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How to Sell Your iPhone Safely and Get the Most Cash

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Derek Flannagan
How to Sell Your iPhone Safely and Get the Most Cash

Here's what to do before you sell your iPhone or trade it in for an iPhone 13, plus the best places to get cash or credit for your Apple device.

  • Back up
  • Unfind Your iPhone
  • Sign Out of Messages
  • Unpair AirPods
  • Sign Out of iCloud
  • Remove SIM Card

If you're in the market for an upgrade, you might want to sell or trade in your older cell an iPhone to make a dent in the price of a new smartphone. But there's more to ditching your old phone than just handing it over and waiting for cash to hit your bank account.

Privacy concerns abound with phones, from photos stored in iCloud to personal data housed within apps, so wiping your phone before selling it is a must. And don't forget to back up, so you don't have to manually re-download hundreds of apps on your new iPhone. Below is our step-by-step guide to preparing your phone for sale, as well as a few reputable sites that will take it off your hands for top dollar.

Back Up

The first thing to do is make sure you don't lose your mind. And by that we mean your data. Back everything up before you wipe it from your phone.

To back up to iCloud from your device itself, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now.

To back up to your Mac, connect your iPhone and your computer with either a cable or Wi-Fi. If you have macOS 10.15 or later, go to Finder sidebar and select your iPhone. If you have an earlier version, go to iTunes. If you're using Finder, click on General and select Back Up All of the Data on Your iPhone to This Mac. Then click Back Up Now. If you're backing up to iTunes, connect your phone, open iTunes, click on the image of your phone, select Summary, and then choose Back Up Now.

Unfind Your iPhone

Apple’s Find My app (previously known as Find My cell an iPhone) can sometimes block activation by a new owner, so you'll need to deactivate it before you ditch your device. Though Find My is automatically deactivated when you erase all content and settings, which you'll do below, this is still a good step to take as a precaution.

For iOS 13 or later, go to Settings > [your name] > Find My, then turn off Find My [device]. Enter your Apple ID password and tap Turn Off. For iOS 12 or earlier, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, turn off Find My [device], enter your Apple ID password, and tap Turn Off.

Sign Out of Messages

For awhile, iPhone users who ditched their iPhone for another platform without logging out of Messages were not receiving messages from other iOS users. Any messages sent from one iPhone to another were being received by the old iPhone rather than the new device, so your Messages were in a sort of message purgatory. The problem is now fixable and really only affects those who are switching from iOS to Android. But it's probably a good idea to shut it off just in case. Go to Settings > Messages and toggle iMessage to off.

Unpair AirPods

Similarly, you can still connect your AirPods to a new iPhone without unpairing them from the old one, but it can't hurt to sipe the slate clean. Place your AirPods or AirPods Pro and iPhone near each other and go to Settings > Bluetooth. Tap the information icon next to your AirPods, and select Forget this Device.

Sign Out of iCloud

You're going to want to sign out of iCloud, iTunes, and the App Store before selling your device. Tap Settings > [your name] > Sign Out. Enter your Apple ID password and tap Turn Off.

Remove SIM Card

In most cases, you can just deactivate your cell phone service on the device and trade it in with the SIM card intact. But that SIM card is the repository of your phone number, various bits of security data, and all the info needed for billing. It identifies you, your phone, and a lot of your activity on your phone. So you might want to remove it before you sell your phone. Fortunately, it's simple. Locate the SIM ejector on your phone, then insert a paperclip until the tray pops out. Remove the SIM card, replace the tray, and you're set to ship your phone off.

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Derek Flannagan
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