How to safely erase data off your iPhone before selling

How to turn off ‘Find My iPhone & Anti-theft Activation Lock’ from the phone you’re selling!

If you’re thinking of selling or giving away a stinky old iPhone, you need to understand how to turn off the ‘Find My iPhone’ function. ESPECIALLY if the device has been upgraded to iOS 7, whereby it will also be loaded with Apple’s Anti-theft Activation lock.

The Anti-theft Activation Lock introduced with iOS 7 is however super awesome for preventing theft by rendering the phone basically useless and worth roughly one eighth of its proper resale price. However, it also does this if you forget to turn it off before you sell it or give it away.

For instance, here at iPhone Antidote, we cannot give you the total quoted amount for your iPhone unless the Anti-theft Activation lock is turned off.

So, you guys need to know how to turn it off! And luckily for everyone involved, whilst not being the funnest 3 minutes you ever spend (we hope) it IS super easy! High Five!

There is a couple of different methods depending on the condition and location of your iPhone. If your iPhone works and is with you, you should-

Remove your iPhone from Find My iPhone by turning  it off on the iPhone.

Simple! On your iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to turn off ‘Find My device.’ It will ask for your Apple ID password ( The one you use in the App Store), then BAM, both Find my iPhone and the Anti-theft activation lock is turned off.

YAY!

If your iPhone is not with you, already sold or given away OR broken or water damaged so that it won’t turn on, it’s also, really, really easy. HIGH FIVE!

If you can’t use your iPhone because it’s too damaged, or you’ve already sold it or given it away, you can remotely remove it from Find My iPhone and remotely remove the Anti-theft Activation Lock.

Your iPhone must be powered off. Easy to do if it’s broken! Also easy enough to do if you’ve sold it to a company such as ourselves or you can get in contact with the friend that you gave it to.

Then:

Sign in to icloud.com/#find with your Apple ID (the one you use with iCloud & the App Store).

Click ‘All Devices’ at the top of the page. Wait for the website to locate your iPhone, then select it from the drop down menu. It should appear as offline and grey.

A menu of options will appear on the right hand side of the screen. IGNORE THESE ( Unless you want to remotely erase your iPhone)

Click back on the ‘All Devices’ button at the top of the page. There should now be an X next to your iPhone.  Click it. Click it good.

Click “remove” on the next screen to confirm.

Aaaaaand you’re done! Now someone else can now activate the device, making it worth a whole lotta more clams from us/high fives from the friend you gave it to!

If you guys have any problems removing the anti theft activation lock from your iPhone – please contact us and let us know! We’d LOVE to help you out!

How to Back up your old stinky iPhone and/or transfer data to shiny new iPhone!

If you’re selling or giving away your iPhone, you’ll be wanting to back up all that lovely data you’ve accrued on the device beforehand. It’s a pretty simple procedure, but a very important step.

This is the Apple support page on how to back up your data using iTunes and iCloud. And here is the Apple support page on transferring your data from one device to another, ( i.e, stinky->shiny).

It’s a very comprehensive and easy to follow guide direct from the sauce! But, as with everything technology- there is always the potential for problems, so if you stumble upon something that doesn’t make sense, or your backup JUST ISNT GODDAMN WORKING, let us know! We’d love to try and help!