iPhone 12 mini Selling iPhone — is this really necessary?

[TreacleTart]

I have an iPhone 12 Mini that I’m looking to sell in favour of a new iPhone 14 Pro Max. This phone initially belonged to my husband (he passed it on to me less than 2 weeks ago after he too, got an upgrade).

Found a local buyer (small town in the middle of nowhere) willing to pay £450. I’m meeting her tomorrow evening. I used the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ option to set it back to its factory state but my husband says that’s not enough? He thinks that we’d have to restore it using iTunes (don’t have a Mac or a computer here) so the buyer won’t be able to access our data/account and that we should cancel the sale with the buyer. He says that if we don’t go the iTunes route our Apple account will be link to theirs. Is this really necessary? We could really use the money and his plan is for us to restore it on iTunes when our family comes over for Christmas (some of them have macs). Thanks for the help!

 

[russell_314]

I have an iPhone 12 Mini that I’m looking to sell in favour of a new iPhone 14 Pro Max. This phone initially belonged to my husband (he passed it on to me less than 2 weeks ago after he too, got an upgrade).

Found a local buyer (small town in the middle of nowhere) willing to pay £450. I’m meeting her tomorrow evening. I used the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ option to set it back to its factory state but my husband says that’s not enough? He thinks that we’d have to restore it using iTunes (don’t have a Mac or a computer here) so the buyer won’t be able to access our data/account and that we should cancel the sale with the buyer. He says that if we don’t go the iTunes route our Apple account will be link to theirs. Is this really necessary? We could really use the money and his plan is for us to restore it on iTunes when our family comes over for Christmas (some of them have macs). Thanks for the help!

You don’t need to use iTunes. Erase all content and settings does exactly what it says it does. Just make sure to remove activation lock. Not because it’ll allow someone into your account but they won’t be able to use it. Also use precautions when meeting strangers like do it in a public place (not a parking lot) and ask for cash.

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Use these steps to transfer information to your new device and, if applicable, remove your personal information from your old device.

support.apple.com

 

[RRC]

Erase all content and settings, remove any Find My link to your Apple ID and you're all set.

The days of needing to restore/reset through iTunes are long gone, 100% not required anymore. They won't be able to access anything as there won't be anything on the phone to access.

 

[TreacleTart]

Thanks for the replies! So just to be absolute sure, I’ve done the ‘Erase all Content and Settings’ thing, so the phone’s pretty much as good as new and the new owner will not have her account linked to ours in any way, right? In the sense too that there’s no ‘iPhone history’ or something in some setting or hidden file where they’ll be able to get our apple account details.

Sorry I know it all sounds a touch silly but we’re just a bit over-cautious after a nasty incident where we had our accounts stolen (after a phone sale but that might’ve been just a coincidence) and ended up losing all our data and photos!

 

[Motionblurrr]

Thanks for the replies! So just to be absolute sure, I’ve done the ‘Erase all Content and Settings’ thing, so the phone’s pretty much as good as new and the new owner will not have her account linked to ours in any way, right? In the sense too that there’s no ‘iPhone history’ or something in some setting or hidden file where they’ll be able to get our apple account details.

Sorry I know it all sounds a touch silly but we’re just a bit over-cautious after a nasty incident where we had our accounts stolen (after a phone sale but that might’ve been just a coincidence) and ended up losing all our data and photos!

Just make sure you're logged out of your iCloud and you're good to go.

 

[NoBoMac]

If want to be extra careful, visit appleid.apple.com > Devices, or if you have another Apple device, Settings > iCloud (aka your name). Verify the device is no longer tied to your account: if it still is, can remove from the account in either location.

 

[msackey]

You have to make sure that in your AppleID or whatever other AppleID was/is associated with that phone, that those AppleIDs are not still linked to the phone. Just erasing content won't work for that purpose, as far as I understand.

 

[TreacleTart]

Tapped through the setup process WITHOUT keying in any information and the box where my name should’ve been on the top says ‘Sign in to your iPhone’ so hopefully I’ve done it right and signed out this time. Went to appleid.apple.com too and the 12 mini doesn’t show up either so hopefully that’s right too.

Just erased it all again so it’d be at the ‘hello’ screen once more.

Shall proceed with the sale then. Thank you all so much for all the help!

 

[compwiz1202]

Tapped through the setup process WITHOUT keying in any information and the box where my name should’ve been on the top says ‘Sign in to your iPhone’ so hopefully I’ve done it right and signed out this time. Went to appleid.apple.com too and the 12 mini doesn’t show up either so hopefully that’s right too.

Just erased it all again so it’d be at the ‘hello’ screen once more.

Shall proceed with the sale then. Thank you all so much for all the help!

Yea that's all good now.