I love Apple. I love how all my devices seamlessly integrate and speak to one another. I love how they seem to just “get me” and operate together. However, if you’ve ever had to sell an iPhone you know that is can be a bit of a mission.
There’s a few things you need to do before you sell your iPhone and to help I’ve put together a quick guide (thanks PopSugar and Apple for helping me cherry pick the important stuff).
Step 1: Make sure you unpair all your linked stuff.
Apple Watches, fitbits etc. Just unpair all of them.
Step 2: Remove your photos.
This is pretty straight forward, don’t just delete them on the phone though. Rather follow these steps.
Connect your phone to your computer > Open Image Capture or iPhoto > Select all photos > Import all
Top tip – in iPhoto choose “delete photos from iPhone
Top tip – in Image Capture choose delete items after download
Step 3: Turn some stuff off
Turn off iMessage by going to Settings > Messages > iMessage > Off
Turn off Facetime by going to Settings > Facetime > off
Step 4: sign out of all the things
You need to sign out of iCloud and the iTunes app. Here’s how to do that:
Settings > [Your device name] > scroll down and tape sign out > enter your Apple ID > Sign out
Step 5: Factory reset your phone
Settings > General > Reset > Erase all content and settings
Step 6: Let your phone provider (MTN, Telkom, Vodacom, Cell C etc) know that they need to transfer the service and you’re selling the phone.
Step 7: Unregister your device
Head over to supportprofile.apple.com and unregister your device
Top tip – You can do all of this and erase your device remotely if you registered Find My iPhone. Just sign in to icloud.com/#find > click all devices > choose the phone to erase
You’re now ready to hand your phone over to your new owner. If you want to sell your phone check out Gumtree as a good place to start. I’m going to be working with them for some rad gaming content soon so watch my social channels for that 😉
