05 Feb How to Restore Factory Settings on Any iPhone
Many of us carry a great amount of personal details on our iPhones, including photos of loved ones, work emails and contact details for everyone in your address book. In most cases you wouldn’t want to lose any of this information from your phone, but there may be occasions where you want to ensure that all of your personal data is removed. This may because you are selling it, or that it is going in for repair. The easiest way to do this with an iPhone is to restore the handset to factory settings.
Fortunately this process is a fairly simple one and shouldn’t take you much more than five minutes. The process is also essentially the same for whichever model of iPhone you have, and whichever iOS you are running. You can carry out a factory reset using iTunes, or from the phone itself.
Using iTunes
You will need the latest version of iTunes to reset your phone in this way. Click the Check for Updates button in the iTunes menu and install the latest version if this is not already what you have. You will then need to connect your iPhone to the computer using a USB cable. By clicking the Backup Now button in the Summary tab, you will ensure that you will not lose any of the data that is currently stored on your phone.
Also in the Summary tab is a Restore iPhone button. Once you are sure that everything from your phone has been properly backed up, then press this button. A pop up window will appear and you will need to press the Restore button to confirm. You may also be asked to agree to the latest software license agreement. If this is the case, click Agree and the latest version will begin to download.
The restoration process can take several minutes, and once it has been completed you will need to check whether it has been successful. If it has worked, when you start your phone you will be presented with a number of options, including setting it up as a new phone or restoring from backup.
Using the phone
Even if you are carrying out the restoration from the handset, you should first ensure that your phone is backed up by connecting to iTunes as if you were restoring from iTunes. You can also check that you have the latest software version from here.
Go into Settings from the Home screen, and then click in General. At the bottom of the next page that appears is a Reset button. Press this button and then from the list click on the Erase All Content and Settings button. A pop up window will appear and you will need to click Erase iPhone to confirm. Again, this will take several minutes to complete. When it has finished, start up your iPhone to check that it has worked.
Some people may be concerned that they will do more harm than good to their phones by completing this process. This is generally not the case, but if you are worried then get in touch with somebody like Fix Apple Now (in Hallandale) (in store or mail) who will go through the whole process with you and will make sure that the factory settings have been properly restored, and that there is none of your personal data left on the phone.