iPhone 5 or earlier Old iPhone 3GS Want to Recycle, But is Totally Dead and Have Not Signed Out of iCloud

[Sossity]

I have an old iPhone 3GS, that I would like to recycle, but I am afraid some of my info is still on it. The battery is completely dead, and is bulging on the sides of the phone.

I never got a chance to sign out of it in iCloud. I have not used it in over a decade. I spoke to my carrier about it, and it is not connected to their network any more.

I tried looking up replacing the battery, but it looks difficult and complicated, and I do not have time for that. I aslo looked into to sending it in for a battery replacement, but it is expensive, and not sure of it is worth it to just be able to sign out of it.

 

[I7guy]

Can’t you logon into iCloud.com and remove it?

 

[Sossity]

Can’t you logon into iCloud.com and remove it?

I have tried that, it does not show up among all my devices, it has been a very long time since I have used it.

 

[eyoungren]

iCloud is the wrong place for that as devices are actually attached to your Apple ID, not iCloud.

You want to login here:

https://appleid.apple.com/sign-in

Find the device and then remove it.

Note, all this assumes it's still on your account. Devices with really old versions of iOS tend not to show up.

 

[Sossity]

iCloud is the wrong place for that as devices are actually attached to your Apple ID, not iCloud.

You want to login here:

https://appleid.apple.com/sign-in

Find the device and then remove it.

Note, all this assumes it's still on your account. Devices with really old versions of iOS tend not to show up.

Thanks, found it and logged in, it is not there, its been quite a while since it has been active.

 

[gpat]

Disassemble it, remove and shred the NAND chip yourself and then give away the rest of the phone for recycling.
That what I would do if I were in your shoes, but what do I know.

 

[floral]

Disassemble it, remove and shred the NAND chip yourself and then give away the rest of the phone for recycling.
That what I would do if I were in your shoes, but what do I know.

Do old iPhones allow booting without a battery? If that's the case, they could very carefully pop open the phone, trash the old battery and plug in the phone to sign it out there... but shredding the NAND chip to bits also does the job :P

 

[Sossity]

I just read that plugging in the phone with a battery like this could cause it to explode or catch fire.

I am a bit nervous now as to what to do with this phone. Apple will not take it for recycling because of the battery.

The disassembly looks complicated, and I do not have steady hands or good enough eyesight to work with all those tiny screws.

 

[xxFoxtail]

My iPhone 4 did the same thing. The battery was bulging. I know I still had my data on there. You have a couple options. What I did was I just brought it to the Apple Store. They couldn’t do anything to save the iPhone because it’s so old, so I signed away on it, they put it in a hazmat container and shipped it off for recycling. I haven’t heard of anyone or anything trying to get into my data from there.

Another option is taking it to Best Buy (maybe?) or another cell phone repair place. Leaving it with them to fix the battery.

The Apple Store is probably the safest bet, especially if you’re going to recycle it anyway - why pay money to get it fixed, just to give it away? I know with my 3GS, I’m pretty sure I never had a passcode or anything on it, so I’d be a little hesitant to leave it with a repair shop.

This reminds me that I should probably dig out my old devices and check the batteries on them. It probably wouldn’t hurt to wipe the data now while they’re still usable.

 

[eyoungren]

My iPhone 4 did the same thing. The battery was bulging.…

View attachment 2187730

Currently, I am on my fourth iPhone 5 replacement (it's not my primary phone). Two replacements were for bulging battery. My wife's old iPhone 5 was also replaced for bulging battery.

And I have an iPhone 4s that developed a bulging battery.

I have found that if left powered off for a long time (six months or more) the swelling tends to go down. With my 5 I make sure to pull it off charger often. I believe being left on charger is a big reason as to why battery swelling happens (at least with my phones).