Moving to a New iPhone Without Losing Anything

The 60-Second Version

If you remember only a handful of things about switching phones, make it these. They keep the day calm and your memories safe.

• Back up your old phone to iCloud first, so a full copy is safe online.
• Know your Apple Account email and password before you begin.
• Set the two phones next to each other and let Quick Start do the work.
• Keep both phones charged and on Wi-Fi the whole time.
• Do not erase the old phone until you have checked everything came across.

Back Up the Old Phone First

Before anything else, make a fresh backup of your old iPhone to iCloud. This is a complete copy of your phone kept safely online, and it is your insurance for the whole switch.

The backup can take a while, especially the first time or if you have many photos. Leave the phone plugged in and on Wi-Fi until it says the backup is complete, with today's date and time shown. That fresh copy means your new phone can rebuild itself exactly as the old one was.

• Put the old phone on Wi-Fi and plug it in to charge.
• Open Settings and tap your name at the very top.
• Tap iCloud, then iCloud Backup.
• Make sure Back Up This iPhone is on, then tap Back Up Now.

Know Your Apple Account Password

Your Apple Account is the email and password you used to set up your phone, and you will need it during the switch. This is the single most important thing to have ready.

This is very common, and there is no shame in it. It is far easier to sort out a forgotten password while your old phone still works than after the switch. On the old phone, open Settings, tap your name, tap Sign-In and Security, and you can reset the password there. If it gets tangled, that is exactly the sort of thing I help with.

• Your Apple Account email address (often the one you use for the App Store).
• Your Apple Account password - the actual letters and numbers, not just a fingerprint.
• Your old phone's passcode, the numbers you tap to unlock it.
• Access to a phone number or device that can receive a verification code.

What Carries Over, and What Doesn't

It helps to know ahead of time what moves automatically to the new phone and what may need a little attention from you. Most things come across on their own.

Your apps themselves reinstall automatically, but many will ask you to sign in again the first time you open them - especially banking, email, and streaming apps. This is normal and is actually a good sign that they are protecting your accounts. Your phone number moves too, though it sometimes needs a step of its own, which we cover on page 9.

• Your photos and videos, contacts, calendar, and notes.
• Your text messages and their history.
• Your apps, and how your Home Screen is arranged.
• Most settings, wallpapers, and preferences.

Quick Start - The Easy Way

The simplest way to move to a new iPhone is called Quick Start. You hold the two phones near each other, and they do most of the talking between themselves.

Once the two phones recognize each other, the new one offers to bring your settings and data across. You will be guided step by step from there. Keep the phones close together and plugged in, and simply follow the prompts on the screen. It is a friendly, guided process by design.

• Turn on the new iPhone and set it near your old one.
• A card appears on the old phone asking if you want to set up the new one - tap Continue.
• A small pattern appears on the new phone; hold the old phone's camera over it.
• Enter your old phone's passcode on the new phone when asked.

Transferring Directly, Phone to Phone

During Quick Start you will be offered a choice: move your information straight from the old phone to the new one, or download it from your iCloud backup. Direct transfer is often the smoothest.

Direct transfer moves everything, including full-quality photos, straight from one phone to the other. Because it does not depend on your internet speed, it can be quicker and more complete. The one requirement is patience: leave the phones alone together until the bar finishes and the new phone restarts.

• When asked how to transfer, choose Transfer from iPhone.
• The two phones copy your data directly across, without waiting on the internet.
• Keep both phones plugged in and close together throughout.
• A bar on screen shows the progress and the time remaining.

Restoring From an iCloud Backup Instead

If the phones are not together, or you would rather, you can bring everything down from the iCloud backup you made on page 3. This works over Wi-Fi and needs no cable between phones.

The restore can take a while, sometimes an hour or more, as your apps and photos come down from iCloud. The Home Screen appears fairly quickly, then apps fill in gradually in the background. You can start using the phone, but let it stay on Wi-Fi and charging until everything has finished arriving.

• During setup, when asked, choose Restore from iCloud Backup.
• Sign in with your Apple Account email and password.
• Pick the most recent backup - check that the date looks right.
• Keep the phone on Wi-Fi and plugged in while it downloads.

