It’s that time of the year when the fresh batch of Apples are ready to hit store shelves. Even if your decision over whether to ditch your existing phone for a new iPhone is up in the Air, you should know how to securely erase your iPhone because when you do get rid of it, you don’t want its new owner to have even a trace of your digital life at their fingertips.
If you sell off your phone without wiping it first, don’t count on that guy you sold it to on eBay to do the right thing and erase it when he gets it. Before you sell your iPhone or trade it in, make sure you transfer your existing data and settings to your new phone, and then erase everything off the old one.
why wiping your old phone important
Your digital life leaves all sorts of crumbs of data on your devices. Old files, log-in credentials for apps’ and websites’ accounts, message history, location data, credit cards. There’s a lot there on your iPhone that would be a goldmine to an opportunistic thief if one happens to get their hands on your unwiped phone.
Transferring your mobile life from an old iPhone to a new iPhone is particularly easy. Just follow the set-up instructions on your new device before you wipe your old phone. During the process, your new iPhone will suck up all your existing iOS settings, photos, videos, contacts, apps, and other data like a big sponge.
Only after the transfer and setup is complete should you go into your old phone’s settings menu, navigate to the General tab, then click Transfer to Reset iPhone. You’ll want to perform a factory reset to scrub all practical traces of your data off your soon-to-depart iPhone.
Make sure you’ve already set up your new iPhone and transferred (or backed up) your data from your old phone, because once you click factory reset, you can’t undo it.
If you’re taking your existing iPhone into an Apple Store to trade it, you have the option to leave everything intact on your current phone and let the Apple salesperson swap over all your settings and data to the new one in the store.
They’ll then erase your old phone’s data by performing the factory reset in front of you. True sticklers for digital privacy may want to perform this at home and on their own terms, because as Casper the Friendly Ghost pointed out, seeing is believing.
I’ve used the in-store transfer option, though, and it’s worked out fine for me. I review digital security and privacy products for a living, and so as long as the in-store rep verifies in front of you that the device has been factory reset, you’re good to go.
And after you’ve got your new iPhone in hand and know your old one’s safely had its mind wiped, just like Arnold in Total Recall, make sure you swathe it in a nice, new case to keep its outsides as pristine as its (digital) insides.
The post Apple Harvest: How to Wipe Your iPhone Before You Sell or Trade It In appeared first on VICE.
