Hi, I recently bought a used iPhone 4S. The previous user failed to wipe the phone, however and, upon opening Safari I was surprised to see some pretty disgusting content - pornographic. I have started a SIM only contract and instantly broke up his micro-SIM (he gave me it to prove that the phone worked, obviously) My SIM hasn't arrived yet so I can't resolve this problem until it does... Is there any way that this can be treated as a new phone? As in can his "footprint" be completely removed from the history of the phone? I don't want any signs of his apps (there were a lot of them) , search history or anything else. For example - when you click on the app store and check your purchase history I don't want his apps appearing there (although I haven't checked this sin ce removing his SIM)I don't want anything left over from his time using the phone AT ALL. I'll probably allow both my little brother and girlfriend to use this phone and, well the rest doesn't need explaining. I know you can wipe the browsing history but does that "really" wipe it? I know this isn't always the case with a PC or laptop. Am I right in assuming that all of this is actually on the iCloud ID anyway and won't affect me? I'm not a troll by the way, ignore the post count... Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate it.
I need help with my 4S (should be easy for regular users)
- Thread starter redroad
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Once you receive the SIM card, connect to iTunes on your computer and restore the iPhone. This will erase all the previous user's content and return the phone to factory condition. You can then set it up as a new phone under your own iTunes account.
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I gave my 4s to my son and i used Erase all Content and Settings before i passed it on.
This. Generally, if the device doesn't have that much data in it, then you could use the Erase All Content and Settings in the Settings.app. That would avoid having to download the iOS IPSW and installing it, which can take a while depending on your internet. But the thing about Erase All Contents and Setting is that, the more data it has, the longer it takes for it to be finished.
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thats true,there wasn't much in mine so it didn't take long.
But even if it's completely packed to the brim, I don't think it should take that long. I've tried it on a 64GB that had about 51GB of data in it, and it took only a little over an hour IIRC, which isn't bad considering it's standalone and doesn't require a PC.
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yes it's good to have that option as not everyone has access to a computer,Apple think of everything
- Thread Starter
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Thanks guys, I appreciate the assistance. As you can see I'm a casual user so don't know too much about smartphones in general, let alone the iPhone. One more question - for future reference.. what exactly is stored on the SIM card? Other than your number and such, I mean.. Is your web history stored on the sim or the iPhone itself? Also, am I right in assuming that contacts CAN'T be backed up to the sim like with my old Nokia? Cheers guys. I'll get the hang of smartphones... Eventually.
AFAIK no. The SIM card can't hold that much data on it. It depends. I've yet to see someone backup their contacts onto a SIM and transfer it over to their iPhone as iOS is a bit strict with its security and such, so I don't think it'd allow for contacts porting from one device to another via SIM. If you can, put all your contacts into a Micro SD, extract them, and sync them over to your contacts on Google or Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, then import them on your phone. That's generally what you'd do.
If not, bring it to your carrier, and they should be able to port it over for you.
If not, bring it to your carrier, and they should be able to port it over for you.
It should be stored on the phone. Again, Apple security protocols are quite strict, so any loopholes that could potentially be exploited for jailbreaking, hacking and pirating and such are pretty much closed off, so any type of data porting to and from a SIM card, in my knowledge, shouldn't work or doesn't exist. I know that it works for other devices, but in terms of the iPhone, I don't believe so. If you wipe the phone using a restore or using Erase All Contents and Settings, the web history and input/saved user data should all be removed completely.
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