still not responding.
Even i try to switched off but not working i connected to laptop but it is not recognized by laptop(itunes are there in laptop).
Please suggest me how can i proceed now.
i have clicked on ‘reset all settings’ in my iPhone 3 but,it has take more than 20hrs and still has not been done yet.am worried…
You were very helpful i followed your instructions and it worked however my phone number still shows up and i am currently using that number with my new i-phone so when i sell my old one I do not want the person who buys it to know my number or to try and use it when i still am. Any way to erase that?
Saved my life!! Was selling phone and sure didnt want any of my personal stuff hanging around!!
THANKS
Hi,
I did the ‘Erase all content and settings’ which seems to have worked, but now there is a grey background with ‘iPhone’ and the phone has ‘No Service’.
Please help!!
nice cleaning data concepts …
thanks for the information
Greetings,
Having the hours of apple logo and circle of doom problem. Wondering how long it takes. Just shows the apple with the little loading circle then goes black like rebooting, back to the apple and over and over, for about 3 hours now. Is there something I should do? Will it ever end? Thanks for your input and advise.
Best, Steven
Thanks for the help followed the instructions and took everything off just like desired. Ready to sell!
I went in and erased all content and settings. Was that a mistake? Now everything is wiped. Including the original icons and apps. ?
Thanks
Questions, once the data is erased and one only sees the usb plug pointing to the itunes, it is new owner ready right? These phones seem to be in demand and I think it is because essentially, one still has a little laptop with them right? One can go to any wi place like book stores, McDonalds, Starbucks etc, and actually connect to wi and the internet. Nice job Apple!
Hi,
I’ve done this but in iTunes, I get the screen that you have but it still shows the phone number. Any way to get rid of that?
hi dear, i need help
i’ve done the erase iphone 4 this morning at arnd 8am
its already 3pm and am still having the apple logo n the loading circle at times
i’ve seen many people got this problem from earlier post
i need help asap
what should i do??? plz help me
thks in advance
Thank you for this – am donating my ancient original gen 1 iPhone and had no idea how to clear it!! 🙂
Thank you so much for the easy directions. Used this to wipe and prep for sale of phone.