How to restore your Apple iPhone: step-by-step guide

When it comes to completely wiping the memory of your Apple iPhone, whether you want to delete all personal data before selling it or simply refresh it to improve its performance, factory reset is a useful, if drastic, option. Once completed, you’ll have a virtually new iPhone.

How to perform a factory reset on an Apple iPhone

Before you begin, it is essential to back up your iPhone. This will allow you to restore the backup once the factory reset is complete. Even if you don’t want to restore all your old settings, it’s still a good idea to keep them at least for a while in case you need them.

If you’re selling or giving away your iPhone, be sure to disable iCloud – Where It Is before performing the restore. To perform a factory reset of your iPhone, follow these steps:

• Go to Settings > General.
• Tap Transfer or restore iPhone.
• Tap Delete content and settings.
• Tap Continue.
• Enter your passcode.
• At this point, the phone will try to back up to iCloud. If everything works correctly, you will be able to continue. If not, you will be asked to delete anyway.

Verify that the Apple iPhone restore was done correctly

Once you have completed the restore process, which may take a few minutes, verify that your phone has been restored to its original factory settings.

If you have successfully performed the restore, you will again see the iOS Setup Assistant at startup, from which you can restore your phone from a backup or continue as if you were setting it up for the first time.

What do the other restore options mean?

When you perform a restore of your iPhone, iOS 17 presents several options, and it can be difficult to decide which ones to choose. Usually, you’ll want to perform a simple factory reset, but here’s an explanation of the other options so you can choose the best restore for your needs.

Note: If you are selling your phone or giving it to someone else, the only command that will safely erase everything and return your phone to its original state is “Erase Contents and Settings” as described above.

Reset all settings

This command resets all of your iPhone’s settings to their defaults, including network settings and preferences. This is not a drastic option, as only the system settings are restored. All apps, data, documents and files are kept as is.

Reset network settings

Sometimes it is enough to update the network settings to get a better connection. Choosing this option will reset the network settings, clear the cache, and delete any temporary files stored on the device. This is useful for those who have problems with Wi-Fi connections.

Reset keyboard dictionary

This option fixes autocorrect problems and clears the keyboard dictionary history. The iPhone’s autocorrect system sometimes irretrievably messes up a sentence or word that was correct in its original form, and this will solve the problem of getting suggestions of typos and irrelevant words while typing.

Reset the layout of the main screen

This is a great option if you want to return to the default layout of your iPhone’s home screen. Many users like to install and rearrange apps on the home screen of their smartphone. If the changes you make are no longer useful, you can always restore the original layout to start over.

Reset location and privacy

Often, when you experiment with settings, you can accidentally cause problems. If you need to restore your phone’s initial privacy and location settings, consider this reset. You don’t have to worry about losing other information in the process.