How to factory reset your iPhone and safely wipe all data

Whether you’re selling your iPhone, trading it in, or handing it down to a friend or family member, wiping it clean of your personal data is the single most important step you need to take. A factory reset restores your device to its original state, removing every photo, message, account, and saved setting so the next owner gets a fresh start.

Unlike a soft reset, this process completely clears the device and cannot be undone. So, before you get started, back up your iPhone and remember to turn off Find My if you plan to sell or hand down the device.

iPhone frozen or unresponsive?

If your iPhone won’t respond to touch, the screen is frozen or black, or an app keeps crashing, you probably don’t need a factory reset at all. A soft reset or a force restart fixes most of these issues without erasing anything. If neither works, getting into recovery mode to update the device is worth trying before you wipe the device completely.

Our guide on how to reset an iPhone walks through all of these step by step. Come back here once you’ve ruled those out and you’re ready for a full wipe.

A quick checklist before you factory reset your iPhone

Run through this before you tap Erase All Content and Settings. Once you erase the device, there’s no going back to grab something you forgot.

• Back up your data: Confirm your last backup finished properly. Go to Settings, tap your name at the top, select iCloud, and then iCloud Backup. Check the date under the Back Up Now option. If it’s from days or weeks ago, run a fresh backup before you go any further.
• Check your iCloud storage: While you’re at it, you should also check if your iCloud storage is full. A backup can fail if your account is out of space, and the “Last successful backup” date you just checked might not include everything on your phone. Go to Settings, tap on your name at the top, select iCloud, and then tap on the Storage option at the top to see how much room you have left.
• Turn off Stolen Device Protection: If you have Stolen Device Protection turned on, disable it. Apple recommends turning it off before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, and doing so also clears the way to turn off Find My iPhone, since the toggle stays grayed out otherwise. To turn it off, open Settings, select Face ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, select Stolen Device Protection, and toggle it off.
• Turn off Find My iPhone: Once you’ve disabled Stolen Device Protection, head to Settings, tap your name at the top, select Find My, tap the Find My iPhone option, and toggle it off. Skipping this leaves Activation Lock in place, which can stop the next owner from setting up the phone.
• Transfer your eSIM: If you’re moving to a new iPhone and want to keep your current phone number, make sure your eSIM has been transferred and is working on your new device before you erase this one. Many carriers support Apple’s eSIM Quick Transfer, which happens automatically when you set up your new iPhone near your old one. If your carrier doesn’t support it, you’ll need to contact them directly. Confirm you can make calls and use mobile data on your new phone before moving on to the reset.

How to factory reset your iPhone

Once you’ve made it through the checklist above, resetting your iPhone itself only takes a few taps.

Step 1: Go to Settings, then General.

Step 2: Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.

Step 3: Tap Erase All Content and Settings.

Step 4: Tap Continue.

Step 5: If you have an eSIM, your iPhone will prompt you to either keep it or erase it during the factory reset. If you plan to continue using the device, select the Keep eSIM and Erase Data option. If you’re giving it away, selling it, or trading it in, select the Delete eSIM and Erase Data option.

Step 6: Enter your passcode when prompted.

Step 7: Your iPhone will try to back up to iCloud one more time before erasing. Tap Continue once it succeeds to factory reset your iPhone. If you’ve already backed it up, tap the Skip Backup option.

Step 8: You’ll then be prompted to enter your Apple account password to turn off Find My and Activation Lock if you haven’t done that already. Tap the Done button on your keyboard to initiate the factory reset.

How to factory reset a locked or disabled iPhone

If you’re locked out because you forgot your passcode, or your iPhone says it’s disabled after too many failed attempts, you don’t necessarily need a computer to fix it.

Factory reset your iPhone using your Apple ID (no computer needed)

This works if your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data, signed into an Apple ID, and has Find My turned on.

Step 1: Keep entering passcodes until you see the iPhone Unavailable screen.

Step 2: Tap the Forgot Passcode option.

Step 3: On the following screen, tap Start iPhone Reset.

Step 4: Enter your Apple ID password to confirm and sign out of your Apple ID.

Step 5: Your iPhone will then prompt you to either keep or delete the eSIM when erasing data. Pick the desired option, and your phone will reset and restart.

Factory reset your iPhone using a computer

If Find My wasn’t turned on, or your iPhone isn’t connected to a network, you’ll need to erase it through recovery mode instead.

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your computer and open Finder on Mac or the Apple Devices app on Windows.

Step 2: Put your iPhone into recovery mode using the button sequence for your model.

