Once you’ve unpaired your Watch from your iPhone, just follow the steps in this article to pair it to your next phone. You have two options for the kind of backup you prefer: You’re likely already doing one of these. If so, do one final backup (depending on your settings, you may need to back up photos to a separate app). If you haven’t been backing up, follow the steps in these articles. So, before you move to the next step, check to make sure that your most important information — your address book, photos (especially photos! So many people lose these without realizing it), music, etc. — is on your computer or in iCloud. (And, remember: virtually anything that you’ve gotten from the iTunes or App Stores can be redownloaded for free). If you’re missing things, back up again. If everything’s there, move on to the next step. This is a powerful anti-theft feature that requires the original Apple ID used to activate the phone in order to activate it for a new user. This is great to stop thieves, but if you sell your iPhone without turning the feature off, it’s going to stop the buyer from ever using the phone. Solve this problem by turning off Find My iPhone and signing out of iCloud before selling your iPhone. If you don’t, you’re going to hear from the person who buys it. When iPhones are activated, they’re “locked” to one network. After a certain period of time, iPhones can be unlocked, which allows them to work with any cell phone network. Selling an unlocked iPhone means that the buyer has more flexibility and you can sell to anyone, not just customers of your current phone company. This is especially valuable if you’re selling to an iPhone trade-in company. The best way to confirm this is iCloud and Find My iPhone. Log in to Find My iPhone at http://www.icloud.com/find. When you’ve logged in, check to see if Find My iPhone shows your old phone. If it doesn’t, you’re all set to move to the next step. If your old phone still shows up in Find My iPhone, use the site to Erase your iPhone. When that’s done, select your iPhone and remove it from your account. If you don’t do this, your iPhone will still be locked to your Find My iPhone account and the new owner won’t be able to use it — and no one likes an unhappy buyer. You can clean the screen and back of the phone with a little water and a soft cloth. Your phone service should have transferred from your old phone to your new one when you bought and activated the new phone. You may already know it works: you may have gotten phone calls on the new phone. If not, ask someone to call you and make sure the call goes to your new phone. If it does, all is well. If it doesn’t, contact your phone company to make sure everything is correct about your service before getting rid of your old phone. If you’re doing that, make sure you deregister your phone number from Apple’s iMessage texting platform. If you don’t, you could have problems getting all texts on your new Android device. Remember, though: If you’re sticking with iPhone, there’s no need to do this. In fact, doing it will cause you problems.
