How to prepare an iphone 5 for sale

March 14, 2017 10:08 AM

Hi, I have an iphone 5 (T-Mobile) that I'm selling on eBay. It's running ios 10 and I've restored it to the factory image. What else do I need to do to make it usable by the buyer? I've had questions about whether it's "iCloud locked" and whether I've turned find my iphone off. How do I take care of these after it's been factory restored? What else do I need to do?
posted by mattholomew to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

If the phone has been factory reset and is sitting at the "Hello" screen, that should be proof enough that the phone has been erased. It can't be signed into iCloud and/or locked by you at that point. You did the right thing.

If buyers are asking if the phone is locked out from activation by the carrier (the "iCloud locked" stuff you mentioned, which happens when it's stolen), provide them the IMEI number so they can look it up via Apple and make sure the phone is good.

Here's a guide. You will need to (temporarily) set up the phone back up to get to this page, so make sure to factory-erase it again when you're done. Then take a photo of the phone at the "Hello" page.

Do NOT show them the serial number or MAC address of the phone. When taking your photo put a post-it over those numbers, or erase it with a paint program.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:18 AM on March 14, 2017

Best answer: If the phone has been factory reset and is sitting at the "Hello" screen, that should be proof enough that the phone has been erased. It can't be signed into iCloud and/or locked by you at that point. You did the right thing.

No offense, but this is straight-up wrong and is the reason OP is getting so many questions about it being iCloud-locked. The phone can still be locked to the user's account at this stage. It's easy to use Recovery Mode to erase the iPhone and bypass the passcode, etc. Because of that, Apple has made sure that simply erasing the iPhone without explicitly signing out of iCloud does not remove Activation Lock.

Apple, helpfully, has an article for this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351

In short; log into www.icloud.com with your Apple ID, go to Find My iPhone, and make sure the iPhone in question is not listed under My Devices. If it is, choose Erase, follow the steps, then Remove From Account.
posted by sixfootaxolotl at 11:44 AM on March 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

If buyers are asking if the phone is locked out from activation by the carrier (the "iCloud locked" stuff you mentioned, which happens when it's stolen), provide them the IMEI number so they can look it up via Apple and make sure the phone is good.

Here's a guide. You will need to (temporarily) set up the phone back up to get to this page, so make sure to factory-erase it again when you're done. Then take a photo of the phone at the "Hello" page.

This is no longer available, as scammers used to use it to create and test new IMEI codes. Do as sixfootaxolotl said, then say that that's what you've done. If people start asking you for the codes (because they're used to doing that), reference them to an article such as:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-activation-lock-website-played-key-role-in-hack-perhaps-explaining-its-removal.2030182/
posted by tillsbury at 11:50 AM on March 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

I rescind my answer. Sorry.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:13 PM on March 14, 2017