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iPhone 17 How can you tell if a wired iPhone-to-iPhone migration was performed and not wireless?

Luba

Luba

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
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I connected a USB-C charging cable to the 2 iPhones and selected Transfer From Phone, the transfer took about the same time (2 hours) as the last time when I did a wireless iPhone-to-iPhone migration. Same amount of storage on the phone as the last time I did a transfer, about 200 GB storage on old iPhone (16 Pro). I don't think all 200 GB was transferred to iPhone 17, apps and other data are downloaded in the background after the transfer.

The transfer was stuck at "1 minute remaining" for about 10-15 minutes and my old iPhone (16 Pro) was down to 15% battery so I connected to power and almost instantly the transfer was complete. The new iPhone (17) was also gaining in battery percentage so it seems the old iPhone was also charging it!
 
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I wish I had an answer for you, but I was recently in a similar situation. I was transferring between two phones that were connected by wire, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was even working. Seemed to be taking just as long as the wireless connection I had aborted.
 
Problem is not all USB C cables are equal: they support different data speeds (and charging rates). If you were using one that only supports USB2 speeds for data it could potentially take longer for a wired transfer than wireless.
 
alFR said:
Problem is not all USB C cables are equal: they support different data speeds (and charging rates). If you were using one that only supports USB2 speeds for data it could potentially take longer for a wired transfer than wireless.
Click to expand...
I used the Apple USB-C charging cable that came with the 16 Pro. Probably at USB2 speed?

The source phone (16 Pro) was charging the target iPhone 17, was that a feature of the 16 Pro?
 
Luba said:
I used the Apple USB-C charging cable that came with the 16 Pro. Probably at USB2 speed?

The source phone (16 Pro) was charging the target iPhone 17, was that a feature of the 16 Pro?
Click to expand...
Yes - included cable is USB-2

Yes - 15 & later will charge anything that supports USB Power Delivery - 4.5W according to Apple.

If the new device was a 17 (not Pro) then only USB-2 speeds anyway.
 
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darthbane2k said:
The clue is the message on the screen. If wired it asks you to keep iPhone connected to the new phone, if wireless it tells you to keep close to the new phone. Agree this could be clearer.
Click to expand...
Message was keep phone close, but I had cable connected!?!
 
palemonkey said:
At the point where you select iCloud restore or phone transfer the little icon on the button changes to be an iPhone with a cable.
Click to expand...
I selected phone transfer, but don’t recall iPhone with cable icon
 
Here is an example of the message shown on the source device when the transfer occurs via USB:

IMG_0169.jpeg
 
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SierraVista said:
Here is an example of the message shown on the source device when the transfer occurs via USB:

View attachment 2559764
Click to expand...
It definitely wasn’t that message. Mine was keep phone close and connected to power.

The cable I used is not defective because I’ve been using it and just used it to backup my phone to my Mac. Should I have connected a cable with both phones turned off, then turned both on for transfer using a wire?

Or maybe I should have selected Other Options to get another screen for wire transfer?? The first option button was iCloud and other was phone-to-phone, the there was a small narrow rectangle button with “Other Options”. Perhaps 8 should have selected “Other Options” and Wire Transfer button would have appeared. I thought I was doing a wire transfer because I didn’t need to enter the WiFi password on the new iPhone
 
Luba said:
It definitely wasn’t that message. Mine was keep phone close and connected to power.

The cable I used is not defective because I’ve been using it and just used it to backup my phone to my Mac. Should I have connected a cable with both phones turned off, then turned both on for transfer using a wire?

Or maybe I should have selected Other Options to get another screen for wire transfer?? The first option button was iCloud and other was phone-to-phone, the there was a small narrow rectangle button with “Other Options”. Perhaps 8 should have selected “Other Options” and Wire Transfer button would have appeared. I thought I was doing a wire transfer because I didn’t need to enter the WiFi password on the new iPhone
Click to expand...

On the source device there should have been a “Do you want to allow this device to connect?” prompt as would appear when connecting the phone to a computer, etc. Did you see that prompt and select “Accept”?

In any case, the transfer may have used WiFi if the devices determined that it would be faster than using USB if a low-speed USB cable was used. The example I posted above was a 16 Pro to 17 Pro transfer using an Apple Thunderbolt 4 cable.
 
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On older iOS versions, I remember setup gave the option to select wired for phone-to-phone transfer.

This time, I wasn't given that option and it just used wireless directly.
 
It's easy to miss but these are the 2 types of icons you will see if it wired or wireless.

iphone-migration.png


select-transfer-from-iphone.png
 
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