Apple is building a new way to erase an iPhone, and it goes further than the current “Erase All Content and Settings” option most iPhone owners already know. Code buried in the first iOS 27.2 beta shows Apple preparing a feature that overwrites the entire storage on a device with blank data, including the space that isn’t actively holding any files.
The discovery comes from 9to5Mac, which dug through the iOS 27.2 beta 1 release and found references to the new erasing behavior. Apple confirms in the code that the process will take longer than a standard erase and could shorten the device’s lifespan over repeated use.
Standard iPhone Erasing Already Destroys Your Data
Right now, wiping an iPhone doesn’t physically overwrite the storage. Instead, iOS destroys the encryption keys tied to that data, which makes everything on the device permanently unreadable even though the raw bits are technically still sitting on the chip.
Apple lays this out clearly in its own Apple Platform Deployment support documentation:
On the device, erasing (or wiping) obliterates all the keys in effaceable storage and renders all user data cryptographically inaccessible.
That approach has worked well enough for over a decade. It’s fast and efficient, and it doesn’t add wear to the flash storage. The new overwrite option changes that trade-off entirely.
This Feature Is Landing in China First, and Only in China
9to5Mac confirmed that as the feature is currently coded, it only activates on iPhone models sold in China. The regulation behind this is China’s GB 46864-2025 standard, which requires smartphones and other electronics to offer a more thorough way to erase stored data by January 1, 2027.
The standard specifically allows overwriting semiconductor storage, like the flash memory used in every iPhone, with meaningless data at least once as an approved erasure method. That lines up directly with what Apple’s new option does.
Code references in the beta also point to support for the iPad, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple appears to be rolling this compliance feature out across its entire device lineup.
Our Take
I don’t expect this to show up outside China anytime soon. Apple already treats data destruction through key deletion as cryptographically sound, and there’s no regulatory pressure in the US or Europe pushing for anything more. Still, it’s worth watching whether Apple eventually offers this as an optional feature elsewhere for users who want an extra layer of assurance before handing off or recycling a device.
