iPhone 13 Pro to iPhone 16 Pro restore from backup gone wrong

[bluedoggiant]

I updated my iPhone 13 Pro to iOS 18 and backed up to my Mac as usual.

When I received my iPhone 16 Pro, I updated it to the latest iOS 18, and restored it from my local backup. Also as usual.

Usually this means I have a complete copy of my phone placed on the new device, with virtually no need to set anything up. Same Home Screen and all. Just Pay and some account logins.

This time however the strangest thing happened. It seemingly moved all my data and settings over, a few of the apps transferred and placed in their correct folders on the Home Screen etc, but the vast majority of my apps never got restored. Bummer, because it was the fastest restore ever, thanks to the USB-C cable.

I had to manually re-download dozens and dozens of my apps. Thankfully, all my data was in place, so whenever I re-downloaded the app, the app was just like before. But now I am wondering, how can I see which apps (that I don't have installed) have data taking up space on my iPhone? iPhone Storage settings page only shows the data being taken up by apps that are installed.

Also, did this happen to anyone else? First time happening in over a decade of setting up new iOS devices via restore from local backup on my Mac.

 

[BigBlur]

But now I am wondering, how can I see which apps (that I don't have installed) have data taking up space on my iPhone?

I'm not aware of a way to do this. If they aren't even showing up on the iPhone Storage screen as an offloaded app, then something went wrong and is likely corrupted. Who knows if this will come back to bite you later.

Sounds like either the backup was bad, or something happened during the restore. If it were me, I would be trying the restore again to see if it works better the second time...or doing a direct transfer from the old phone (you can use a cable for this).

The longer you wait, the more new stuff you accumulate on your new phone and will lose.

 

[bluedoggiant]

I'm not aware of a way to do this. If they aren't even showing up on the iPhone Storage screen as an offloaded app, then something went wrong and is likely corrupted. Who knows if this will come back to bite you later.

Sounds like either the backup was bad, or something happened during the restore. If it were me, I would be trying the restore again to see if it works better the second time...or doing a direct transfer from the old phone (you can use a cable for this).

The longer you wait, the more new stuff you accumulate on your new phone and will lose.

So in your experience, an “offloaded” app with it’s data kept, will show up in the iPhone Storage page despite the app not being present on the phone?

I just tested and I see what you’re saying when it comes to “offloaded” apps. Now I’m highly concerned. Everything seems fine though. The backup itself also went smoothly, in fact I did a fresh back up to ensure the cleanest possible backup.

I’m realizing that offloaded apps still show up on your Home Screen as usual.

 

[BigBlur]

Yeah, offloaded apps with data left intact will still show in iPhone Storage and have the cloud/download icon. They will also still show on your Home Screen or App Library with the same icon.

Hard to know what impact this will have in the future. Maybe the worst will be that you're backing up/restoring orphaned data with no way to delete them unless the app is reinstalled.

 

[bluedoggiant]

Yeah, offloaded apps with data left intact will still show in iPhone Storage and have the cloud/download icon. They will also still show on your Home Screen or App Library with the same icon.

Hard to know what impact this will have in the future. Maybe the worst will be that you're backing up/restoring orphaned data with no way to delete them unless the app is reinstalled.

I see that now. Concerning too if it's an app I can no longer download from the App Store. I am just curious which storage "bucket" this hidden data lives in now. It's not obvious to me.

Will experiment some more.

EDIT: Looks like this data lives in the "System Data" category. If I add an app and then delete it, this amount will reduce by the amount of data the app had stored.