iPhone 6(S)/Plus Best way to safely dispose of dead iPhone 6 with no passcode?

[psac]

We had an old iPhone 6 that we had given to my father in law to use, since the simplicity was good for his age. The phone had no passcode, and he was logged into iCloud so that we could track the phone through family tracking. However, the phone totally died and won't charge to come back on to clear out the phone information. We moved the sim to an old iPhone 8, so that'll be his phone until he kills that one, too. But in the meantime, what is the best way to dispose of the phone? If I bring it to the Apple Store to recycle, is there any harm to any personal information that may be on the phone? Will they wipe the phone before shipping it off to wherever it ends up? Or should I just use a hammer and go crazy on the thing? Thanks!

 

[Splitrail]

HAMMER! 🤣

 

[psac]

HAMMER! 🤣

That's what my wife keeps saying! 🤣

 

[BenGoren]

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

… but, were it my phone … I’d just hand it over to them. They shred the things as part of a process to recover all sorts of stuff (like gold, iron, more).

How Does Apple's Recycling Process Work?

Curious how Apple handles the recycling process? Here we shed some light on it.

www.makeuseof.com

(And … if you think anybody, let alone anybody at Apple, is going to bother doing hardware-level hacking to revive a dead decade-old-phone, just to search through somebody’s emails or photos … they’ve got much better things to do with their time, even if they’re criminally-minded.)

b&

 

[JPack]

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

… but, were it my phone … I’d just hand it over to them. They shred the things as part of a process to recover all sorts of stuff (like gold, iron, more).

How Does Apple's Recycling Process Work?

Curious how Apple handles the recycling process? Here we shed some light on it.

www.makeuseof.com

(And … if you think anybody, let alone anybody at Apple, is going to bother doing hardware-level hacking to revive a dead decade-old-phone, just to search through somebody’s emails or photos … they’ve got much better things to do with their time, even if they’re criminally-minded.)

b&

In reality, Apple won't use a robot to disassemble anything. It's for PR only because it's far too slow. Those robots can only disassemble 200 iPhones per hour. Apple manufactures 500k new iPhones per day.

Apple says it never ‘recycles’ old devices if they can still be used. Its lawsuit against a Canadian recycler suggests otherwise.

In a little-noticed lawsuit, Apple shed new light on its recycling practices, raising questions about why devices that were sent in for destruction were reused by consumers against Apple's wishes.

www.washingtonpost.com

To be safe, shred it yourself.

 

[Al Rukh]

Blend your iPhone!

 

[Sorinut]

I disposed of a bunch of spinning-platter hard drives a year ago; took them to my workshop and blew holes through them with an oxy-acetylene cutting torch.

If you have access to one, that would definitely end it's life.

 

[geta]

Throw it in the microwave and wait until smoke comes out…

 

[Reverend Benny]

Make sure you log on to your father in-laws icloud account and set the phone to "lost mode" and that it is locked.
That way you at least protect your icloud account since the device can be used as a "key" to access it.

I would look into shredding the devices, any way will do.
Or you could dismantle things yourself just for a laugh and find out what an iphone looks like in the inside. Just be carefull with the battery. A hammer or drill might lead to an unpleasant experience.

 

[one more]

No need to hammer anything. 😋 As the previous poster (#9) suggested, just mark the iPhone as lost via iCloud and then you can safely recycle it with Apple or any third party.

 

[psac]

Make sure you log on to your father in-laws icloud account and set the phone to "lost mode" and that it is locked.
That way you at least protect your icloud account since the device can be used as a "key" to access it.

I would look into shredding the devices, any way will do.
Or you could dismantle things yourself just for a laugh and find out what an iphone looks like in the inside. Just be carefull with the battery. A hammer or drill might lead to an unpleasant experience.

No need to hammer anything. 😋 As the previous poster (#9) suggested, just mark the iPhone as lost via iCloud and then you can safely recycle it with Apple or any third party.

Wow thanks, I didn't know lost mode was a thing. Yeah, for sure we have access to the account, he knows nothing about any passwords or anything on his own. Will do that before I decide which one of these destructive paths to take.