My iPhone has the previous owner's number listed as "My Number", how do I remove it??

A friend gave me her old iPhone 11 when she upgraded. I fully wiped the phone, and set it up on my own AppleID to be used as a camera. It has a lot of storage so it works great as a youtube filming device. The phone has no SIM and is not activated on any cellular network.


So it all works great and I put out tons of youtube videos with excellent video quality.


THE PROBLEM is.... every once in a while I do something that doesn't work, like try to facetime from this 11, to my own primary iPhone. If I could see what the other one's camera sees, it would help me line up my shot without needing a cameraman.


Problem is I can't facetime with this old phone. And when I poke around settings, I believe the reason why is that the old phone still lists my friend's phone number as "My Number". Everywhere I've seen it, it is a read only block of text. Her number is not attached to my AppleID, mine is. I can't make facetime calls as her on my regular phone or accept them - or texts. But her old phone is confused and still thinks that it has her number.


How can I remove her number from this phone. I just want it to be a simple "iPod Touch" essentially. Wifi only! I'm looking all over and I can't figure it out.

iPhone 11

Posted on Jan 10, 2026 6:17 PM

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Posted on Jan 10, 2026 9:46 PM

"Turns out, her SIM was still in there! I could have sworn I yanked and trashed that SIM 2 years ago but nope its still in there. Well, it WAS still in there. And I'm no longer seeing her number anywhere in settings."

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Great job troubleshooting this!


Most certainly use the link provided by Laurence, if not done so, already.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 10, 2026 9:46 PM in response to l008com

"Turns out, her SIM was still in there! I could have sworn I yanked and trashed that SIM 2 years ago but nope its still in there. Well, it WAS still in there. And I'm no longer seeing her number anywhere in settings."

-------


Great job troubleshooting this!


Most certainly use the link provided by Laurence, if not done so, already.

Jan 11, 2026 12:11 AM in response to l008com

You mentioned that the iPhone gifted by your friend does not have a SIM card. However, when you make a FaceTime call from that phone to your primary iPhone, your friend’s phone number still appears—even after the gifted iPhone was completely wiped.


FaceTime works in two ways:


1. via an Apple ID, and

2. via a phone number.


Since there is no SIM card in the gifted iPhone, it cannot place or receive FaceTime calls using a phone number. That leaves only the Apple ID route.


So the key question is this: where exactly are you seeing your friend’s phone number, and at what point does it appear?


Key takeaway: if a number shows up without a SIM, it’s usually coming from Apple ID contact associations, iCloud sync, or your other device—not from the wiped phone itself.

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My iPhone has the previous owner's number listed as "My Number", how do I remove it??

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