How can I delete my icloud account without wifi or sim

Nope. You can't remove it from your account if the phone cannot communicate with the iCloud servers. This is what you're supposed to do before selling it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5661. If you can't, you'll have to send a remote erase command to it using Find My iPhone on icloud.com (http://help.apple.com/icloud/#/mmfc0ef36f), which will be executed if and when the buyer reconnects it to the internet. Until the buyer does this, he/she will be able to see your data (unless it's locked with a passcode).

Dear randers4:

I sold an iPhone, and I forget to erase it (dho!...). I did enable Find my iPhone on it and can issue a remote erase command via the iCloud website. However, the SIM card was removed, so presumably the phone has to connect to the internet via WiFi. But to do this, the it seems that the new owner must connect to a WiFi network using some password, so he must open the phone with the passcode to access WiFi settings. I'd rather not give him my passcode and access to the phone contents to do this.

I would be very grateful if you could shed some light on this dilemma!

Have the new owner force the phone into recovery mode and restore it, as explained here: If you can't update or restore your iOS device. They will then go through the setup process which includes connecting to wifi. At your end, perform the steps listed under "If the previous owner is not present" at the bottom of this article: Find My iPhone Activation Lock: Removing a device from a previous owner’s account. Once the phone is erased and you remove it from your account, the new owner will be able to activate it normally using their own Apple ID (they may need to turn it off and on after you remove it from your account).

Brilliant! I will give this a try and report back!

Another question: Could I achieve the same result simply by removing the iPhone from my iCloud account? Would this allow the buyer to activate the phone for himself? On the downside, though, would this allow him to access the data on the phone after activation (since the phone would not be erased)?

Yes, but once you remove it from your account you no longer have any control over access and use of your data. It would be much safer to keep it linked to your account so you can force it to be erased.

The new owner finally got around to trying the procedure, but he reports that he is getting the following message:

"Activates iPhone: This iphone was lost and erased. sign in wit Apple ID that was used to erase this iPhone".

Does this mean that the phone was erased? I have not yet removed the phone from my iCloud account. Also, there is no indication on iCloud that the phone was actually erased. Its status is listed as "Pending: Erase iPhone".

You would normally receive an email saying that it had been erased. If you didn't receive one try contacting the Apple account security team to see if they can tell you if it had been remotely erased or not: Apple ID: Contacting Apple for help with Apple ID account security - Apple Support. I wouldn't recommend removing it from your account until you get confirmation that its been erased.

It turns out that the procedure was successful! Apple was able to erase my phone (although it never confirmed this on the iCloud account; I had to call Apple Support to confirm). I then removed the phone from the iCloud account, and, after re-powering and putting the phone into recovery mode, the buyer was able to activate and set up the phone. Thanks so much for your help, randers4, I couldn't have done tbis without you!

You're welcome. Glad you got it all sorted out.

I got a iPhone 6s handed to me. It has no SIM card and I want to put my iCloud account, but I don't know what will happen after I log of the existing account. So I'm debating on logging out of it or not ?.

You can log out and then log in with your ID.

So if I log out the account it won't take me to the "hello" page ?

help

Q