I get it … some people are not that confident with tech related tasks. But what if I told you that it can be easy to factory reset an iPhone in a few easy to follow steps. You don’t need to be an expert – just take your time and follow this guide.
A factory reset is a process through which you can erase the contents of an iPhone. It’s useful to ensure your privacy when passing on your device or just to overcome technical issues, or you want to give it away.
Why Do You Need To Do A Factory Reset?
Most people want to perform a hard reset before selling or passing on their phone or tablet. You may be needing to try a reset because of some software issues …. when just turning it off and on again doesn’t work! Have we all been there lol ?
Another reason to do a factory reset on the iPhone, related to this website is to remove any spy software app you think has been installed. It is more common than you might think – people spying on others without their knowledge using popular spy apps such as mSpy and FlexiSPY.
I have a series of security related articles – How to Tell if Your Phone is Tapped By Spyware – How to Remove Spy Software and How to Protect Your Phone from Spyware. These should help you understand the risks and how to counter them.
The good news is that the easiest and best way to remove any spy software app is to perform a factory reset – so read this article! Lets carry on ….
There are various reasons why you might want to give your device away:
● You want to sell it
● You want to give it to someone else
● You want to trade in the device
If you’ll pass your iPhone down to another person who might be a complete stranger, a family member, or a friend, you have to make sure you erase all your data. This is a very vital step to do because if you don’t, you’ll be putting yourself at risk of:
● identity theft
● sensitive data like financial and medical information can be extracted or personal media like photos or videos can be exposed
● personal safety may be compromised
You Want To Overcome Device Problems
Most probably you faced issues with device performance such as:
● The device iOS isn’t behaving as expected
● You want to wipe all data from a specific iPhone
With today’s complex devices and technology quick advances, the device might have issues with data size, memory hiccups, and virus/malware threats. All of this might cause the device to be stuck in a process, apparent decline in response time, or show general low performance. A factory reset might do the trick and get it back on track again.
Expected Result
The factory reset procedure will fully wipe out your device and it’ll be like it was when you first pulled it out of the box. All your data and installed apps will be completely erased.
Things To Do Prior To The Factory Reset
Before doing a factory reset process you need to do certain actions and checks which will give you a smooth process.
Backup Your iPhone
It’s highly recommended to do a full backup of your iPhone. Backing up will allow you to restore the backup to any other iPhone device as long as it has the same iOS version or higher.
Bear in mind that if you manually delete your data, it won’t be available on the iCloud if you didn’t back it up first. Also, you’ll lose any saved data like game scores and preferred settings from installed applications on your device. The backup keeps such data available for future restore procedure.
You need to know that the backup procedure will backup all the data options under “Settings” that are set to “On” like mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, safari, notes, news, wallet, and messages.
For your music, if you backed it up on iTunes then you can download it after reset or re-sync with iTunes once you restored your backup.
To do a backup follow these steps:
1. Go to “Settings”, click it
2. Scroll down till you reach the “iCloud” menu item, click it Settings>iCloud
3. Scroll down till you reach the “Backup” menu item, click it Settings>iCloud>Backup
The screen will show you the last date you did a backup if any.If the backup date is from a while back you should do a new one.
4. Press the “Back Up Now” menu item Settings>iCloud>Backup>Back Up Now
Other Actions
In addition to the above, I strongly recommend that you:
● Remove the sim card from the device
● Plug the device into an electric outlet to avoid shutdown during the backup process
● Do the backup process using WiFi to avoid unnecessary mobile network charges
● Scroll down till you reach the “Find my iPhone” and turn the option off from Settings>iCloud. The device will ask you to enter your Apple ID/Restrictions password, enter it and proceed
● Unpair Apple watch with your device if you have one paired already to your iPhone
● Go to Apple Pay and remove the device that you’re erasing and giving away
● You need to sign out of iCloud, iTunes, and App store
The Factory Reset Process
Once you’ve done all of the previously mentioned steps, you can now start the factory reset process. A factory reset can be done through the iPhone device directly or using iTunes from a PC or a notebook.
How To Factory Reset Through The iPhone Device:
Remember to do the previously mentioned actions prior to the actual factory reset process.
1. Go to Settings>General
2. Scroll all the way to the bottom and press the Reset menu item Settings>General>Reset
You can choose among different options, but this guide is to show how to wipe out everything on your iPhone.
3. Click the “Erase All Content and Settings” menu item Settings>General>Reset>Erase All Content and Settings
4. The system will ask you to enter your passcode if you’ve set one, enter it and proceed
5. The system will alert you “This will delete all media and data and reset all settings”, go ahead and press the “Erase iPhone” button, another alert will appear “Are you sure you want to continue? All media, data, and settings will be erased. This can’t be undone.”, go ahead and press the “Erase iPhone” button.
Once you do this the Apple logo and a progress bar will appear on the screen and the system will erase everything and reset the device to factory settings.
Once the reset is finished, the iPhone will show the same screen you see on getting a brand new iPhone, the “Welcome” screen, you need to swipe to the right to choose the device language and proceed accordingly if you want.
How To Factory Reset an iPhone Through iTunes:
Remember to do the previously mentioned actions prior to the actual factory reset process.
1. Plug your iPhone to the PC/Notebook via the USB cord
2. Open the iTunes application on the PC/Notebook
3. On the right upper side of the iTunes application, you need to press the “iPhone” button. The screen will show your iPhone details along with the iOS version.
4. Now you can press the “Restore iPhone” button.
5. The application will ask you “Do you want to back up the settings for the iPhone “1/0″ before restoring the software?” If you’ve done the back up already press the “Don’t Back Up” button if not, press the “Back Up” button.
The system will update the device with the latest iOS and erase all your data, in the same manner, explained earlier.
After the factory reset procedure is done you can shut down your iPhone and you’ll be able to sell it or give it away with full confidence that your data, media, and fingerprint are all erased.
Remember if you are not too confident – just take your time through each step. It really is easy!
