what happens if i hit "reset all content and setting"?

If you go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings you will get an iPhone reset to factory condition...that is, no content remaining that you have added.

If you mean "Erase All Content and Settings", that completely erases the phone.

I don't know what you did, but you couldn't have gone to Settings>General>Reset and tapped Erase All Content and Settings. If you did, your phone would have been erased and returned to the setup assistant just like it came out of the box.

But with the iOS version still installed that was there at the time of the Erase.

will be the effect on the cloud account if you erase all content and settings? Scenario as follows:

Daughter had Iphone 4; dropped in water; phone dead. Purchased replacement iphone 5 and restored from cloud account for Iphone4. All good so far.

A week after new phone was purchased I "saved" old phone by the rice technique. No phone number but phone works on Wifi fine. Want to keep as spare phone, just in case...

iphone4 has a new user id and password, but references the old cloud account.

I need to delete the iphone 4's relation to the Cloud account without deleting the actual cloud account itself since that is now being used by the iphone 5.

WIll erase all content and settings accomplish this? If not, how? (Daughter will kill me if I erase her cloud account)

Whatever you do... just DON'T hit Reset > Erase All Content and Settings cause it will erase all content and settings!!!

If you want to remove the iPhone 4 from the account, just go to Settings>iCloud and tap Delete Account. This only deletes the account from thhis phone, not from iCloud. The new phone will not be effected by this. You don't need to erase it.

I tapped Erase all contents and settings but its still hasnt finished yet. Its still with that circle loading logo for like 4 hrs now. What should I do? Is it normal? And im using iphone 4. Thanks!

Depending on the content on the phone and device, this can take up to several hours.

iOS: Understanding 'Erase All Content and Settings'

It will delete all your personal data and settings on your iPhone. And you have to activate your device from scratch after reset. However, not all iPhones are applicable for this method. At least my young brother's iPhone failed by using this method. Actually, there is a simple data erasing app that can help you erase everything permanently in a few minutes, no longer to wait hours with default method.

I found this thread while searching to see what would happen if I were to select "Erase All Content And Settings" I too didn't want to get rid of my network settings as my 4S is just an MP3 player but I wanted to update to the latest iOS and the mirror folder was taking up too much space. The mirror folder could not be deleted whatsoever. But I did select the option and confirmed for it to reset, it took about 3 minutes. It deleted all photo's and contacts but kept any apps and music that I had remaining on my phone. I was surprised, I thought for sure it would delete EVERYTHING media wise but it hadn't. I just figured I would input my experience with that option for others in the future that search for answers. I will also state that the iOS running on the phone when doing this was 7.0.2, so what happens may vary between different versions of iOS.

Did it also erase photos?

Reset All Content and Settings does just that...it erases EVERYTHING that is not part of iOS. Your user id, passcode, photos, email address and password, everything.

Did it delete all your photos you had before?