Before You Sell
Getting your iPhone ready to sell
Activation Lock keeps an iPhone tied to your Apple Account, so signing out of Find My comes first. Erasing the phone comes second. Here is each screen you will pass through.
Got a Pixel or a Galaxy instead? Use the Android guide.
Copy your data off first
Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Backup → Back Up Now, or connect the phone to a computer and back it up in Finder. The erase further down cannot be undone, so confirm your photos, messages and contacts have landed somewhere else before you start it.
Step 01
Clear the Activation Lock
Activation Lock belongs to your Apple Account rather than to the handset, and a phone still holding it will not finish setup for anyone else. Activation locks must be removed before purchase.
- Open Settings, then tap the banner with your name at the top of the list.
- Select Find My, then Find My iPhone.
- Turn the Find My iPhone switch off.
- Enter your Apple Account password when iOS asks. That password is what releases the lock.
Switch will not move? Stolen Device Protection is holding it.
- Open Settings → Face ID & Passcode and enter your passcode.
- Find Stolen Device Protection in that list and switch it off.
- Away from a location iOS treats as familiar, the change sits behind a security delay, so it will not take effect straight away.
- Once iOS confirms it, go back to Find My iPhone and turn that off with your Apple Account password.
Step 02
Erase the phone back to factory settings
There is no undo on this one: accounts, photos and settings all go. The three screens below are the route through Settings, with the row you want marked on each.
1. Settings, then General
Scroll past the block that holds Notifications and Screen Time. General heads the group after it.
2. Go to the end of the General list
Keep going past Legal & Regulatory. Transfer or Reset iPhone is the row sitting directly above Shut Down.
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
3. Choose Erase All Content and Settings
iOS asks for your passcode, then your Apple Account password, then one confirmation. The phone reboots to the Hello setup screen with nothing of yours left on it.
If you are not certain the backup took, leave the phone as it is and bring it in. We can check that your data copied before anything gets erased at the counter.
Signed out and erased? Bring it in.
Pick your model on the sell page, then bring the phone and its charger to us in Elk Grove. Offers depend on model, storage, carrier and condition; get a quote in store.
Still locked, blacklisted or on a payment plan? Start here instead.