How To Erase Old Phone | Wipe Every Trace Before You Sell

Erasing an old phone safely requires backing up data, removing the SIM and SD cards, signing out of accounts, and running a factory reset to permanently wipe all personal information.

Selling or trading in an old phone means handing over a device packed with years of personal data—messages, photos, saved passwords, and banking details. Here is how to erase old phone data the right way, in the order that actually protects you: back up what you want to keep, remove the SIM and SD cards, sign out of every account, and then run the factory reset. Skip any one of those steps and sensitive information could survive on the device, even after the reset.

Why A Simple Delete Is Not Enough

Dragging files to a trash folder or hitting “Delete” on photos only marks that space as available for new data. The actual information remains on the storage chip until overwritten, and recovery software can pull it back with little effort. A factory reset wipes the encryption key or overwrites the entire user-data partition, making the old files unrecoverable by ordinary means. But the reset only erases what is on the phone at that moment—it does not remove the SIM card, SD card, or cloud-account links left active beforehand. That is why the pre-reset steps matter as much as the reset itself.

What Should You Do Before Erasing The Phone?

The Federal Trade Commission recommends four preparation steps that apply to any phone, whether iPhone or Android. Completing them in this order ensures your data stays safe and your next phone setup goes smoothly.

Back up your data. If there is anything you want to keep—contacts, photos, messages, app data—back it up first. iPhone users can back up to iCloud or a computer (Finder on Mac, Apple Devices app on Windows). Android users can back up to Google Drive or a computer. This is the one chance to save what matters before the wipe.

Remove the SIM card and SD card. The SIM card can store contacts and text messages, and an SD card holds photos, documents, and app data. Pop both out and keep the SIM if you plan to reuse it with your next phone. If you will not reuse the SIM, destroy it. The same goes for the SD card—remove it before the reset so the wipe does not touch it, then decide whether to keep or destroy it separately.

Sign out of accounts. On an iPhone, go to Settings > Your Name and tap Sign Out. This removes your iCloud account, Find My iPhone activation lock, and Apple Pay data from the device. On Android, open Settings > Accounts and remove your Google Account. Signing out first prevents the phone from remaining linked to your accounts after the reset, which also disables factory-reset protection (FRP) on Android and Activation Lock on iPhone.

Deregister iMessage if switching to a non-Apple phone. Apple recommends turning off iMessage before erasing an iPhone you plan to sell or trade in, especially if your next phone will be an Android or another non-Apple device. Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage. This prevents your phone number from staying tied to Apple’s messaging system, which can cause missed texts after the switch. If you paired an Apple Watch, unpair it in the Watch app so the backup and account disconnection happen cleanly.

How To Erase An iPhone

Apple provides two official ways to erase an iPhone: directly on the device or through a computer. The on-device method covers most situations and is the path Apple documents for trade-ins and sales.

Erase from device settings:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
4. Tap Erase All Content and Settings.
5. Enter the device passcode or Apple Account password if prompted.
6. Tap Continue to confirm and start the erase.

The phone restarts and runs through the full wipe. When it finishes, you see the “Hello” setup screen—the same state it had when new. If you signed out of iCloud beforehand, the previous owner cannot be locked out or tracked.

Erase using a computer: Connect the iPhone to a computer via USB or USB-C. On a Mac, open Finder. On a Windows PC, open the Apple Devices app. Select the iPhone in the sidebar, then choose Restore iPhone. This reinstalls the operating system and wipes all user data in one pass. Apple warns that the computer method is best when the device cannot complete the on-device erase, such as when the screen is damaged or the phone is unresponsive.