Moving Your Phone Number - SIM and eSIM

Your phone number lives on either a small card called a SIM, or an electronic version called an eSIM. Moving it over is what lets the new phone make calls and texts as yours.

It can take a few minutes for the number to switch across, and occasionally your carrier needs to do their part. If you cannot make a call once setup is done, restart the new phone. If it still will not work, a quick call to your carrier, or to me, usually sorts it out.

• Newer iPhones use an eSIM, which has no card to move by hand.
• During setup, the new phone often offers to Transfer your number - tap it and follow along.
• If you have a physical SIM card, move it from the old phone's tray to the new one.
• Use the small pin tool, or a paperclip, to pop open the tray on the side.

Signing Back Into Your Apps

After the transfer, your apps are all back on the new phone. The first time you open each one, some will ask you to sign in again. This is normal and expected.

If you used your iPhone's built-in Passwords feature before, many of your app and website passwords came across too. When an app asks you to sign in, you may see a suggestion to fill the saved password with a tap. That saves a great deal of typing. You will find all of them in the Passwords app, unlocked with Face ID.

• Open the apps you use most, one at a time.
• If an app asks for a login, enter the email and password for that app.
• Let the phone offer to save each password so you need not type it again.
• Do the important ones first - email, messages, and your bank.

Re-adding Your Wi-Fi

In most cases your home Wi-Fi comes across with the rest of your settings, and the new phone connects on its own. If it does not, adding it back is quick.

The Wi-Fi password is often printed on a sticker on the underside of your internet box, or on a card the installer left. If your old phone is still working and connected, it can even share the password to the new one when you hold them close and choose to share. When in doubt, that sticker is the place to look.

• Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi near the top.
• Tap the name of your home network in the list.
• Type the Wi-Fi password - the same one your old phone used.
• A checkmark appears next to the network once you are connected.

Setting Up Face ID Again

Face ID - the way your phone unlocks by looking at you - does not transfer for privacy reasons. You set it up fresh on the new phone, and it only takes a moment.

The map of your face is kept private and locked to each phone, so it is never copied across. Setting it up again is quick and worth doing, because Face ID makes unlocking, paying, and signing into apps much easier. If you wear glasses sometimes, set it up wearing them for best results.

• Open Settings and tap Face ID and Passcode.
• Enter your passcode, then tap Set Up Face ID.
• Hold the phone in front of your face and gently move your head in a circle.
• Do the short second scan when asked, and you are done.

Checking Your Photos All Came Across

Before you even think about the old phone, take a few minutes to confirm your photos really did arrive. This one check brings the most peace of mind.

If you restored from iCloud, remember that older photos can keep downloading for a day or two. A photo that looks blurry or shows a small loading circle is simply still on its way. Keep the phone on Wi-Fi and give it time. As long as your old phone is untouched, every picture is still safe there too.

• Open the Photos app on the new phone.
• Scroll right to the bottom to see your most recent pictures.
• Then scroll all the way up to your oldest ones.
• Open a few favorites to make sure they open fully and clearly.

Checking Your Messages and Contacts

Next, make sure your text messages and your address book made the trip. These are the things people miss most if a switch goes wrong, so a quick look now is well worth it.

If messages or contacts seem incomplete, they may still be syncing from iCloud. Make sure the new phone is signed in to the same Apple Account as the old one - check Settings at the very top for your name. Give it some time on Wi-Fi. If contacts are truly missing, do not panic; your old phone still holds them all.

• Open the Messages app and see that your conversations are there.
• Open a few older threads to confirm the history came with them.
• Open the Contacts app, or the Phone app's Contacts tab.
• Scroll through to be sure your names and numbers are all present.

Apps That Need a Fresh Login

A few kinds of apps are extra careful with security and will always make you sign in fresh on a new phone, even when everything else came across. This is protection working as it should.

For each of these, open the app and follow its sign-in steps with the right email and password for that account. Banks may also text you a code to confirm it is really you - type that in when it arrives. If you are locked out of one, use its Forgot Password link rather than guessing repeatedly, which can lock the account further.

