How to transfer from an old iPhone to a new iPhone

How do I transfer all my data from my old iPhone to my new one?

One of our favourite things about getting a new iPhone is the fact that it is really easy to set it up to be exactly the same as our old iPhone.

When you have finished working through this tutorial your new iPhone will look exactly the same as your old iPhone: with the same wallpaper; Apps ordered in the same way, and stored in the same folders; photos will appear in your Photos app; your email will automatically be set up; old text messages will appear in your Messages app; all your Contacts will be available to you; and so on. The only difference will be the way your iPhone looks and how fast it is!

Thanks to iOS and iCloud this can be done easily and pretty much anywhere (as long as you have access to power, anyway). In this article we show how to set up a new iPhone from a previous phone’s backup, and how to transfer key data if restoring from backup isn’t possible.

We have a guide on setting up a new iPhone here for those of you who are setting up your first ever Apple phone: How to set up a new iPhone. If you are moving from Android this might be useful: How to move from Android to iPhone.

Here’s how to move from an old iPhone to a new iPhone:

Step 1: Create a back up of your old iPhone

The first thing you need to do is create a back up of your old iPhone. You can create the back up in iCloud or in iTunes on your Mac (or PC). We prefer to use iCloud since it means we can access it anywhere and don’t need to have our Mac with us, but using iTunes will be faster, so for speed we will recommend backing up using iTunes.

Here’s how to back up your old iPhone using iTunes:

1. Plug your iPhone into your Mac or PC
2. Open iTunes
3. Click ‘Back Up Now’

And how to back up your iPhone using iCloud:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone
2. Tap on your the name/picture at the top, then tap iCloud > iCloud Backup.
3. Check the list of Apps using iCloud to make sure that all the apps with data you need will be backed up
4. Now tap Back up Now. (Or in older versions of iOS, head to Settings > iCloud > Backup and tap ‘Back Up Now’.)

Apple Watch owners beware: switching iPhones will require you to reset your Apple Watch. Its apps and settings will be backed up to the Watch app on your iPhone before your Watch is reset – don’t worry about storage, as the backups are only around 100-200kb.

On that note, if you have health data you must back up your iPhone via iCloud or using an encrypted iTunes backup, as for legal reasons, Apple isn’t allowed to store personal health-related data in unprotected backups.

This means that if you choose not to encrypt your backup in iTunes/use iCloud, your backup will restore your Apple Watch apps, but it won’t transfer your exercise/health data.

For more information, take a look at this: How to keep your Apple Watch apps when switching to a new iPhone

Step 2: Turn on your new iPhone

Once you’ve turned on the new iPhone, simply follow the instructions on screen to set up the device.

Step 3: Restore from iCloud/iTunes backup

Once you’ve logged in to your new iPhone with your Apple ID, you’ll be asked whether you want to set your iPhone up as a brand new iPhone, or if you’d like to restore an existing backup via iTunes or iCloud.

From here, select either Backup from iCloud or Backup from iTunes and select the most recent backup from your old iPhone.

Step 4: Wait while your data is restored

After selecting a backup to restore from, your data and preferences from your old iPhone will be transferred. The time it takes may vary depending on the size of the backup (iTunes and iCloud) and your Wi-Fi speed (iCloud).

Once this is complete, you’re done – you should be able to access all photos, contacts, messages and other data from your old iPhone.

How to transfer data to a new iPhone

The above method is fine for those of us that haven’t already set up our iPhones as ‘new’ iPhones – but what about those of us that have already started using the new phone and don’t want to restore from a backup? Luckily there is a way to transfer some data even if you have set up a new iPhone without using a backup.

The following method uses Apple’s iCloud and should transfer all photos, contacts, notes, calendars and Safari passwords from your old iPhone to your new one. Read next: How to transfer music from one iPhone to another.

Step 1: Enable iCloud on your old iPhone

On your old iPhone, open the Settings app and make sure you’re signed in with your Apple ID/iCloud account and you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Once signed in, click on your Apple ID information at the top of the page, then click on iCloud. Toggle on everything you want to transfer to your new iPhone (Photos, Contacts and so on). Leave your iPhone connected to Wi-Fi and your data should start syncing with iCloud, although there’s no progress bar to see how much has been synced.

Step 2: Enable iCloud on your new iPhone and sync data

Once you’ve synced your old iPhone with iCloud, it’s time to transfer all your data to your new iPhone. Just like with the old iPhone, head to Settings and make sure you’re logged in with the same Apple ID/iCloud account as your old iPhone, then open the iCloud settings and toggle on everything you want to download.

After a few minutes, you should find your old data appearing in relevant apps, such as Photos and Contacts.

Step 3: Download purchased apps

Although the above step will successfully transfer data including images, videos and contacts, it won’t transfer everything – if you want to access and download your purchased apps, you can head to the App Store, tap the Updates tab and then tap ‘Purchased’. This will bring up a list of every app you’ve downloaded, both paid and free, available to download to your iPhone.

It’s worth noting that if you want access to your old preferences (Wi-Fi logins, Settings and so on), third-party app data (game saves), health/exercise data or text messages, you’ll have to erase your new iPhone and set it up again, this time selecting a backup of your previous iPhone to restore from. Read next: How to transfer contacts from iPhone to iPhone

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