Getting Your iPhone Ready to Sell, in Seven Steps

Why the order matters

Most problems when selling a device come not from damage but from the order things are done in. Someone erases the device before the backup is finished and loses a year of photos. Or someone does not sign out and sends in a device that is a block of glass to everyone but them. Below are the seven steps in the order they belong in. Take half an hour over it and you are there.

Step one: check exactly what you have

Go to Settings > General > About. There you will find the model number, the capacity and the serial number. Also look at the line about network lock: if it says there are no SIM restrictions, the device is free. If there is a lock, your operator has to lift it first. Devices with a SIM lock are not bought for trade-in, so this is the first check and not the last.

Note down the model and the storage as they appear there. Four gigabytes of difference in your head is a difference in price later on.

Step two: make a backup and check it

Make a backup via iCloud or via a computer. That is not the same as trusting that it happens automatically. After the backup, go back to Settings > your name > iCloud and check that the date and time match what you just did.

Also check what does not go along automatically: messages in apps that have their own backup, two-step codes in an authenticator app, files that only exist locally, and passwords you do not keep anywhere else. Of those four, the authenticator app is the one people most often come unstuck on. Move it across to your new device before you erase anything.

Step three: transfer your data first

If you already have a new device, do the transfer now, with both devices side by side. Then you can see straight away whether everything has come across and you can go back if you need to. Only once your new device works fully as you want it do you carry on with the old one.

If you are moving to Android, sign out of iMessage and FaceTime before you erase, otherwise messages from other iPhone users will keep going to your old device instead of to your number.

Step four: unlink everything attached to the device

An iPhone is attached to more things than you think. Work through this list:

• Unpair an Apple Watch, so that it is free for your new device.
• Remove your cards from Wallet.
• Remove profiles under Settings > General > VPN & Device Management. If there is a management profile from a school or employer there, that organisation has to release the device. Devices with a management lock are not bought for trade-in.
• Switch off Find My iPhone under Settings > your name > Find My. You need the password of your Apple Account for that.
• Sign out of iCloud at the bottom under Settings > your name > Sign Out.

Those last two are the most important on the whole list. Without signing out, the activation lock stays on and nobody else can use the device.

Step five: erase the device completely

Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone, and choose Erase All Content and Settings. Use this and not the manual deleting of apps and photos; only this route invalidates the encryption so that nothing can be recovered.

If you are asked whether you want to keep or remove your eSIM, choose remove if you have already transferred the number to your new device, and keep if that still has to happen. After that, take the physical SIM card and any memory card out of everything you send in.

When the device restarts and shows the welcome screen instead of your lock screen, you are done. Do not set it up again with your account after that.

Step six: untie the administrative knots

If the device is still on an instalment plan or is tied to a contract with device credit, sort that out first. If it was ever reported lost or stolen and found again afterwards, have it checked that it really has been taken off the block list. A device that gets stuck at the network check cannot be bought for trade-in, however tidy it looks.

For a device that came from a family member: without the password of the associated account you will not get the activation lock off. That has to be resolved before you send it in.

Step seven: clean, pack, send

Clean the device with a slightly damp cloth, without cleaning products and without pushing anything into the openings. Take the case and the screen glass off: that way the condition is assessed as the device really is, and that saves discussion.

Before you pack it, take a few photos of the front and back and of the edges. That is for yourself, in case something happens on the way. Pack the device well wrapped in a box in which it cannot slide around. The original box can come along, but do not put any documents or SIM cards in it.

What happens next

With us the agreed trade-in price is fixed for fourteen days, so you do not have to decide in a hurry. After it arrives, the device is checked in the workshop and once approved the payment follows within two working days. Devices with a SIM lock, a management lock or an iCloud account that is still active are ones we cannot buy; those are exactly the three things you prevent with the steps above.

How the rest of the trade-in process works is set out under sell your device. If a question remains about a specific case, have a look at the frequently asked questions.