Most of the time, people remember to wipe their iPhone before selling or giving it to someone else. Still, sometimes, they forget to do this vital step, especially when they’re just giving their old iPhone to a friend or family member. Because of this, it’s possible that the previous owner’s Apple ID will be connected to a used iPhone that you purchase. This can be annoying because it makes it hard to make your new iPhone entirely your own.
This could be more than just a bother, depending on whose Apple ID you’re using. If your iPhone is fully logged into another Apple ID, you won’t be synchronizing your photos and texts with your own account, but rather with someone else’s. They may even be able to track its location using Apple’s Find My iPhone feature. Your close friend or family member may not need to know that much about your personal life, even if they are close.
If you let someone else use your iPhone, they may have also logged in with their Apple ID to get something from the iTunes Store or App Store. This is not as much of a privacy issue because the iPhone is still using your Apple ID for iCloud and other vital data. However, you won’t be able to download or buy apps or run updates if you don’t switch it back to your own Apple ID.
Luckily, most of these issues are simple to fix as long as you know the PIN or password for the iPhone and have full access to it. Let’s go over the different possibilities.
The steps to deactivate an Apple ID using the password
If you know the password, it’s easy to get rid of an Apple ID from your iPhone. As long as the previous owner is close, you can give them the iPhone and let them enter their password. Another option is to ask for their Apple ID password over the phone if they feel comfortable enough with you to do so.
In either case, here’s how to log out of their account on your iPhone:
- Tap the name at the top of the screen to open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap Sign Out at the very bottom of the screen.
- To turn off Find My iPhone (if it was turned on), you’ll be asked to enter the former owner’s Apple ID password. You’ll then be taken through a few more steps to make sure you want to sign out of iCloud.
- When asked to keep or delete friends, calendar events, and images, turn off all switches. Select Sign Out from the upper right corner and Sign Out again in the confirmation window.
The Settings app’s main screen will appear after that. The name will be “Sign in to your iPhone,” nonetheless. Select this and follow the on-screen directions to log in using Apple ID.
Approaches to remotely requesting the deactivation of an Apple ID on an iPhone
If the person who used to own your iPhone isn’t nearby and won’t give you their iCloud password, you can use Apple’s Find My iPhone feature to ask them to delete your device from their account and erase it from their device. But this will erase everything on your iPhone and set it back to the way it was when it was first made.
That might be fine if you just bought an iPhone, but if not, make sure you’ve backed it up to your computers before going any further. In this case, an iCloud backup won’t work because it would back up your data to someone else’s iCloud account. You won’t be able to recover it from there without signing in to their account again, which defeats the point.
The other person should do these things: wipe your iPhone and take it off their account. Keep in mind that Find My iPhone had to be turned on for this to work. That is usually the case, though, and you can skip to the next part if Find My iPhone is not turned on. You won’t need a password to sign out of someone else’s Apple ID.
The following are the steps:
- They should use a web browser to go to www.iCloud.com/find and enter their Apple ID and password to log in.
- Tell them to click on All Devices at the screen’s top, above the map.
- Ask them to pick out your iPhone’s name from the list.
- Then, on the next screen, they should choose “Erase iPhone” and click “Erase” in the approval box that appears. To be sure, they’ll also have to enter their Apple ID login again.
- Because this function is meant to help the person find their lost iPhone, more steps will show up that lets them enter a contact phone number and a message. They don’t have to do these steps.
- As long as they have an internet link, once they’re done with all the steps, your iPhone should be erased and set back to factory settings almost right away.
- On the last screen, the other person will see the iPhone with the word “Erased” next to it. Tell them to click “Remove from Account” to get rid of the iPhone from their Apple ID for good. You must complete this last step because you need to turn off the Activation Lock. You will still require the other person’s Apple ID and password to re-register the device, even if they don’t remove it from their account.
You will see the same welcome screen that you saw when you first got your iPhone. To link it to your Apple ID, just follow the on-screen prompts. During setup, you can restore computer backups.