• Banking and credit card apps.
• Your email accounts, sometimes needing the password re-entered.
• Streaming apps like Netflix, and news or magazine apps.
• Two-step security apps that send or hold login codes.

Your First Day With the New Phone

The big move is done. Now it is just a matter of settling in and letting the phone finish tidying itself up over the first day or so. Here is what to expect and what to do.

For the first day, apps may still be downloading and photos still filling in. This is all normal. By tomorrow, everything settles down and the phone runs at full speed. Resist the urge to fiddle with lots of settings at once - use it as it is for a bit, and adjust only what genuinely bothers you.

• Leave the phone on Wi-Fi and charging overnight so it can finish updating.
• Check that your ringer, volume, and screen brightness feel right to you.
• Open your most-used apps once to wake them up and sign in.
• Look over your Home Screen and move any apps you want closer to hand.

Getting the Old Phone Ready to Let Go

Once you are sure the new phone has everything, you can prepare the old one to hand down, trade in, or set aside. There are a couple of important sign-out steps to do first.

Signing out turns off a protection called Activation Lock, which ties the phone to your account. If you skip it, whoever gets the phone next - even a family member - may be unable to set it up. Doing it in this order, sign out first and erase second, keeps everything clean and avoids a common headache.

• On the old phone, open Settings and tap your name at the top.
• Scroll to the bottom and tap Sign Out.
• Enter your Apple Account password to turn off Find My when asked.
• This unlocks the phone from your account so a new owner can use it.

Erasing the Old Phone Safely

With everything confirmed on the new phone and your account signed out, the last step is to wipe the old phone clean so none of your information goes with it to a new owner.

Erase All Content and Settings removes every photo, message, and account from the phone and returns it to how it looked in the store. This is exactly what you want before trading it in or giving it away, so your private information does not travel with it. When it finishes, the phone shows the Hello setup screen.

• On the old phone, open Settings, then General.
• Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
• Tap Erase All Content and Settings.
• Confirm, and let the phone reset itself back to like-new.

Trade-In or Handing It Down

A cleaned-up old iPhone still has value and life left in it. You can trade it in toward a bill or a future phone, or pass it happily to a family member.

Trade-in offers are usually best right around when you buy the new phone, so it is worth deciding early. Whatever you choose, the phone must be erased and signed out of your account first - which you have now done. A wiped phone handed to family sets up just like a brand-new one for them.

• Trade it in with your carrier or Apple for credit - they take it once it is erased.
• Hand it down to a grandchild or spouse to set up as their own.
• Sell it privately, only after it is fully erased and signed out.
• Keep it as a spare, backup camera, or music player around the house.

When Something Didn't Come Across

Now and then a photo album, an app, or a setting seems to have gone missing after the switch. Most of the time it is simply still loading or a quick fix away. Here is how to steady the ship.

Because you kept the old phone untouched and made a backup, nothing is ever truly lost. If something did not transfer, the original is still safe on the old phone or in your iCloud backup, ready to bring across again. That is exactly why we do not erase the old phone until the very end.

• Give it time - apps and photos can keep arriving for a day or two.
• Check the new phone is on Wi-Fi and signed in to the right Apple Account.
• Restart the new phone by turning it off and on again.
• Open the specific app and sign in, in case it just needs your login.

What's in the 27-page PDF

• Getting ready: backing up and your Apple Account (pages 3-4)
• What carries over, and the ways to move it (pages 5-8)
• Your phone number, apps, Wi-Fi, and Face ID (pages 9-12)
• Checking that photos and messages arrived (pages 13-14)
• Apps that need a fresh login, and settling in (pages 15-16)
• Letting go of the old phone safely (pages 17-19)
• When something didn't come across (page 20)
• A cheat sheet and plain-English word list (pages 21-22)

Why I wrote this

I write these as printable handouts because a guide you can keep in a drawer beats a web page you have to find again. No jargon, no judgment, no rushing. If you'd rather have someone sit beside you and go through it together, that's a flat $99 first visit with the 30-day follow-up included — serving Portage County from Atwater, Ohio. — Bill