Technologies

Selling or Replacing Your Old iPhone? Make Sure to Factory Reset It First

Replacing your old iPhone is easier than ever, but it could be risky to sell your Apple phone if you don’t wipe all your personal data first.

If you’re buying the new iPhone 16E to replace your old iPhone, don’t just transfer data and sell your old device — you need to clear out all the personal data first. It’s important to know how to reset your Apple phone, whether you’re selling your old device or making it a hand-me-down for a relative, you need to make sure it’s wiped clean before you hand it off to a new owner. Here’s how to factory reset your iPhone.

No matter the reason you want to wipe your iPhone clean, it all boils down to making sure that all your personal data is gone. This can be sensitive and personal information, like family photos you definitely don’t want to hand off to a stranger. It also includes the litany of private details that your iPhone stores, from credit card information to contacts to everything in your apps.

Thankfully, it’s easy to factory reset your iPhone, although you’ll be asked several times to make sure you’re ready to clear it completely. You’ll also want to prepare before wiping your phone. Here’s how to do it.

Read more: Unresponsive iPhone? Here’s How to Force Restart Your Apple Device

Don’t go further without backing up your iPhone

The first step is to make sure all the data you want to keep is safely backed up. This can easily be done over iCloud, although you can also make a manual backup.

The same way you’d want to back up your iPhone before updating to iOS 18, head to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and tap Back Up Now. This should take a little while, but you’ll be able to restore from this online backup if you need to.

You can also manually create a backup by connecting your iPhone to your computer, although the process differs between PC and Mac. You can still download iTunes to your Windows PC, through which you’ll sync your iPhone and create a backup through that software. With the end of iTunes on Mac in 2019, you’ll have to go through Finder to manage your iPhone, but otherwise, the process of backing up is relatively straightforward.

Note that iPhones are good at moving data wirelessly from one device to another in close proximity, making it easy to seamlessly transfer from your old device to a new one. After waking up your new iPhone, follow the on-screen instructions on your new iPhone to use its camera to scan your old device and let the process continue. It’s still smart to save a backup when you’re getting rid of your old iPhone.

Digitally sign out of every account you can

This is the most tedious step but a necessary part of the process, but it’s important to sign out of apps and services you’ve logged into. You should prioritize apps with more sensitive data, but it’s a good idea to ensure you’re fully logged out of anything with personally identifiable information.

You won’t want someone popping into email, contacts and calendar accounts, so head to Settings > Apps > Mail/Contacts/Calendar > Accounts to manually unlink those.

Bank and payment apps, external email and messaging apps, workplace software like Slack or authentication apps and even digital community apps like Discord are good to log out of. Lastly, if you’re selling your iPhone or giving it to someone else, make sure to disable Find My before erasing your phone. Go to Settings > [your name] > Find My.

Apple’s iPhone 16, 16 Plus Show Off Bolder Colors and Buttons

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If you’re moving to a new iPhone, transfer your cell service

If you’re about to reset an older iPhone that used to be your daily driver linked to your carrier account, you’ll want to transfer service to your new iPhone before factory wiping your device. Why? Because you’ll probably use your older iPhone to call your carrier to switch that service over. Don’t get stuck without a phone like I did.

You used to be able to yank your SIM card out of your old phone and stick it in the new one to carry service over. Not so much these days, as the iPhone 14 and later models sold in the US don’t come with a physical SIM card — it’s eSIM all the way. You’ll need to call your carrier to transfer your data plan over to your new iPhone, but it’s a pretty effortless process. If worse comes to worst (like if you’ve already wiped your old iPhone), you can bring your new iPhone into any of your carrier’s retail stores and they can digitally transfer service over to it.

If you’re just clearing out an old iPhone or will still use this one after resetting it, proceed to the next step.

Finally, here’s how to factory reset your iPhone

If you’ve done the above and are ready to reset your iPhone, open up the Settings app. Then tap General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings and confirm. You’ll be asked to enter your iPhone’s PIN code, then enter your Apple ID password (to unlink the device from your account and turn off Find My capability if you haven’t already).

Once you’ve done that, the screen will turn black and you’ll get a black progress bar at the bottom (similar to if you were updating to a new version of iOS). In a few minutes, the word «Hello» will appear on the screen in different languages, just like it did the first time you activated your iPhone. Congratulations, it’s been successfully reset.

That done, you’re now free to hand it off or send it on its way to a new owner.

Technologies

Social Media and AI Want Your Attention at All Times. This New Documentary Says That’s Bad

Your Attention Please, a documentary premiering this week at SXSW in Austin, Texas, explores how we live in the attention economy.

«Do you remember the world before cellphones?»

The question comes early in Your Attention Please, a documentary premiering this week at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. And it hit me harder than I expected. As a 27-year-old tech reporter, I realized I don’t have too many clear memories of life before smartphones. My adolescence unfolded alongside the rise of smartphones, social media, push notifications and the routine of endless scrolling. Like many people my age, I’ve spent most of my life inside the attention economy — without ever really stepping outside it.

That’s the uneasy territory the documentary explores.

