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Want to make sure a deleted confidential email or embarrassing photo is purged forever from your iPhone, but don’t want to go through the inconvenience of wiping the entire device? Simply deleting a file doesn’t guarantee it’s gone for good. Protect your deleted data from being recovered by hacking tools and prying eyes, or in the event your iPhone is stolen.
iErase is a simple utility for zeroing out the free space on your iPhone without performing a full reset of your content and settings. The tool does not delete any live files, but uses the same method that Mac OS X uses to zero free space: it creates a large temporary file, which writes zeroes over the free space where deleted files can still reside. On the iPhone, this occurs within the application’s sandbox, but because all applications share the same free space, the entire iPhone user partition is cleansed, forever purging deleted photos, email, voicemail, and other deleted files – without having to reset all your content and settings.
This helpful utility can be run periodically to effortlessly clear out old data and ensure it is beyond recovery. Because it doesn’t erase your content or settings, you won’t spend extra time restoring everything back onto your device, and the operation itself can take up less time than a full erase because it only operates on free space.
To use, set your “Auto-Lock” setting to “Never” and let it run while connected to a power source. Actual erase time varies depending on the amount of free space on the device. If you receive a phone call while iErase is running, it will pause and simply continue when you’re finished.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Will this delete any information from my iPhone?
A. No, and that’s impossible for several reasons. First of all, iErase is only programmed to create a large temporary file filled with zeros. It doesn’t talk to the raw disk, it doesn’t perform any deletes. The code simply isn’t there to do anything malicious to your phone. Secondly, the iPhone’s sandbox prevents applications from deleting data from any other application. iErase is a safe and easy method to clean free space on the iPhone or iPod Touch without affecting any other files.
Q. Why do I have less free space than when I started??
A. As iErase runs, it begins to fill up all of the available space on the device. When iErase exits, it automatically frees up all of the space it used, so you should end up with just as much free space as when you started. The only time you might need to take action is if the device’s battery dies or if you suffer some kind of crash.
Q. Help! My battery died or my app crashed, and now I have less free space!
A. No problem. Just run iErase again, then push the ‘Cancel’ button to abort (or re-run the free space wipe process). iErase will automatically clean up anything that was left from a previous run, just incase. If all else fails, uninstalling iErase will also remove any remaining temp files. You can then re-install it and be back. It is unlikely that you should ever encounter occasion to need to do this, however.
Q. I am selling my iPhone / iPod. What should I do?
A. Before running iErase, you should reset all of the information on the iPhone. The most thorough way to do this is with a full restore, or a quick way is to “Reset all Settings” on the phone. The restore process only performs a quick format, however, and doesn’t wipe everything, and the “Reset all Settings” process only deletes your personalized files, and doesn’t even format the device. In both cases, you’ll want to follow up your restore by running iErase. Once your personal data is removed – keychain passwords, configuration files, email, etc., iErase will then wipe over all of that to ensure it is beyond recovery.
Q. Will this shorten the life of my device?
A. Solid state disks are designed to withstand 10,000+ writes, and newer solid state technology has improved this even more, making them acceptable for use in notebook computers and other heavier-writing products. With this in mind, if you ran iErase every week for two years, you’d only be performing just over 100 additional writes to the iPhone’s disk. This is negligible compared to the life span of the unit.
Q. Won’t this allow criminals to erase evidence?
A. As I frequently assist law enforcement on cases involving iPhones, I’m well aware of how a tool like this could be used to destroy evidence. While I hate the idea that a criminal might do this, I’m equally concerned about the other 99.9% of law abiding citizens whose identities, corporate secrets, and personal information is exposed on their iPhone. I believe these folks have a right to keep their personal information private – and by using iErase, crimes such as identity theft are likely to be decreased. A majority of criminals are too dumb to run a tool like this, or will leave their evidence exposed on other mediums such as desktops or pen drives. iErase is a tool, and just like encryption, can be used to protect privacy or cover up a crime. My hope is that it will succeed in the former and not hinder law enforcement.
Screenshots
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iErase Prompt
iErase prompts you before beginning. Push Continue to begin zeroing free space. |
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iErase Operation
iErase shows you how much disk space has been zeroed. When the progress meter reaches the end, it has finished erasing your free space. |
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iErase