A guide to removing an Apple ID that does not have the password
Some things might be trickier if you don’t know the past owner, can’t find them, or can’t get them to help you. If “Find Me” is turned off, get around the password. If the former owner needs to enable Find My iPhone, which is uncommon, you can sign out of their Apple ID without their password. Follow the steps in the first part to get to the button that says “Sign Out.” You won’t be asked for a password because you only need one for security reasons to turn off Find My iPhone.
That being said, Find My iPhone is turned on by default, so it would have to have been turned off on purpose. It will usually be turned on, so you’ll need the other person’s Apple ID password to turn it off.
Changing someone else’s Apple ID password
The former owner may have set up your iPhone as a “trusted device” and the version of iOS it runs. If it does, you can change their Apple ID password using the device passcode, if it has one. However, the person will not be able to access their Apple ID on any other device. This will cause them some trouble and force them to figure out how to change their password again.
It depends on the situation to see if this is the right thing to do. It makes sense to do this if the previous owner has died or no longer uses that Apple ID. In other cases, you should try to get in touch with the original owner before taking this step. In any case, here’s what you should do if you’ve chosen this is what you need to do:
- Tap the name at the top of the screen to open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Click on Security & Sign-In.
- Pick Out A New Password.
- You’ll see a screen asking you to enter your iPhone PIN if it’s possible to change your Apple ID password that way. Type it in and click “Done.”
- Choose a new Apple ID password and input it again on the following screen to confirm. Click Change in the upper right corner.
- You can change your Apple ID password and then use the new password to sign out of your Apple ID in the above area.
Limitations and risks
It won’t always be possible to use the device PIN to change the Apple ID password. This only works if the iPhone already has a passcode. You can’t add one later to change the Apple ID password because you’ll need to enter the Apple ID password to set the passcode. The person must have also made the iPhone a “trusted device” for their Apple ID.
Most of the time, both of these will be true, so it’s worth a shot. But if you can’t see the choice to change your Apple ID password with your passcode, there’s nothing else you can do. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal said that thieves have been using this feature to lock people out of their own Apple accounts. Apple could remove this feature in the future.
Activation Lock
If the former owner set up Find My iPhone on their device and you can’t or won’t use the device passcode to reset their Apple ID password, you’re out of luck. iOS’s Activation Lock feature makes it very hard for thieves to use stolen iPhones for anything other than parts. There is no way to get around the Activation Lock and get an iPhone that usually works. Sites that say they can get around the Activation Lock are either scams or use “jailbreaking” tools that will stop the iPhone from working with most Apple services, like iCloud and the App Store.
You’ll need to enter the original owner’s Apple ID and password before you can set up the iPhone, even if you use the brute-force “DFU” method to reset the factory settings. This is because the original owner has to remove the iPhone from their account through the Find My app or website.
Procedures for deactivating an unauthorized user’s Apple ID in the Apple Music, App Store, and other Apple products and services
You can sometimes give your iPhone to a family member or friend, who will then use their own Apple ID to download apps from the App Store to your iPhone. You will only be able to download new apps if they sign out of the App Store before giving you back the iPhone. You’ll be asked for their Apple ID password instead of yours.
It’s easy to log them out of the App Store, and you don’t even need a password. You can also use this method if you bought a used iPhone that still has the previous owner’s Apple ID on it. However, we strongly advise that you deal with the system-wide Apple ID instead, as the previous owner will then have much more access to your iPhone and your data than they should have.
Follow these steps:
- Tap your name at the top of the screen in the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Click on Media & Purchases.
- In the pop-up at the bottom, choose “Sign Out,” and then in the following box, click “Confirm.”
- Again, click on Media & Purchases.
- If you want to sign in with the same Apple ID you use for iCloud, choose Continue. If you want to sign in with a different Apple ID, choose Not (your name).
You can also use this method to change your App Store account on your device if you need to for any reason, like if you have multiple accounts in different countries. You should know that this account works with all of Apple’s services, like Apple Music and Apple TV+, but not with other features like iCloud, FaceTime, and iMessage.
Also, keep in mind that if you bought and got apps with a different Apple ID, you’ll need to sign in with that old ID to get updates for those apps. Because of this, you can delete that app and download it again with your new Apple ID.
