Wiping Damaged iPhone

Question

Level 1

101 points

Wiping Damaged iPhone

My iphone's screen is totally smashed and useless. My new phone arrived, I set it up, and all is good on the new one.

The old phone still works you just can't see or touch anything. So I googled how to sign out of "Find my iPhone" on a broken phone and saw that you can remove it from your account just by logging in to icloud.com.

I did that, but I still cannot wipe my phone. When I try, it says....

Even hours after removing the phone from my icloud account. Is there some other way here? The phone doesn't have service any more but it should still be on my home wifi. In fact I just confirmed it is via my router. So why isn't iTunes letting me wipe this thing?

Posted on Mar 5, 2021 7:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

l008com Author

Level 1

101 points

Mar 6, 2021 10:05 AM in response to l008com

So the solution was to put the phone into restore mode or whatever it's called, by hitting up volume, down volume, then hold the sleep button. You're supposed to hold the button until the restore screen comes up. But I have no screen, so I had to just hold it for about a full minute. After that, it would show up in itunes as a phone in restore mode. Then I was able to restore it normally and it's a fully wiped phone. Off to ebay with it!

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 5, 2021 8:19 PM in response to l008com

Since the phone is damaged, you won't be able to wipe it remotely. Take the phone to either your Apple Store or if you don't have an Apple Store near you, a Best Buy store and ask them to recycle the phone. They will take care of recycling the phone in a way you won't have to worry about your data at all.

Reply

Answer 3

shoeluvr13

Level 6

18,529 points

Mar 5, 2021 6:47 PM in response to l008com

Sign out of icloud.com . Then sign back into icloud.com/find to see if it reappeared so you can erase and remove again.

Reply

Answer 4

l008com Author

Level 1

101 points

Mar 5, 2021 7:36 PM in response to shoeluvr13

It does not reappear, it is gone from my icloud / find my phone device list.

Reply

Answer 5

shoeluvr13

Level 6

18,529 points

Mar 6, 2021 9:58 AM in response to l008com

Are you sending it back to Apple? If you are I wouldn’t worry about wiping it because that is something they will do themselves. They think that erase it again even if you already wiped it.

Reply

Wiping Damaged iPhone

Similar questions