Experiencing major software errors? Looking to sell your device? Here’s how to perform a factory reset on your iPhone. How do I reset my iPhone?
Before you reset your iPhone.
Resetting your iPhone will completely remove your settings and your personal info, like contacts, photos, etc. So, before you do a factory reset, try restarting your iPhone. This may help address minor software issues.
If you decide to do a factory reset, you should back up your iPhone first.
1. Select Settings.
2. Select General.
3. Select Reset.
4. Select Erase All Content and Settings.
That’s it!
Since performing a factory reset removes all settings and personal information, you must set up your iPhone again, like you did when it came out of the box.
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There are a number of reasons why you might want to factory reset your iPhone. With factory reset, we refer to bringing your iPhone back to its original factory settings. In other words, factory resetting means wiping your iPhone completely, leaving nothing behind.
One reason why you might want to do a factory reset on your iPhone is if you are looking to sell your phone and want to erase all data and personal information. Doing a factory reset might be necessary also in cases where your phone freezes and there is no other way to restore it. You may read more about factory resets in our other guide.
However, in this blog post, we’ll tell you how you can factory reset your phone even if you don’t know the password to your device. We’ll focus only on methods of doing a factory reset without additional third-party software and use only methods that can be done with Apple’s own apps and software.
How to factory reset iPhone with iTunes
One way to factory reset your iPhone in case you have forgotten your password is by using Apple’s iTunes on a computer. One requirement for this step is that you have synced your iPhone to iTunes once before. Here’s how to do this.
- Before proceeding further, make sure that you have a backup of your iPhone as you will lose everything on your phone once the factory reset is done. You can read how to do this in our other blog post.
- Connect your iPhone to a computer with a USB cable and open iTunes.
- On the left side of the screen, navigate to “Summary”.
- Next, press a button titled “Restore iPhone…”.
- A prompt will appear, asking you to confirm the factory reset. Press “Restore” if you are certain that you want to factory reset your iPhone.
- Wait for the reset to finish.
- Done!
Now you can use your earlier backup to return all of your data, apps and files to your iPhone.
How to factory reset iPhone with iCloud
In case you have enabled Find My iPhone, you can also use iCloud to factory reset your iPhone, even if you have forgotten the phone’s password. This method also requires that you remember your Apple ID and password.
- First, if you don’t want to lose everything on your phone, make sure that you have a backup of your phone available.
- Open a web browser and go to icloud.com. Log in to iCloud with your Apple ID and password.
- Navigate to “Find iPhone” and select the iPhone you want to reset.
- Press “Erase iPhone” (under a trashcan-icon).
- Done!
Next, use your earlier backup to return all of your data, apps and files to your iPhone.
Summary: How to factory reset iPhone without password
You should be able to factory reset your iPhone with these two methods. Always make sure that you have a backup of your phone, just in case you run into a situation where wiping clean your iPhone is the only option.