How to Reset an iPhone Before Selling It, Step by Step

Knowing how to reset iPhone before selling sounds like a one-tap job, but the order of steps decides whether the buyer gets a clean phone or a locked one. Upgrade season brings a wave of sellers, and many of the "iCloud locked" complaints that follow are not scams. They are honest sellers who erased their phone the wrong way and left their account attached.

This is a step-by-step technical guide. Follow it in order, and do not skip ahead to the erase button. If you also want help with pricing, listing and meeting buyers, our separate guide to selling a used iPhone in Lahore covers that side.

Start with a full backup, and confirm it finished.

• iCloud: go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and tap Back Up Now. Wait for the "last successful backup" time to update. Your iCloud storage needs to be large enough.
• Computer: connect to a Mac and use Finder, or a Windows PC with the Apple Devices app. Tick the option to encrypt the backup if you want saved passwords and Health data included, and write that password down.

WhatsApp keeps its own chat backup, so run it separately from WhatsApp's settings. Banking apps and authenticator apps often need to be moved or set up again, and some require the old phone during the process. Do these while the old phone still works normally.

If your new iPhone is already in hand, Quick Start or the transfer options in our data transfer guide can move everything directly. Use the new phone for a day before wiping the old one.

An Apple Watch is paired to one iPhone. If you erase the iPhone first, the Watch is left in an awkward state and still carries your Activation Lock.

1. Keep the Watch and iPhone close together.
2. Open the Watch app on the iPhone, tap All Watches, tap the info button next to your Watch and choose Unpair Apple Watch.
3. The iPhone saves a backup of the Watch before unpairing, which you can restore onto your new iPhone.

AirPods work differently. They are tied to your Apple Account rather than to one phone, so if you are keeping them, you do not need to do anything special. They will appear on your new iPhone once you sign in. If you are selling the AirPods along with the phone, remove them from Find My in your account so the buyer can set them up as their own.

This is the step that removes Activation Lock. Go to Settings > [your name], scroll down and tap Sign Out. Enter your Apple Account password when asked. This turns off Find My iPhone for that device and detaches it from your account.

If you use Stolen Device Protection, the phone may ask for Face ID and, when you are away from familiar locations such as home or work, add a security delay before letting you change account settings. Do this step at home, a day or two before you plan to sell, so the delay never leaves you stuck in front of a buyer. Our Stolen Device Protection guide explains how the delay works.

Before moving on, it helps to check Settings > [your name] is gone and the top of Settings now shows a prompt to sign in.

If you use a physical SIM, simply eject it and keep it. If you use an eSIM, think before erasing. When you choose to erase iPhone, iOS asks whether to keep or delete the eSIM. If you have already moved your number to the new phone, deleting is fine. If you have not, contact your network first and ask how they transfer an eSIM. Losing your number during a sale is a stressful way to spend an evening, especially if it receives your bank OTPs.

Now erase. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. Follow the prompts and enter your passcode.

Two common mistakes to avoid:

• Reset All Settings is not an erase. It only resets preferences such as Wi-Fi and wallpaper. Your data stays on the phone.
• Restoring from a computer does not remove Activation Lock. If you wipe the phone using recovery mode in Finder or iTunes while still signed in, the buyer will reach a screen asking for your Apple Account. Sign out first, as in Step 3.

When the erase finishes, the phone should restart to the "Hello" screen. That is the state a buyer expects.

On another device, or at Apple's account website, open your devices list and make sure the old iPhone no longer appears. If it is still listed, remove it. Also look in Find My on another Apple device to make sure it is not showing there.

If you are selling a phone that is broken and will not turn on, you can still remove it remotely. Open Find Devices at iCloud.com, select the phone, choose Erase This Device, and then remove it from your account once the erase is done.

A careful buyer will want proof that the phone is clean. Set it up to the point where it connects to Wi-Fi and moves past the Activation Lock screen, then hand it back for them to finish setup with their own account. Buyers often follow a checklist like the one in our iCloud lock check guide, so expect them to look for these signs.

Keep a short note with the date, model and IMEI of the phone you sold. If anything goes wrong later, it shows exactly which device left your hands and when.

You should remove a physical SIM before handing over the phone so your number stays with you. For eSIM, decide whether to keep or delete it when the erase screen asks, after confirming your number is active on your new phone.

Reset it through Apple's official account recovery before you sell. Do not hand over a phone that is still signed in and hope the buyer can deal with it, because they cannot remove your lock.

A shop can tap the erase button, but only you can sign out of your Apple Account. Do Step 3 yourself, then let anyone else handle the rest if you prefer.

Yes, Erase All Content and Settings removes your data from the phone. Just make sure your backup is complete first, since you cannot recover data from the phone afterwards.

Once the old phone is wiped, have a look at the MacVault iPhone page or the full product list and message us on WhatsApp with the model you want next. We will confirm today's price and send current photos of the exact unit.