How to remove Activation Lock before selling your iPhone

Activation Lock is the iCloud-tied security feature that makes a stolen iPhone worthless to a thief. The catch: it does the same thing to a buyer if you forget to remove it before selling. We can't accept an Activation-Locked phone at pickup (nobody reputable can), so it's worth getting this right BEFORE we knock.

Three scenarios, three methods. Pick the one that matches.

Method 1: Phone in your hands, working, you know the password

This covers ~90% of sellers. Three steps in Settings:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap your name at the top (the iCloud / Apple ID section)
3. Scroll all the way down and tap Sign Out
4. Enter your Apple ID password to confirm. iOS prompts you about what to keep - it doesn't matter what you pick because we'll factory reset the phone on our end

That's it. Signing out of iCloud automatically turns off Find My (which is what Activation Lock relies on).

How to verify it worked: the box at the top of Settings should now say "Sign in to your iPhone" instead of your name.

Method 2: Phone in hand, but locked / can't get past the lock screen

If you've forgotten your passcode or the screen is broken, sign out remotely via iCloud.com:

1. On any other device (laptop, another phone), go to icloud.com and sign in with the Apple ID linked to the phone
2. Open Find My (it's one of the app tiles)
3. Click All Devices at the top, pick the iPhone
4. Click Erase iPhone. Once the erase completes, you'll get a button to Remove from Account - click that

This wipes the phone AND removes the Activation Lock in one go. Don't worry about losing data - if you have iCloud backups, you can restore on a future device.

Method 3: Phone is already gone (you've handed it over, sold it, lost it)

Same as Method 2 but skip the Erase step:

1. Sign in at icloud.com with the right Apple ID
2. Open Find My > All Devices
3. Pick the iPhone, scroll down and click Remove from Account

The phone has to be offline (powered off or factory reset) for "Remove from Account" to appear. If it's still showing as online, hit Erase first.

Common stumbling blocks

"I don't remember my Apple ID password"

Use Apple's recovery flow at iforgot.apple.com. We genuinely cannot help with this - Apple ID recovery is between you and Apple. Block out ~24 hours for the process if you've lost access to your trusted devices.

"Two-Factor Authentication keeps asking for a code I can't get"

Usually means the 2FA code is going to a device you no longer have (the one you're selling, an old number, etc). Apple has a Two-Factor recovery flow that can take a few days - same iforgot.apple.com link.

"Find My won't turn off"

This is its own rabbit hole - see our guide on fixing Find My when it refuses to turn off.

"I did a factory reset first and now I'm locked out"

Famous footgun. Resetting the phone WITHOUT signing out first locks you out via Activation Lock. The fix is Method 3 above - go to iCloud.com and remove from account remotely.

Once it's done

You're good to grab a quote. When we arrive for pickup, we run through a 30-second iCloud check on our end to confirm the phone is truly Activation-Lock-free. If it isn't, no offer until you sign out, but no judgment either - it happens.