Here is How to Clear Your Apple Watch to Sell

In the land of wearables, the Apple Watch continues to best them all. Equipped with a long list of useful features, a durable design, and practical uses, the Watch is very useful. It’s no surprise then that the sales of the Apple Watch have been growing steadily in the last few years.

Sometimes, though, there may be a need to sell off your watch despite the usefulness. In that case, you will need to clear your data. This can be done easily from either your iPhone or from the watch itself. In this article, we will explain why you may need to reset your apple watch and how to factory reset the apple watch with or without your iPhone.

How to Unpair your Apple Watch With Your iPhone

The first step when you’re planning to dispose of your Apple Watch is to unpair it. Unpairing disables the Activation lock and allows others to be able to pair the watch to their phones. Perhaps the first step is to unlink your iPhone and your Apple Watch.

1. Keep your iPhone and Apple Watch charged and close. This process may take a while so you should have both devices plugged in.
2. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
3. Navigate to the My Watch tab and select the name of the watch you want to unpair at the top of the watch app home screen. Tap the information button next to the watch to unpair.
4. Select Unpair Apple Watch. This action generates a pop-up at the bottom of the screen asking you to reconfirm your choice to Unpair. Confirm unpairing to proceed.
5. To disable Activation Lock, input your Apple ID. 

Once Activation Lock has been disabled, you will be able to erase all the content and settings from your watch.

How to Unpair your Apple Watch Without Your iPhone

You can still reset your Apple Watch even if you have no access to your paired iPhone. This will be done from the watch itself. It will require that the watch battery is above 50% and plugged into its charger. To do this, please take the following steps

1. Locate the Settings app on your Apple Watch app list.
2. Open the Settings app and scroll down to General.
3. Tap Reset at the bottom of the screen.
4. Select the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ button
5. Scroll down and tap ‘Erase All’.

The warning message when you are about to Erase All explains that even though you are erasing all data, the Activation Lock will not be automatically disabled.

How to Remove the Activation Lock Using iCloud

If the Activation Lock is not disabled, it will be impossible to secure the watch by linking it to a new iCloud account. This is especially common when the Apple watch was unpaired directly from the watch and not from the paired iPhone. To disable the lock, follow these steps

1. Visit iCloud.com on any device to sign in to your iCloud account
2. Navigate to the ‘Find iPhone’ tab
3. Choose ‘All Devices’ at the top of the map and then select your Apple Watch.
4. Click ‘Remove from Account’

Once this is done, all of your locally stored personal information will be removed and the Apple Watch will be as good as new (as far it concerns data and memory). Your Apple Watch is now ready to be unpaired, reset, and ready to be paired with a new iCloud account.

What happens when I Factory reset my Apple Watch?

The Factory reset or hard reset erases all of the content and settings on your Apple Watch. This will include any account information, saved cards for Apple Pay, photos, contacts, music, and apps. It also turns off the iCloud, iMessage, Game Center, FaceTime, and multiple other services. However, your content will not be deleted from iCloud when you erase or reset your device. The only way to delete information that has been backed up on the cloud is for you to sign in to CLoud with your Apple ID and manually delete your information. Note that any information that is deleted this way is not recoverable

What if I am unable to factory reset my Apple Watch?

If after trying the methods above, you find that you are still unable to reset your Apple watch, it may be that there is already a hardware problem with your Watch. Your next move should be to visit the Genius Bar at the nearest Apple Store to you to make your complaint to an expert. The expert is trained to diagnose exactly what is wrong with your device and to address it.

If the Watch is still in its Warranty period, it should not cost you anything to get the hardware problem fixed provided the issue did not arise as a result of poor maintenance on your end. Even if the Watch is no longer covered by warranty, or the AppleCare+ plan or the hardware issue is as a result of how you handled the watch, it will cost you significantly less to fix whatever may be wrong with it than for you to purchase a new one. Most likely, this will be something easily affordable.

Summary

For whatever reason you decide to sell your Apple Watch, ensure you clear your data to protect your personal information and to also give the buyer a chance to be able to connect with the Apple Watch subsequently. Let us know if you found this useful