Wouldn’t it be nice if your iPhone self-destructed to prevent thieves from having your personal data if they steal your phone? Even if you could even lose it… It won’t explode, but Apple offers a way to erase data from your iOS devices and with them all your personal information remotely. The information in this article applies to all currently supported versions of iOS.
How to delete your iPhone data remotely
How to delete data with Find My iPhone
To remotely erase data on your iPhone, you must first make a small configuration to make the process feasible. Back up your iPhone data regularly to protect yourself from data loss.
How to Backup iPhone
Connect the device to your computer and open iTunes, click the Device icon in iTunes located on the left side of the window next to the category drop-down menu. Select Summary in the sidebar. From there, go to “This computer” in the Auto Backup category. Make sure the Encrypt iPhone backup box is checked. This guarantees the backup of passwords, integrity and HomeKit data. Encrypted backups are protected by a password created, which will be stored in the Keychain. Finally, click Finish when your data is backed up.
FIND MY IPHONE
Activate the Find My iPhone option on the iPhone and connect an active iCloud account on the device to find my iPhone works. The iCloud account is offered free by Apple.
- Tap the Settings app.
- Touch your Apple ID account (the main item in the Settings app).
- Touch iCloud.
- Tap Find My iPhone and turn it on if you haven’t already activated it.
If your firmware is older than iOS 5, you will need to follow these instructions to enable Find My iPhone.
HOW TO DELETE FROM YOUR IPHONE REMOTELY
In case we are sure we will never see our beloved iPhone again, you can use the remote wipe function.
Once the data on the device is deleted remotely, it will no longer be possible to locate it using Find My iPhone. Remote wipe should only be used when you are convinced that you will never get your device back.
- Open the iPhone Find the app from another iOS device like an iPad or from a computer’s web browser by visiting the iCloud.com website and accessing your iCloud account.
- Select the device you want to delete.
- Select Cancel iPhone.
Method 2- Self-destruction after too many failed passcode attempts
You can configure your iPhone to automatically delete data if the wrong access code is entered more than 10 times following these steps.
- Open the Settings app.
- Select Touch ID and passcode or Face ID and passcode if your iPhone uses Face ID authentication. Enter the passcode if required.
- If you do not have a passcode enabled, you must first activate it by selecting Activate passcode. Set up a passcode of your choice and confirm it. We recommend setting a stronger passcode than the default 4-digit passcode for greater security.
- Read the warning and tap the Enable button.
The phone is now set to automatically delete all its data after 10 failed passcode insertion attempts.
Use caution when deleting data remotely on your iPhone
If you have children or someone else who uses your phone, the Clear data option could be a problem if you are not careful. Your child may try innocently to guess the code too many times and accidentally delete data from your iPhone.
It is better to use the remote cancellation function if you are sure that your girlfriend (iPhone) will never come back to you!