CNET was given exclusive early access to the film’s trailer, embedded below.

Exploring how tech shapes our behavior

Director Sara Robin said she originally set out to make something smaller: a documentary about people trying to reclaim their attention by breaking unhealthy phone habits. In an interview with CNET, Robin described the idea as a personal story about focus and self-control in an age of constant distraction.

As Robin interviewed researchers, technologists and families affected by social media and cyberbullying, the film’s scope widened. What started as a question about individual habits quickly became a larger investigation into how modern technology systems are designed to shape human behavior. The story stretches from the rise of social media to the emerging influence of AI.

Along the way, Robin and her collaborators kept hearing the same observation from different corners of the digital world: Social media didn’t just change how people communicate; it quietly rewired what we value. Experiences that were once private or emotional — friendship, affection, belonging — began to acquire numerical equivalents. Followers, likes, comments, views and shares began to be how we saw our own self-worth. In the architecture of social platforms, those numbers function as a kind of social currency.

Trisha Prabhu, a digital-safety advocate and inventor of the anti-cyberbullying technology ReThink, argues that social platforms did more than create new online spaces. She says they fundamentally reshaped how social validation works. The metrics that define popularity often reward attention-seeking behavior and amplify conflict, while genuine connection is now harder to quantify and, therefore, easier to overlook.

Prabhu warns that the same dynamics already driving problems like cyberbullying could accelerate as automated systems become more capable. AI tools can generate abusive messages at scale, produce convincing impersonations or create deepfakes that spread rapidly online. In some cases, the technology may even blur the line between human interaction and machine-generated communication, which could deepen loneliness or encourage harmful behavior.

«There’s AI exacerbating existing harms [like automating cyberbullying], but then I also think that there’s AI creating completely new harms,» Prabhu told CNET. «There are reports of AI tools encouraging users, including minor users, to commit self-harm… Even for the everyday user who’s not experiencing the extreme outcome, I think we have to ask ourselves how much of our time and connection we want spent with an AI tool as opposed to a fellow human being.»

Bringing attention to attention

What struck Robin during filming the documentary was how universal these anxieties felt. Across conversations with families, educators and advocates around the world, the themes were remarkably consistent: overstimulated attention, declining focus in classrooms, rising anxiety among young people and a persistent sense of dread that comes from always being plugged in.

Those shared concerns have helped spark a coordinated moment around the film’s release.

On March 11, more than 25 organizations focused on digital well-being will simultaneously release the trailer for Your Attention Please as part of an initiative called Stand for Their Attention. What began as a small collaboration among five groups quickly grew as word spread through advocacy networks. The coalition now includes organizations such as Common Sense Media, Protect Young Eyes, Mothers Against Media Addiction, the Center for Humane Technology, Smartphone Free Childhood and Scrolling to Death.

The idea behind the synchronized launch is simple: Use the attention surrounding the documentary to highlight the growing movement that’s already working to reshape digital culture.

Many people feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, Robin says, but behind the scenes, a widening ecosystem of advocates is experimenting with ways to build healthier digital environments, from redesigning products to changing norms around screen use.

The campaign also arrives at a moment of growing scrutiny around the attention economy. Lawmakers in the US and abroad are increasingly debating how social platforms affect youth mental health and childhood development. Boycotts around AI use are taking off. Researchers are studying how these algorithms and chatbots influence behavior. Individuals are trying to figure out how much technology belongs in everyday life.

What can we do about it?

Despite the weight of those conversations, Robin says the goal of the film isn’t to leave audiences feeling powerless. In fact, the rapid rise of public awareness around AI has made her more optimistic than she was during the early days of social media. The systems shaping digital life, she argues, are built by people, which means they can also be rebuilt.

«We have more power than we think,» Robin said. «And there are a lot of different ways to get involved in this, from changing individual habits to changing the culture in your own family and in your community, designing technology differently, getting engaged in these conversations, all the way to pushing for legislative change.»

The film intentionally avoids presenting a single solution.

Instead, Your Attention Please asks a broader question: What happens when attention, one of the most human parts of our lives, becomes one of the most valuable commodities in the global economy? And perhaps more importantly, what kind of digital world do we want to build next?

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 12, #535

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 12, No. 535.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one, with some very unusual categories. The blue one is pretty fun, actually. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: City of Brotherly Love.

Green group hint: NBA star.

Blue group hint: Grr! Meow! Roar!

Purple group hint: Think alphabet.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Philadelphia teams.

Green group: Associated with Larry Bird.

Blue group: Sports figures with animal names.

Purple group: Sports figures whose first names sound like two letters.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Philadelphia teams. The four answers are 76ers, Flyers, Penn and Temple.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Larry Bird. The four answers are Celtics, French Lick, Pacers and Sycamores.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports figures with animal names. The four answers are Bear Bryant, Cat Osterman, Catfish Hunter and Tiger Woods.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports figures whose first names sound like two letters. The four answers are Casey Stengel (KC), CeeDee Lamb (CD), Katie Ledecky (KT) and Vijay Singh (VJ).

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 12

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 12.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I found 7-Across tricky. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.