Could anyone who knows about iPhones please help?

[eleflump]

My son has got a new iPhone 14 and we are trying to transfer the data from his old phone to his new phone.

He has done this previously with other phones with no problems but we are struggling with this.

The first time he did it everything transferred across apart from his photos and apps, so he factory reset it and tried again, but that time it got stuck on setting up his Apple ID. He has tried a third time but now it has just frozen.

Has anyone else had these problems, I am wondering if there is a problem with the phone?

Is he doing iPhone to iPhone, or from android etc ?

Ideally he needs to be confident that his old phone can synchronise to an online cloud etc and then it can be pulled back to the new iPhone

If it’s iPhone to iPhone and within the right range of iOS versions he should have options to directly transfer between each other or to go to the cloud and back

What is his older phone and what generation of software ?

Why don’t you book an appointment at your nearest Apple Store or go online and have an online chat with them? When I got my new iPhone 14 I simply plugged it in and everything appeared within minutes.

Hi - thanks so much - it's an iPhone XS being transferred to an iPhone 14. He has done the process successfully with previous iPhones where you just hold them near each other so not sure what's going wrong with this one.

I think he is trying to back up the original phone to iCloud now but that seems to have got stuck with 18 minutes remaining.

If he successfully backs up to the iCloud can that be downloaded onto the new phone, and will it include all apps, photos etc from his old phone? Is that just done via Settings?

I have got a six year old Android phone so am way out of my comfort zone trying to help!

Sorry - also apparently both phones are on the latest versions of software.

Had similar a few weeks back. The transferring from phone to phone simply kept buffering, despite being updated, fast internet connection etc. Left it overnight but still didn’t work. Reset factory settings on new phone, and went old school and restored from the cloud. All fine. It’s really annoying that the holding next to each other feature doesn’t work as it should though, as that’s the first option to select when you set up the new handset and I’ve done it loads of times before and it’s never been a problem. It’s also weirdly nerve wracking when you’ve spent so much on a device!

Phone to phone should be the ‘easiest’ but if anything goes wrong it’s likely to fail

The ‘safer’ route is to make a fresh backup to the cloud from the old phone, then to run the new phone to download from that backup

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210216

For apps & files they will either work or not (not would be if that app wasn’t compatible with the new phone version - and won’t work whichever the method - he may be able to do a backup / restore then ‘update’ any apps that don’t work)

A thing to check would be to ensure that the backup is configured to send all files and apps etc - otherwise it wouldn’t backup wouldn’t be there to download

Either go online or call the Apple call centre. They are used to dealing with this kind of thing. I know I had my fair share when i worked there. But it was a while back, and I dont want to give any wrong info

Thanks so much everyone - can I ask if its usual for the backup to take ages? It said 18 minutes remaining about 30 minutes ago but still says 11 minutes remaining now.

Re checking what is being backed up and what isnt, please could anyone give me a dummy guide on how to do that?

Really appreciate the help - we will try this and then contact Apple Support if it doesn't work.

It can take ages for the apps and photos to appear on the new phone once transferred. It took about 6/7 hours for all my apps to move over and over a day for all of my photos, it's not instant.

The phone looks ready to go but photos will keep downloading in the background

can I ask if its usual for the backup to take ages? It said 18 minutes remaining about 30 minutes ago but still says 11 minutes remaining now.

Very normal

In theory you just need to choose ‘settings, iCloud, iCloud backup
Then turn it on

But I would also recommend looking at ‘settings, iCloud, apps using iCloud’

If an app is not set to ‘use iCloud’ then in theory it gets covered by the backup anyway but enabling it ensures that it’s data synchronises, and will be up to date if the phone gets lost / damaged

If iCloud space is limited then you may want to turn off some apps from synchronising to avoid wasting space with files that aren’t a worry and keep it for the stuff you do want

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3ecf67d29/ios#:~:text=Go%20to%20Settings%20%3E%20%5Byour%20name,and%20connected%20to%20Wi%2DFi.

A slow backup/restore that keeps taking longer than it predicts is not to be worried about. The countdown is a guess based on the amount and the speed of the connection
Also if it seems to be stuck for a while then bear with it and it may suddenly show some progress

If using iCloud backup / restore then the phone can be used before it finishes …… incomplete apps will be greyed out until they are ready. But this could slow it further

Thanks again for all your help - I have showed him your messages and he has set something going now so fingers crossed this will sort it.

Just to update and say a massive thank you to everyone, particularly @tommika - it's done it!!!