One question I get asked a lot, especially at this time of year, is how to transfer data from one iPhone onto a new iPhone. Here’s a quick tip guide to getting started with your new iPhone, and hey, while you’re here, if you find this useful, press that subscribe button down below. There are loads more videos all about iPhone and iPad quick tips just waiting for you on my channel.

Before we even touch our new phone, the first job is to go into the old device and complete a full iCloud backup. So, jump onto Settings, tap on iCloud, and then scroll down until you get to Backup. This will happen if it’s connected to Wi-Fi and plugged in charging overnight, so it shouldn’t take long to do one last top-up backup to make sure all your data is safe on the new device.

Now we’re going to go through and choose our language and our country. After that, you’re going to have an option and a choice to make. So, if you’ve got your old device side by side, you can do an automatic transfer of the key settings. If your old device is gone, you can set up manually and just log into Apple ID that way instead. I’m going to go automatic, and I’m going to put my old iPhone 11 next to my new iPhone 12. At this stage, I’m going to press continue on my old iPhone, which is recognized that it’s near a new one. In order to confirm that you’re transferring to the correct device, it’s going to ask you to scan that galaxy-type picture on the screen. This is very familiar if you’ve been using the Apple Watch before, as it’s the same way you pair one of those devices.

After this, it will take a few moments to transfer the key data—we’re talking iCloud account, Wi-Fi passwords, those sort of things—and then it’s going to ask you to initiate Face ID or Touch ID. This secure data won’t get transferred from the old device; you need to set it up fresh. I’m going to go and spin my head in a circle a couple of times to calibrate Face ID. I’m going to speed through that bit for you.

Then, the next step is going to be making a choice about how you want to transfer the actual data from your old phone to your new phone. Now, there are two options here: you can restore from iCloud backup, which we did just now on the old device, or you can transfer wirelessly directly from one device to another. Now, I’ve got quite fast internet, and for me, the iCloud transfer is actually more likely to be a quicker solution, so I’m going to go for iCloud. But you could do both here, and both will work just as well.

Just to confirm that it’s still you using your iPhone, it will ask you for your iCloud password. It’s got your email address already from the old device, but this is the verification step. After verifying your Apple ID, it’s then going to show you the available backup options that you can restore from. Now, on my phone, it’s asking me if I want to update the old device’s backup again just to be extra certain, but I’m confident that I’ve got a good backup anyway, so I’m going to press restore from the 23rd of October backup.

iOS will then let you know what settings are going to be transferred as well as your data. So, for me, it’s things like location access that’s going to be transferred. In the old phone, my preferences haven’t changed, but after that, you will need to go through a few steps which can’t be transferred. For example, your Apple Pay cards—they can’t be transferred wirelessly between devices. You’ll need to set them up again. And if you want to pair your Apple Watch to your new device as well, you can do that as part of this setup wizard.

The last step to go through is a couple of different privacy prompts. Now, only a few options here, and the first one is whether or not you want to share Siri recordings with Apple to help make the service better. Me personally, I’m not a big fan of sharing that sort of data, so I’m going to press no for that one. After that, I’m going to say yes to the next two options. These options send anonymous crash reports to Apple or to app developers if there’s a problem on the phone as I’m using it. It happens in the background, and hopefully, it will make our software better over time. So, for me, I’m happy to press yes to that, but it’s totally your choice.

And then finally, we wait. Apple is now going to download from the iCloud your data onto your phone, and the way it does this is it downloads the key data first, and then you can start using your phone while other things like apps and photos synchronize in the background. So, it’s going to

load your home screen layout, it’s going to load your preferences, your accounts, and then after that, you’ll be able to unlock your phone. However, you may notice a lot of apps aren’t quite there yet. If your apps have got like a dark grey covering on the icons, that means they’re not downloaded yet, and iOS will download them on the Wi-Fi as soon as it can. The same goes for your pictures and other data; it will synchronize it all as you’re using the phone. The best thing to do is to plug it in and leave it overnight, and by the morning, everything should be there ready to be used just like your old phone was.

And that’s pretty much it. By the end of this process, your new phone should look exactly like your old phone did: the same wallpaper, the same icons, the same layout, everything will be there for you. The only thing that you might need to do is to re-authenticate and log into certain accounts. We’re talking online banking or social networking sites; they won’t always have saved your password, so make sure you log in again just to be sure those services are connected.

At this stage, all that’s left to do is to enjoy your new iPhone, and hey, always subscribe to my channel if you’d like as well. I’ll be sharing loads of cool iPhone and iPad tips to get you up and running and doing cool things in no time.