How to turn an old iPhone into an iPod Touch

If you recently upgraded to the new iPhone 6s, you may be wondering what to do with your old iPhone. Here’s how to turn an old iPhone into an iPod Touch.

Your basic instinct might be to just sell your old iPhone, but you’d be surprised at the kind of use you can get out of an old iPhone, even if it doesn’t have a phone plan attached to it. One of the most popular methods of repurposing is using an old iPhone as a refurbished iPod Touch.

However, there are a few steps you need to take before you can use an older iPhone without a phone plan, and we’ll walk you through the steps to get you to your updated iPod Touch quickly and easily.

Get a SIM card

The first thing you need to do is get a SIM card, and any SIM card will do, it doesn’t have to be active.

This can be tricky if you no longer have the SIM card that came with your previous iPhone, as you’ll need a SIM card that came from a previously activated iPhone. However, it can be a SIM card from any iPhone, which shouldn’t be hard to find if you have friends with iPhones with old SIM cards lying around. If all else fails, you can easily find SIM cards on Ebay.

Once you have a SIM card, follow these quick steps:

1. Insert the SIM card into your old iPhone.
2. Connect the old iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes.
3. iTunes will see it as a new device and you will need to activate it.
4. Once it’s activated, you’re good to go!

Sure you can use an old iPhone without a SIM card, but you’ll get an annoying pop-up every time you reboot. Also, without a SIM card, you can’t restore the iPhone if you need to.

Don’t worry though, because even if you have a SIM card in your old iPhone, it won’t have a service plan attached to it, so you won’t pay a monthly service charge.

Turn off the cell phone and turn on WiFi

Since your new “iPod Touch” doesn’t have a service plan (meaning you can’t make calls or send/receive text messages), you can also turn off all cellular radio on your old iPhone, which is a life saver of battery.

However, your device is highly dependent on WiFi, so make sure to turn it on. Here’s how to do both:

1. Open the app and tap .
2. There will be a switch at the top to turn off the cellular radio. Tap the switch until it turns gray (if it isn’t already).
3. Return to the main Settings screen and tap .
4. Tap the toggle switch at the top next to turn it on (if it’s not already on).
5. Select your home network from the list below and enter the password if you are not already connected.

You don’t have to turn off cellular radios, but it helps save battery life, because your old iPhone isn’t constantly searching for a signal it can never receive.

Download useful apps

Once you have completed the above steps, you can now download any useful applications you want to use on your new “iPod Touch”, such as music player, video player, podcast application, etc.

I suggest getting some games to play, as well as keeping all your music on the device, and maybe some movies and TV shows to watch on the go.

You can also use the device as a dedicated music player to keep in your car, office or home gym if you have one. Personally, I’m always a fan of carrying a spare iPhone to listen to music on the go, just so I don’t accidentally drop or lose my primary iPhone.

Note that the iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without a phone, so the only thing you can’t do is make/receive phone calls, send/receive text messages (you can still use iMessage over WiFi ), and access to the Internet without a WiFi connection.

Additionally, your new “iPod Touch” can also act as a backup phone when your primary device breaks or fails. If that happens, you don’t have to run out and get a loan. Instead, you’ll have a backup at your disposal that will have all your favorite apps and games.