How to Sell Your iPhone Safely?

September guarantees three things: the start of the school year, pumpkin spice lattes, and a new lineup of iPhones. On Sept. 10, Tim Cook and friends will file into the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino and introduce the next iPhone lineup.

Rumors tip an iPhone 11 (the update to the iPhone XR), iPhone Pro (what to get if you like the iPhone XS), and the enthusiastically named iPhone Pro Max (the iPhone XS Max upgrade). While we can speculate about triple cameras, one thing we know for sure is that fans will be lining up to buy the phones whether or not they have a weird bump on the back or not.

But they probably won't come cheap; the "budget" iPhone XR starts at $750 and the XS lineup will set you back at least a grand. Offset those costs by selling your old iPhone. But before you pack up your old Apple smartphone and ship it out, you should know there's more to the process than just handing it over and waiting for cash to hit your bank account.

Privacy concerns abound with phones, from photos stored in iCloud to personal data housed within apps, so wiping your phone before you hand it over to its next owner is a must. And don't forget to back up, so you don't have to manually re-download hundreds of apps on your new iPhone.

Below is our step-by-step guide to preparing your phone for sale, as well as a few reputable sites that will take it off your hands for top dollar.

Back-Up

The first thing to do is to make sure you don't lose your mind. And by that, we mean your data. Back everything up before you wipe it from your phone.

On the PC, be sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed. Then connect your phone to your computer. When it shows up in iTunes, choose whether to back up to iCloud or your computer. (If you want your Health and Activity data to be included in the backup, check off Encrypt iPhone Backup and create a password when prompted.) Then select Back Up Now.

To back up directly from your iOS device, go to Settings, select your name, then tap iCloud. Scroll down to iCloud Backup > Back Up Now. If you toggle iCloud Backup to on, it will automatically update photos, accounts, docs, Health and HomeKit data, and settings when your device is plugged in, locked, and connected to Wi-Fi.

Then, when you get your new iPhone and power it up, you can choose to back up from iTunes or back up from iCloud, which will populate your new phone with all the apps and settings found on your old device.
This article is originally published on https://www.pcmag.com/