Step 3: When Finder or the Apple Devices app detects your iPhone in recovery mode, choose Restore to perform a factory reset.

For detailed step-by-step instructions on getting into recovery mode, refer to our guide on resetting an iPhone (linked above).

How to factory reset your iPhone using iCloud or Find My

If your iPhone is lost, stolen, or somewhere you can’t get to it, you can erase it remotely, as long as Find My was already turned on before it went missing. If it wasn’t, the device won’t show up in your list at all, and there’s no way to turn it on after the fact.

Factory reset your iPhone from a browser

Step 1: Go to icloud.com/find and sign in with the Apple ID tied to the missing iPhone.

Step 2: Select the device from the list on the left of the screen.

Step 3: Click Erase and then click Next.

Step 4: Enter your Apple ID password to confirm.

Factory reset your iPhone using another Apple device

Step 1: Open the Find My app on your Mac or iPad and log in with the Apple ID tied to the missing iPhone.

Step 2: Select Devices, then choose the iPhone you want to reset.

Step 3: Tap Erase, then confirm with your Apple ID password. On Mac, right-click the device for the erase option.

Step 4: Select Continue on the following pop-up.

Step 5: Enter a phone number on the following screen and select Erase. This number will be shown on the device after it’s reset, making it easy for someone who finds it to contact you.

If the phone is online when you send the request, the factory reset starts right away. If it’s offline, Apple queues the request and runs it the next time the device connects.

Devices reset using the iCloud or Find My method retain Activation Lock. Anyone who ends up with such a device will need your Apple ID and password to set it up again. That’s a security feature, not a bug, so don’t expect the device to be immediately usable if it’s recovered.

What happens to your data after a factory reset

A factory reset erases everything stored directly on your iPhone, but it doesn’t touch anything already saved to iCloud. Understanding that distinction matters if you’re not sure whether something is backed up or just living on the device.

Anything synced through iCloud, like photos with iCloud Photos turned on, contacts, calendar entries, and messages if you have Messages in iCloud enabled, stays in iCloud after the reset. You can access it from icloud.com or restore it to a new device at any point. A factory reset doesn’t delete your iCloud account or its contents.

Anything that only exists locally on the device, like photos not synced to iCloud, documents saved to the Files app, or app data that doesn’t sync to the cloud, is wiped permanently once the reset completes. This is exactly why the checklist earlier has you confirm your backup finished before you start a factory reset. An iCloud backup captures a broader snapshot of your device than iCloud syncing alone, including app data and settings that wouldn’t otherwise make it to the cloud on their own.

Your Apple ID itself is unaffected. Signing out during the factory reset process removes your account from that specific device, but the account and everything backed up to it remains intact and ready to use on your next iPhone.

Confirm your iPhone was factory reset

Once the factory reset finishes and your iPhone restarts, you should land on the same Hello screen you’d see on a brand new iPhone. If you see anything else, like your old lock screen or home screen, the reset didn’t go through, and you’ll need to start over from the checklist.

If you’re selling, trading in, or handing down the iPhone, stop here and hand it off as is. That’ll allow the next owner to go through the setup process themselves, choosing whether to set the device up as new or restore their own data to it.

If you’re keeping the iPhone and reset it to fix a problem, continue to through setup and choose to restore from a backup when prompted, either the iCloud backup or the computer backup you made from the checklist earlier.

What do the other reset options mean?

The Transfer or Reset iPhone offers several options beyond a full factory reset, and it’s easy to pick the wrong one if you’re not sure what each one does. In most cases, you’ll want the full erase covered above, but here’s what the rest do.

• Reset All Settings: Returns your iPhone system settings to their factory defaults, including network settings, the keyboard dictionary, location settings, and privacy permissions. Your data stays untouched.
• Reset Network Settings: Clears your Wi-Fi networks and saved passwords, along with your cellular and VPN configurations. Worth trying if you’re having persistent connection trouble that a normal restart didn’t fix.
• Delete All eSIMs: Removes every eSIM stored on your iPhone. This doesn’t cancel your carrier plan, you’ll need to set up a new eSIM or insert a physical SIM to get back online.
• Reset Keyboard Dictionary: Erases the custom words your keyboard has learned from your typing. Useful if autocorrect keeps suggesting the wrong word or won’t recognize something you type often.
• Reset Handwriting Style: Resets your custom handwriting preferences back to their factory defaults. Useful if handwriting input has started misreading your writing.
• Reset Home Screen Layout: Returns your home screen to the default arrangement.
• Reset Location & Privacy: Resets your location services and privacy permissions back to their defaults. You’ll need to grant permissions again as apps ask for them.