iPhone SE (2016) Doing a 6s and SE swap. Procedure? Also, can I transfer locally archived backups?

[EugW]

I just want to check, since I'm going to be doing this away from home.

My wife has a 6s that is going to be replaced with an XR. Her mom wants the 6s. The problem is my mom-in-law lives out of town, and I'm the Apple guy in the family. We're going to visit in October, but unfortunately, the XR won't be available before we leave, so I can't just hand her a pre-configured 6s. My wife will need to take back the SE to use for a couple of weeks until the XR arrives. I figure it should be easy to do, but I want to double check. Note that I usually keep my iPhone backups on my iMac at home, but obviously I won't have access to that.

6s is 64 GB
SE is 32 GB (I think).

1. Backup wife's iPhone 6s to iMac at home. Archive backup. Make sure there is well under 32 GB used.
2. Download all photos to iMac from wife's 6s (just in case).
3. Backup wife's iPhone 6s to MacBook. Archive backup.
4. Go visit the in-laws.
5. Backup mother-in-law's iPhone SE to MacBook. Archive backup.
6. Backup mother-in-law's photos to MacBook (just in case).
7. Update mother-in-law's SE to iOS 12 (if it hasn't already been done).
8. Backup mother-in-law's SE to MacBook again. Archive backup.
9. Restore mother-in-law's SE backup to iPhone 6s.
10. Restore wife's 6s backup to iPhone SE.

That's all I have to do, right?

BTW, I'd also bring a folder full of photos of the kids for the mother-in-law to load on her phone.

Also, is there any way to transfer a locally archived backup from one computer to another? I want to have a copy of my mother-in-law's backed up phone locally on my iMac. If there is no easy way to transfer locally archived iPhone backups, what I figure I'd do is when I get the XR, move my wife's data to the XR, and then restore the mother-in-law's backup on the MacBook back to the SE. Then I'd backup that SE with my mother-in-law's data again on my iMac so I have a copy of that locally. My mother-in-law otherwise has no backups.

 

[MrAperture]

You've just made me realize that my $2.99 iCloud 200GB monthly subscription is pennies on the dollar for situations like these.

Also I would think that Photos has the ability for families just like yours to share photo albums easily just by using the Shared Albums feature.

 

[EugW]

You've just made me realize that my $2.99 iCloud 200GB monthly subscription is pennies on the dollar for situations like these.

Also I would think that Photos has the ability for families just like yours to share photo albums easily just by using the Shared Albums feature.

Yeah, I was thinking about that, but I have iCloud storage but the 50 GB tier, and my mother-in-law has no paid iCloud storage at all.

As for iCloud and pix, it scared me away. I had some serious problems so I haven't been back since. If I had iCloud storage turned on for my photos, my Live Photos would all get converted to regular photos. Has this been fixed?

 

[MrAperture]

I don't know because I've never run into that problem. My old Live Photos from 2015 from my 6s Plus still play flawlessly on my X. Tested with Airplane mode on before holding down 3D touch on older pictures. And I did not restore my X from iTunes backup either. Only iCloud backup (I'm only using 36.1GB out of 256GB, photos using 877.3MB total when I know I've used up way more space on my 6s Plus before subscribing to iCloud storage plan).