Prepare Your Phone

How to prepare your iPhone for sale

Two things need to happen before you come in: Find My iPhone goes off, and the phone gets erased. Here's exactly how, screen by screen.

Selling a Samsung or Pixel instead? Android guide here.

Before anything: back up

Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Backup → Back Up Now (or plug into a computer and use Finder). Everything below erases the phone. Make sure your photos, contacts, and messages are safe first.

Step 1

Turn off Find My iPhone

This removes Activation Lock. It's the step that most often slows people down at the counter.

1 Open Settings and tap your name at the very top.
2 Tap "Find My".
3 Tap "Find My iPhone".
4 Flip the switch off, you'll be asked for your Apple ID password.

Toggle greyed out? That's Stolen Device Protection.

Go to Settings → Face ID & Passcode and enter your passcode.
Scroll to "Stolen Device Protection" and turn it off.
Apple starts a one-hour security delay before it fully disables. Grab a coffee.
Once the hour is up, go back to Find My and switch it off with your Apple ID password.

Step 2

Factory reset your iPhone

This wipes your personal data for good. Follow the highlighted rows, your screen will look exactly like these.

3:12

Settings

Airplane Mode

Wi-Fi iGeekGuest

Bluetooth On

Cellular

Personal Hotspot Off

Notifications

Sounds & Haptics

Focus

Screen Time

General

Control Center

Display & Brightness

Home Screen & App Library

Accessibility

Scroll down

1. Open Settings, scroll to General

It's in the third group of options, below Screen Time.

3:12

Settings General

iPhone Storage

Background App Refresh

Date & Time

Keyboard

Fonts

Language & Region

Dictionary

VPN & Device Management

Legal & Regulatory

Transfer or Reset iPhone

Shut Down

Scroll down

2. Scroll to the bottom of General

"Transfer or Reset iPhone" is the second-to-last row, just above Shut Down.

12:10

Back Transfer or Reset iPhone

Prepare for New iPhone

Make sure everything's ready to transfer to a new iPhone, even if you don't currently have enough iCloud storage to back up.

Get Started

Reset

Erase All Content and Settings

3. Tap "Erase All Content and Settings"

Enter your passcode and Apple ID password, then confirm. The phone restarts to the welcome screen when it's done. That's a complete reset.

Not sure your backup worked? Skip the reset and come in anyway, we'll help you do it safely at the counter.

Phone's ready. Let's talk money.

Find your iPhone on our sell page, then bring it and the charger to iGeek in Elk Grove. Offers depend on model, storage, carrier and condition; get a quote in store.

Sell my iPhone

Financed, blacklisted, or iCloud locked? Read this first.