trying to reset and erase all content on iphone 4s w broken wifi and no carrier

You can't without either WiFi or cell data service, if you didn't disable Find My iPhone before.

There is a way to do this.....You would need to go to icloud.com and and remove this iphone form your account . Your phone needs to be off when you do this . icloud.com > sign in > click find my iphone > my devices at the top>erase device. Look for the little X symbol to appear afterwards . In some cases this helps if you sign out and then sign back in again after doing the steps to look for the X symbol. This symbol appears the right of the phone underneath my devices. Also you might see removed from account instead. Either one will work. This will effectively remove the iCloud lock on your device. Proceed with the restore afterwards via computer

Incorrect. You can't remove devices from Find My iPhone via iCloud.com unless FMiP is already disabled using the device, or it is running iOS 6 or earler. That would be a huge security flaw.

You might try temporarily reactivating the phone, if this is possible with your carrier.

modular747 wrote:

Incorrect. You can't remove devices from Find My iPhone via iCloud.com unless FMiP is already disabled using the device, or it is running iOS 6 or earler. That would be a huge security flaw.

Actually, yes you can disable FMiP via www.cloud.com, even if you can't do it on the device. In fact, that's what Apple has you do when a device is damaged to the point where it cannot even turn it on the first place. You have to have the correct Apple ID & password.

Turn off the iPhone.

Go to www.icloud.com.

Log in with the correct Apple ID & password.

Go to the Find My iPhone section.

Select the device.

Choose 'Erase iPhone', then choose 'Remove from Account'.

Then, turn the iPhone back on, make sure it has a SIM card inserted form the appropriate carrier, if the carrier uses SIM cards, connect it to iTunes, and restore the device. If a message pops up that says FMiP is still on, then use Recovery Mode: Use recovery mode - Apple Support

Again, incorrect. In this situation, the OP has no internet connectivity for this phone (WiFi broken, deactivated from cell service) and the phone can't be located or erased remotely. If this were not the case, he could have disabled FMiP on the phone itself, and proceeded with erasing content.

modular747 wrote:

Again, incorrect. In this situation, the OP has no internet connectivity for this phone (WiFi broken, deactivated from cell service) and the phone can't be located or erased remotely. If this were not the case, he could have disabled FMiP on the phone itself, and proceeded with erasing content.

Connecting the iPhone to iTunes on a computer that has an active internet connection is all that's needed. You can activate an iPhone via cellular data, wi-fi or iTunes.

While you may need to use Recovery Mode, which is the only way to force the device to restore if FMiP is turned on in the device, once iTunes checks the Apple Activation Server and confirms the device has been removed from FMiP (which is done at the www.cloud.com), then it authorizes the device to activate.

If he follows my instructions, then even without a direct wireless internet connection, he can still erase the device and have it removed from Find My iPhone. I've had Apple set up service for devices in a similar situation. For example, water damage where the device will not even power on at all, so it has no internet connection period. Apple will not set up a device for repair, even with AppleCare+, until FMiP is disabled. If you disable it at www.cloud.com, that's all that's needed. I've even had one where the device would not connect to cellular data or wi-fi, because of an antenna issue, but had FMiP turned on. This procedure worked then, and I see no reason why it wouldn't work now. I may end up saying 'No service' for the associated carrier that it is locked to, but that's normal for this situation.

Recovery mode forces a device to restore, but then requires you to satisfy Activation Lock once iTunes communicates with he server and sees that FMiP is enabled. If you disabled FMiP on www.cloud.com first, then Recovery mode never encounters Activation Lock.

Thank you for re postioning this Tj

Not working for me. I'm using the 4s as an iPod since even with phone service its not really an iPhone with fried Wifi/Bluetooth anntenae (thanks OS 7!!!) This doesn't work for me because I have **already** deleted the device from my iCloud account before a restore or two cabled to iTunes. But I've updated to OS 8, and hey look AWESOME, the phone once again thinks it has an iCloud account, good ol' Find My iPhone is turned on! But wait it gets better. I'm trying to restore it because ***thanks again Apple*** the iTunes sync was taking for-g-d-ever, so I made the mistake of trying to stop the sync. My bad there, I should remembered from experience that just because Apple puts a Stop button for syncing functions doesn't mean that it won't screw up your device nearly every dang time. Stoping sync, as with several times in the past, makes the stupid brick think it's holding 30 Gig's of "Other" material, which certainly doesn't exist, thus nothing can be added, hence the restore. To quote the youngling Anakin Skywalker, "YIPPEE!"

SO, much frustrating troubleshooting experience tells me nothing fixes this but a restore, but restoring requries wifi connection. Because it can't be done sitting here with my iJunk cabled into my bloody APPLE iMac running Yosemite, using their flagship software iTunes software, so once again I'm dealing with the same repeating problems that should have been dealt with YEARS AGO. Countless hours dealing with their incompetent 7.x trainwreck that I can never get back.

Another spiral of one stupid problem begetting two more like a beheaded hydra, looking worse and worse the harder you try, because obviously, they don't give a crud. Apple: Think Indifferent!

Any ideas? I'm desperate.

P.S. I'd try a Factory Reset, but should I have any faith a restore won't put me right back where I am now?

Thank you!! This was just what I needed

the wifi is broken on the 4S I have. Cellular service has been turned off, we have moved the number to a different carrier and wanted to exchange in phone.

But if the phone is connected to itunes, the icloud.com , can see the phone somehow, and you can erase/reset it

Thank you! I have been searching for DAYS on how to reset my iphone 5! This worked beautifully!!

I've just come off chat with Apple. Connect the iPhone you want to erase to itunes. Hold down the Home and On/off buttons together for 30 seconds and a message will appear in iTunes asking if you want to restore. Say yes to each of the subsequent questions and its done. I struggled for ages trying to find a way before I contacted Apple and its as easy as that.

Thanks for this. Worked perfectly and saved me hours!!!