How to erase documents and data on iPhone or iPad before selling or giving it away? step by step guide

While it is true, a mobile phone or tablet stores more information and data than you can imagine and for this reason, it is estimated that this type of device knows much more about you than you think. Taking into account that, being teams so managed today and around any action, you store all kinds of information there, which may or may not be important. Now, when you want to get rid of your iPhone or iPad, specifically, whether to sell it, give it away, or even lend it to someone you know, one of the most valuable things is delete all the documents and data you have stored on your device and that over the months and years of use, they can be almost immeasurable amounts.

For this, it is essential to know how to erase files and data on an iPhone or iPad before selling or giving it away. However, it is not only important to delete information when any of these actions are going to be carried out, since in many cases, Smartphones and Tablets are usually saturated with so many megabytes stored and in consequence, show a marked deterioration in their functioning over time. Thus, completely relevant and necessary to carry out a good “cleaning”, deleting all its content so that later, it can work as well as possible.

In such a case, whatever the reason why you prefer to erase content and files on an iPhone or iPad, we will tell you below the procedures that you can follow to eliminate any type of information on your device and without any type of complication or degree of difficulty. Also referring to the types of data and documents that can be stored on these phones and tablets, which can then be easily deleted.

What kind of documents and data can we store on the iPhone or iPad Tablet and then delete?

Before learning the most effective methods to delete documents and data on iPhone or iPad, it is worth knowing for a fact, What does this type of information stored in these devices refer to?.

Well, it is considered that is cache-bound data Unfortunately, they cannot be removed by simply clearing the cache and cookies of the cell phone or tablet.

In addition to this, it also refers to the large amount of data from apps you have installed, the specific information of each of them Y everything related to the iCloud service.

In this way, it is content that take up a lot of free space. Which, you can verify just by accessing “Setting”, enter the section “General” and later in “Use”, there with observe the option “Documents and data”, you will see that these take over and consume a lot of storage space.

However, this choice is highlighted in gray and indeed, it is impossible to remove them directly from there. Therefore, other options that are truly effective for this are required and then, we indicate the most used and simple to execute.

Steps to delete any type of data on your iPhone phone

On the Internet, you can find endless tactics that suggest you to be able to delete any type of data on an iPhone. Nevertheless, many of them can be ineffective or complicated.

Therefore, we now advise you make use of one of these three methods that we present to you right away, since they generate good results and can be adapted to the preferences of each of the users.

Delete apps manually

In general, people resort to this method because Apple, so far, does not offer any kind of support to eliminate this type of information almost automatically. Then, it is necessary to remove the app from your mobile or tablet and after that, download and install it again.

The process is very simple and we detail it, step by step, below:

• To make sure you delete the data saved in each of the applications on your device and leave it completely clean, it is required proceed to uninstall them. which means that everything will be deleted on said platform, such as login. Therefore, it is recommended make a backup, first of all. To do it, connect the mobile or Tablet to a computer with a USB cable and follow the path: “Settings” > “iCloud”; then go to “Backup” and only activates the selection “iCloud Backup” and then click on “Back up now”. That’s it.
• When the backup through iCloud is done, you can start the procedure to eliminate the apps that occupy the most weight on the device. First, go to “Settings” to later enter “General” Y “Storage and iCloud”.
• At this point, a new screen will open in which you can see two options; one that indicates the iPhone or iPad apps and another that is directed to iCloud. You have to place yourself in the firstthat is, in “Storage” and there click on “Manage storage”.
• Subsequently, you will enter a new section where you can see a list with all the downloaded applications and also, observe in detail the amount of data and documents they store.
• In this way, you can know which are the ones that take up the most storage space and start eliminating them. As helpful information, we indicate that WhatsApp and Facebook are apps that usually carry a large space on mobile phones or Tablets.
• So just select each application to remove (separately) and when you enter the information of each of them, there is a button that says “Delete app” that you must press. Afterwards, a warning will appear where you must press the option “Delete app” and wait for the process to finish.
• Once the app is completely deleted, you can enter the App Store, search for it and download it as you normally do with any. In this way, you can verify that now the storage it occupies on your device is much less than it used to, since over time, more data and documents accumulate.

Erase iCloud documents and data

Through the iCloud service, no need to manually remove apps or having to do this with contacts, documents, multimedia content, reminders, calendars, etc.

Thanks to, once you have the session initiated in said service with your ID of Manzana, you can delete all the content at the same time. Of course, it refers to content only stored on iCloud servers.

The procedure to be carried out is as follows:

• To start with, you need make a backup of the device (just as we indicated at the beginning of the previous method, with “iCloud backup”) and it should also be noted that if you have an Apple Watch and it is linked to your iPhone, it is completely mandatory to unlink the smartwatch to carry out this process.
• Once you make sure of the aforementioned aspects, you should sign out of iCloud, the App Store, and the iTunes Store.
• To log out of such services, the procedure It depends on the version of iOS you use.:
• Yes you’re using iOS 10.2 or earlierfollow “Settings” > “iCloud” and then tap on “Sign off”. A warning will appear where you must press “close after” and then the option “Delete from device”. Subsequently, enter the password of the Apple ID and now, enter “Settings“, the option “iTunes and App Store” to finally press “Sign off”.

• Next, return to the “Settings” menu and in the option “General” you must press to later access the option “Restore” Y “Delete contents and settings”.
• Now, if you have activated the choice “Search my Iphone“, you should enter your Apple ID and password.
• Later, you may be asked provide the iPhone or Tablet code, or the restrictions code. Therefore, copy it and so on, click on “Wipe device”. If you’re switching to a non-Apple device, unregister iMessage. With this, the documents and data they will be totally eliminated.

Factory reset iPhone

For all types of devices, one of the most used alternatives to delete all types of content and with it, free up a large storage space, it is reset iPhone to factory settings. Which makes it possible to remove all information from the iPhone, settings and customizations.

To start, you need to make a backup of the iPhone before carrying out the processin order to preserve your multimedia content, various types of files and even documents saved in the cloud.

To carry out this backup, follow the same steps that we advise you to do it via iCloudthat is, going through the route “Settings” > “Your name” > “iCloud” > “iCloud Backup”.

However, To restore the factory mobile phone there are two methods. Let’s start by specifying the one that is carried out with the help of a computer:

• Located on your Mac or any computer, open iTunes and connect through a USB cable, your iPhone (can also be done with an iPad or iPod touch).
• Later, the PC will show you a warning that says “Trust this computer?”, and you must accept or even, maybe ask you for the code (Apple ID) to continue with the process. This is done to achieve sync iPhone with iTunes.
• After the iTunes sync with the device is complete, click “Restore your device”. Which will show you a new window where you must click on “Restore” to confirm.
• A) Yes, It only remains to wait for the process to finish. It is good to distinguish that the same iTunes will erase your device and will take care of installing the latest iOS software.
• Finally, the mobile will restart and you just have to set it again, like when you bought it. Thus, there will be no type of documents or data stored.

On the other hand, there is an alternative that you can perform directly from your iPhone to erase data and restore it to default valuesand surely, it is much simpler.

The steps are:

• Enter the section “Settings” and later in “General”.
• Now, press the choice “Restore” and there, in the second position is located “Delete contents and settings”, which is where you should enter.
• To follow, enter your Apple ID password or codeif requested.
• To finish, you just have to wait for the same device to be erased and the time to complete the process will only depend on the device you have (this could take a few minutes).