Giving your old iPhone to a family member: sign out first
A hand-me-down iPhone still signed in to your account is a window into your library.
In short
Before giving an old iPhone to a relative, back it up, sign out of your Apple Account, and erase it with Erase All Content and Settings. Then let them set it up with their own Apple Account — a Child Account for a child under 13. If the phone stays on your account, your iCloud photos, messages and call history can keep appearing on it.
Key takeaways
- A phone left on your Apple Account keeps syncing your data.
- Sign out, then erase — even for someone you trust.
- Each family member should have their own Apple Account.
Why “it’s only my mum” is not a reason to skip it
The risk with a hand-me-down is rarely bad intent. It is that a phone still signed in to your Apple Account behaves like one of your devices. With iCloud Photos on, new photos you take appear on it; photos deleted on it are deleted from your library everywhere. Messages and voicemails meant for you can arrive on it, and your call history mixes with theirs.
Apple’s own advice is not to share an Apple Account with a family member at all, because services treat both of you as the same person and some personal data becomes visible to the other.
Prepare the phone
- Back up the iPhone, or make sure everything you need is on your new one.
- Unpair any Apple Watch paired with it.
- Sign out: Settings › [your name] › Sign Out. This also turns off Find My and Activation Lock for the phone.
- Erase it: Settings › General › Transfer or Reset iPhone › Erase All Content and Settings.
- Remove it from your list of trusted devices.
Skipping the erase leaves your apps and their data on the phone. Skipping the sign-out leaves it locked to your account: whoever sets it up will be asked for your Apple Account password.
Set it up as theirs
- They sign in with their own Apple Account, or create one during setup.
- For a child under 13, create a Child Account. Where required by law, a child’s account must be part of a Family Sharing group (the age varies by country or region).
- Use Family Sharing to share purchases, subscriptions and iCloud+ storage — each person’s photos and documents stay private.
- For a child, set up Screen Time and Ask to Buy from your own device.
If the phone held a vault
A vault app’s data goes with the erase. With Latent, check that each vault’s encrypted iCloud backup is current and that you have its nine-word recovery phrase before you wipe the phone; you restore the vault on your new iPhone, not on the hand-me-down.