Here’s a common scenario. You’re at the Apple Store or other retail outlet buying a new iPhone but you want to save money by trading in your current phone. Ahh, but you could run into a few obstacles.
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Maybe you’ve forgotten to back up your phone. Or you’ve neglected to erase all your personal data. Maybe you haven’t turned off the Find My service, or disabled Stolen Device Protection. You see the dilemma.
You can avoid these types of hiccups by preparing your iPhone for trade-in before you even leave home. Here’s a list of items you should tackle beforehand so that you’re not stuck at the store trying to figure out what to do.
You don’t want to lose your apps, files, and customized settings when you jump to a new phone. That means you need to back up your current phone before trading it in. Here, you have a few options.
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If you run iTunes on your Windows PC or Mac, you can back up your phone to your computer, to the cloud, or to both. Connect your iPhone to your computer and fire up iTunes. Click the icon for your phone. In the Backups section, select iCloud to back up your phone to the cloud, or choose This Computer to back it up to your PC. I recommend doing both to be on the safe side. You can also encrypt the backup with a password to include certain protected data. Click the Back Up Now button to proceed.
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Alternatively, you can run a cloud-based backup directly from your phone. For this, go to Settings on your iPhone and tap your profile icon at the top. Choose iCloud, select iCloud Backup, and then tap the Back Up Now link to kick off the process.
When you have your new iPhone, you can restore the iCloud backup during the initial setup. At some point, you’ll see a screen prompting you to transfer your apps and data. Choose the option for iCloud Backup and then sign in with your Apple username and password. Pick the backup you wish to restore and follow the screens to run the process.
If you instead saved your backup locally through iTunes, connect your new phone to your PC. Open iTunes. The app should sense that you have a new phone and walk you through the steps to restore the backup. If not, just click the Restore Backup button in iTunes and choose your local backup.
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Built into every iPhone model starting with the XS, Stolen Device Protection is an added security feature that requires Face ID or Touch ID authentication to make certain changes on your phone. The goal is to prevent someone who knows your passcode from modifying critical features. You can tweak the feature to always be in effect or in effect only if your device is in an unfamiliar location.
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Before you trade in your phone, though, you must turn off Stolen Device Protection. To do this, go to Settings and select Privacy & Security. Swipe down the screen to the Security section and tap the option for Stolen Device Protection. Then just turn off its switch.
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Before you can ultimately reset your phone, you need to turn off the Find My service so that you can no longer track its location. Make sure you’ve already disabled Stolen Device Protection if that was turned on. To then turn off Find My, go to Settings, select your account profile at the top, and then tap Find My. At the Find My screen, select Find My iPhone and then turn off its switch. You’ll be asked to confirm your password.
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If you own an Apple Watch that’s paired with your current iPhone, you’ll want to unpair it before you trade in your phone. For that, open the Watch app on your phone and select All Watches at the top of the My Watch screen. Tap the Info icon next to the watch you wish to unpair. Swipe down to the bottom of the next screen and select “Unpair Apple Watch.” Confirm your action, and your watch will be unpaired.
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With your iPhone backed up and Stolen Device Protection and Find My both turned off, it’s time to reset your device to factory conditions. To do this, go to Settings and select General. Swipe down to the bottom of the screen and tap the option to transfer or reset the phone. At the next screen, choose the option to erase all content and settings. You’ll then see a list of all the content that will be deleted. Tap Continue.
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You then can either keep the SIM active on the phone or delete it if you want to transfer your mobile plan to your new phone. If you use an eSIM, remember to activate it on the new phone. If you’re using a physical SIM, remember to remove it. Enter your PIN and then your account password. Your phone will be reset to its factory state with all your personalized content erased.
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Source: Networking - zdnet.com
