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"&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Whether you&amp;amp;#39;re selling your iPhone or sending it in for repairs, you don&amp;amp;#39;t want your personal data and photos on it, accessible to prying eyes. To safeguard your data, you should restore your iPhone to factory settings.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;When you factory reset an iPhone, you&amp;amp;#39;re returning the phone to its good-as-new status, the condition it was in when it left the factory. There will be\u00A0no music, apps, or other data on it besides the iOS and its built-in apps;\u00A0you&amp;amp;#39;re completely erasing the phone and starting over from scratch.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Obviously, this is a major step and not something you do casually, but it makes sense in some circumstances. Besides the situations listed above, it&amp;amp;#39;s also helpful when\u00A0there&amp;amp;#39;s a problem with the iPhone so severe that starting from\u00A0scratch\u00A0is your only option. Problems with jailbreaks\u00A0are often fixed by this way.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;If you&amp;amp;#39;re ready to proceed, follow these steps:&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;h3&amp;gt;Step 1: Back Up Your Data&amp;lt;/h3&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your first step any time you&amp;amp;#39;re performing a task like this is to back up the data on your iPhone. You should always have a copy of your most recent data to &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://www.lifewire.com/restore-iphone-from-backup-2000296&amp;quot; data-component=&amp;quot;link&amp;quot; data-source=&amp;quot;inlineLink&amp;quot; data-type=&amp;quot;internalLink&amp;quot; data-ordinal=&amp;quot;1&amp;quot;&amp;gt;restore onto your phone&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;\u00A0later.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;There are two options for backing up your data: via iTunes or iCloud. You can back up to iTunes by\u00A0&amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://www.lifewire.com/sync-iphone-to-computer-2000128&amp;quot; data-component=&amp;quot;link&amp;quot; data-source=&amp;quot;inlineLink&amp;quot; data-type=&amp;quot;internalLink&amp;quot; data-ordinal=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;&amp;gt;syncing the phone&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;\u00A0to your computer. Back up to iCloud by going to Settings -&amp;amp;gt; iCloud -&amp;amp;gt; Backup and starting a new backup.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;h3&amp;gt;Step 2: Disable iCloud/Find\u00A0My iPhone&amp;lt;/h3&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Next, you need to disable iCloud and/or Find My iPhone. In iOS 7 and up, a security feature called &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://www.lifewire.com/when-activating-a-used-iphone-1999377&amp;quot; data-component=&amp;quot;link&amp;quot; data-source=&amp;quot;inlineLink&amp;quot; data-type=&amp;quot;internalLink&amp;quot; data-ordinal=&amp;quot;3&amp;quot;&amp;gt;Activation Lock&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;\u00A0requires the Apple ID used to set up the phone in order to reset it. If you don&amp;amp;#39;t disable Activation Lock, the next person who gets your iPhone won&amp;amp;#39;t be able to use it.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Activation Lock is disabled when you turn off iCloud/Find My iPhone. To do that:&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;ol&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Go to &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Settings&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; &amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Tap &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;iCloud&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; &amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Sign Out&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; &amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;You may be asked for your Apple ID/iCloud password. If so, enter it&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Once iCloud is off, continue on to the next step.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&amp;lt;h3&amp;gt;Step 3: Restore Factory Settings&amp;lt;/h3&amp;gt;&amp;lt;ol&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Return to the main\u00A0&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Settings&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;\u00A0screen by tapping the &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Settings&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; menu in the top left of the screen&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Scroll down to the &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;General&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; menu and tap it&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap the &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Reset&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt; menu&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;On this screen, you&amp;amp;#39;ll be presented with a number of reset options, ranging from just resetting the iPhone&amp;amp;#39;s settings to resetting its dictionary or home screen layout. There&amp;amp;#39;s nothing specifically labeled &amp;amp;#34;factory reset&amp;amp;#34;; the option you want is &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Erase All Content and Settings&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;. Tap that&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;If you &amp;lt;a href=&amp;quot;https://www.lifewire.com/set-passcode-on-iphone-ipod-touch-1999627&amp;quot; data-component=&amp;quot;link&amp;quot; data-source=&amp;quot;inlineLink&amp;quot; data-type=&amp;quot;internalLink&amp;quot; data-ordinal=&amp;quot;4&amp;quot;&amp;gt;have a passcode set on your phone&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;, you&amp;amp;#39;ll be prompted to enter it here. If you don&amp;amp;#39;t have one (even though you should!), skip to the next step&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A warning pops up to make sure you understand that if you proceed\u00A0you&amp;amp;#39;ll be erasing all music, other media, data, and settings. If that&amp;amp;#39;s not what you want to do, tap &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Cancel&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;. Otherwise, tap &amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;Erase\u00A0&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;to continue&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;li&amp;gt;It generally takes a minute or two to delete everything from the iPhone, but when the process is done, you&amp;amp;#39;ll have a brand-new, pristine iPhone (at least from a software perspective) ready for whatever your next step is.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-restore-iphone-to-factory-settings-2000277>