In today's tutorial/review, I will show you how to completely erase your data including Caches on your #iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch on iOS 8 all the way up to #iOS 12.3. This is particularly useful if you are preparing to sell your device and you want to make sure there is no personal data left on it, but you do not want to perform a restore because that would update the iOS version. If your device is running a lower iOS version that can be jailbroken, some buyers may value it more. Using this program called dr.fone – Erase, you can perform a full clean up without actually updating the iOS which is very very useful in my opinion, especially for the Jailbreak community, but not only. Using this tool you can delete contacts, notes, music, photos, apps, reminders, messages and any other kind of data, or you can choose to remove everything with one click.
The tool called dr.fone – #Erase is very simple to use. All you have to do is to first backup your device – just in case there is data in there you don't want to be lost forever. This is a very important step because dr.fone – Erase will completely obliterate the data and this action cannot be reverted if you change your mind, so do your backup first! Then, all you have to do is to open the tool, plug in your device, wait for it to be recognized by the tool, and follow the on-screen instructions. The device will reboot several times and may show a progress bar during the operation.
At the end of the procedure, the device will boot to the Setup screen where you can choose the language, country and connect to a WiFi network. At that point, all the data has been removed so you can safely sell the device or start using it as new.
There are two different modules on the dr.fone – Erase you can choose from:
- 1 click erase – This one will perform a full erase of the device. It will remove absolutely anything stored on the device and it will bring it to factory originals. Once completed, this option will make the device boot to the Setup screen where you can configure the language, country, WiFi, Touch ID, and so on.
- Selective removal – This creates a backup of the current device, then allows you to edit that backup to remove various files (photos, contacts, music, videos, messages, notes, etc.) while leaving others. Once you are done selecting what to remove, the edited backup will be restored to the device and the changes will be applied. This can possibly leave traces of your personal data, so if you are planning to sell your device online or locally, please use the first option to ensure no private data is left on the device.
You may be wondering, can't iTunes do this? The answer is a loud NO. iTunes cannot selectively remove files from your device in the fashion dr.fone does it, and it cannot remove everything from your device with one click without updating the phone to the latest version which you may not want. If you are jailbroken or you want to remain on a lower version while still cleaning the device off of the data you no longer need, dr.fone may be a good candidate worth checking, especially since it has a free trial available for both Windows and macOS.
Warning: This tool removes data permanently. Please make sure you do have a backup of the important stuff before using the program. All deletions that were not backed up somewhere else will be permanent. I am not responsible for any data loss or issues that may occur by using this tool improperly.
* Please check out the tutorial below in order to understand how to use dr.fone to remove data from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Full sponsorship disclosure: This video, as well as the links on the article and description for dr.fone – erase, are sponsored by Wondershare, the creators of dr.fone. This is an unbiased review and contains a demonstration of the tool with real-world equipment.