Is was searching through trying to find if you can delete messages from spotlight search permanently without just unchecking them, then I found that all personal data can be recovered if someone gets your device even if you want to sell it. Is this true? And if so how can you erase them permanently?
iOS 6.1.4
Erasing all Content and Settings or Restoring the device as new via iTunes wipes ALL data from the phone. The only people who can retrieve that data are very determined hackers who have specialized equipment that costs quite a bit of money (and the police).
Plus they wouldn't be able to get anything that would put your identity at risk. Your Apple ID would still require your password, your credit card information wouldn't show up in the iTunes or App Store (even if they could guess your password to get to that point), and unless you regularly text or email your social security number they wouldn't be able to get that either.
Not to mention that they would have to have your email password to recover the emails.
So don't worry, erasing all content and settings or restoring as new will prevent people from stealing your identity.
Erasing all Content and Settings or Restoring the device as new via iTunes wipes ALL data from the phone. The only people who can retrieve that data are very determined hackers who have specialized equipment that costs quite a bit of money (and the police).
Plus they wouldn't be able to get anything that would put your identity at risk. Your Apple ID would still require your password, your credit card information wouldn't show up in the iTunes or App Store (even if they could guess your password to get to that point), and unless you regularly text or email your social security number they wouldn't be able to get that either.
Not to mention that they would have to have your email password to recover the emails.
So don't worry, erasing all content and settings or restoring as new will prevent people from stealing your identity.
I wanted to weigh in on this topic as there's some redundant information being spread here.
Basically the answer to the question "does erasing my iOS device via 'Erase All Content and Settings' securely wipe my data?", is yes and no.
First let's start by explaining how deleting a file deletes a file on pretty much all platforms with few exceptions.
All filesystems have one form of a file index, there's many different types of this, but in essence they're the same. The index basically says "IMG_1234.jpg" is located on these sectors of the storage device. The index is used to quickly locate files on your device. When you delete a file, it simply removes the file from the index. But in almost all cases it doesn't go to the actual section of your storage device and overwrite the data itself, it just deletes the index, which for all intents and purposes makes the file go away.
It's widely known however there are a plethora of free software titles that will basically ignore the index, and scan each sector of your storage device and give you the ability to recover the data. Software like this can indeed recover files you deleted.
In order to securely destroy the data itself, not just the index, you can use other software that will not only erase the index, but will go to the sectors on the disk, and actually write random 0's and 1's to the sectors, sometimes several times, or 'passes'. This is the only way to securely erase data. This is secure, but also much much much slower.
When you "Erase All Content and Settings" on your iOS device, basically what it does is recreate the index - not actually erasing the device by writing 0's and 1's over the top of the existing data. We know this because the erasing takes seconds, whereas secure wiping will take hours - simple math. When your device reboots, it looks brand new because the index has been recreated.
So technically no, it's not a secure wipe.
---- BUT ----
And I mean a huge but. All iOS devices, for many years now are encrypted by default, in fact unless you go against the recommended settings to enter a passcode and passphrase, all content on the device is AES256 encrypted, with the exception of some files, but certainly your data. Encrypted files makes it almost impossible to decrypt the data without your decryption key. I say almost liberally, I basically mean impossible.
When you do an "Erase All Content and Settings" the iPhone will securely destroy the decryption passcode and passphrase, rendering the data still technically on your device, but impossible to recover.
To ensure your device is protected you can go into "Settings" > "FaceID & Passcode" / "TouchID & Passcode" and scroll all the way to the bottom, in text form you'll see "Data protection is enabled". If you see this, then you'll know the above information is accurate. If it's disabled, use a passcode.
To put this to the test I erased my iPhone 7 plus as I just got my X and used several 'recovery programs' on my Windows PC, and was unable to recover any data whatsoever.
So in summary:
"Is it a secure wipe?" - Not technically.
"Is your data recoverable by any means?" - No, basically impossible.
Caveats of course include local iTunes backups and iCloud backups. While the data isn't recoverable from the device, data can certainly be recovered from backups - but that's a topic for another day.
Hope this helps.
Getting the passcode wrong 10 times and going to "erase all content and settings" is the same thing . The data is encryped by Aes-256 bit key , once you erase the content or get the passcode wrong 10 times the key to decrypt your files is obliterated and cannot be read by anymeans. A new key is generated and the old data that is encrypted cannot be read without the old key. If you know anything about aes-256 its one **** of a security feature and would take billions of years to actually figure it out . read apples security briefing . Law enforcment cant even remove the flash memory and read it on another device . apple has implenmented some serious security features on there iphones. This is why the fbi was so concerned about accidentally wiping the iphone Because once the encyption key gets destroyed there is no way to read the data.
Hi guys, i had 2 devices connected to my apple id. i just removed one of the devices as it is not in my possession anymore and i changed my password. I really need to know if the person that has my old device can still access my data such as imessages, facebook,messenger etc although i disconnected the device from my apple id? I changed facebooks and msngers password too, just need to make sure they dont receive any notifications on th device, since when i handed it over the reset process was not completed. Thank you very much
The erase all content and settings option on the iPhone is a secure erase.
Ok thanks guys. So it's not as easy as the Internet makes it seem? Also, is there any way to delete deleted messages for good, so they don't appear in spotlight search?
You mean on a Mac?
No, iPhone/iPod
Restoring the iPhone as new will definitely take care of that. I can't be 100% that erasing all content and settings will, but I know for fact that the restore will.
Erasing all content and settings direct on the iPhone certainty does and is a secure erase.
Restoring with iTunes is not a secure erase.
How is removing and deleting all content (including the iOS) and putting a newly downloaded operating system onto the device not a secure erase?
Because it is not. No different from doing a simple erase and install of the operating system on your computer's hard drive which is not a secure erase either.
You obviously don't know what a secure erase is.
I don't know much about computers, but why isn't that a secure erase? I honestly know nothing I was just hoping you would explain it to me :)
With normal erase, only the file header info will be wipe, the content is still there. If you have the right tool, you can get at the content. With secure erase, the whole file will be over written with zeros.
Does erasing all content and settings prevent people from being able to still access your private information if you sell your phone?
