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DarthBradicus

macrumors regular
May 13, 2008
105
78
Pittsburgh, PA
Ok that is a game changer. I was just about to start this (15pm-16pm Caldigit tb4) but if apps don’t transfer then where are they coming from? iCloud backups?

WhatsApp is 50gb for example…
Apps never transfer. And I just checked, and WhatsApp is about 210 MB.

You may be confusing app data with the app themselves. Your app data will transfer, but the apps will need to redownload from the App Store.
 

laserfan

macrumors regular
Jul 13, 2012
143
42
If anyone has tried using a USB-C to Lightning cable to transfer from a pre-15 iPhone to a 16, can anyone confirm whether it is faster than doing so by WiFi?

I know USB2.0 isn’t exactly Speedy Gonzales, but it usually takes a while by WiFi as well (maybe an hour?). If anyone has real world data would be a big help!
FWIW I am transferring Wife's iPhone 8 to an iPhone 16 Pro (today hopefully) and plan first to back-up her 8 to her Macbook (encrypted so all password info is included) using a Lightning to USB-A cable, and then to use the 16's C to C cable to Restore it to the iPhone 8 backup from the Macbook.

If that doesn't work for whatever reason then I'll fall-back to restoring from iCloud.
 
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DarthBradicus

macrumors regular
May 13, 2008
105
78
Pittsburgh, PA
If you’re going between a 15 Pro and 16 Pro, wired transfer with a cable that supports USB 3 might be faster than wireless. It would depend on how efficient the transfer process is. (E.g., if the old phone has to wait for the new phone to process data, then the speed of the transfer may not matter.)

Any other combination would be transferring at USB 2 speeds, with a theoretical maximum of 480 Mbps, whereas even Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) can have real-world speeds faster than that.
 
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smhk

macrumors newbie
Jun 20, 2015
3
0
Hong Kong
Apps never transfer. And I just checked, and WhatsApp is about 210 MB.

You may be confusing app data with the app themselves. Your app data will transfer, but the apps will need to redownload from the App Store.
Yes I'm clear that I have 50gbish of whatsapp app data. I guess I was hoping the apps and associated data would transfer with the cable migration in ios18

fwiw, I tried the cable method and it failed in setup. Went back to the old way....
 

thecautioners

macrumors 6502a
Dec 5, 2022
777
1,844
Trying to decide between what I assume is usb 2.0 (the cable that comes with the phone) and wifi. I don’t know what kind of wifi I have so it’s probably pretty basic, I use the router/modem combo that Spectrum gave me.
 
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geoffeg

macrumors newbie
Jun 23, 2009
21
13
Does anyone know if plugging the phones into each other after the transfer has already started will make them switch to the cable? For some reason my 256GB phones with only ~128GB used say they're going to take 6 hours.
 
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thecautioners

macrumors 6502a
Dec 5, 2022
777
1,844
Nothing happened when I had the cable connected so I went from iCloud backup, it was extremely fast and it didn’t take long to load all my apps either.
 

DarthBradicus

macrumors regular
May 13, 2008
105
78
Pittsburgh, PA
Trying to decide between what I assume is usb 2.0 (the cable that comes with the phone) and wifi. I don’t know what kind of wifi I have so it’s probably pretty basic, I use the router/modem combo that Spectrum gave me.
The phones use a direct Wi-Fi connection to each other, so it’ll use the Wi-Fi version of the slowest phone. The router doesn’t play a factor.
 
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DarthBradicus

macrumors regular
May 13, 2008
105
78
Pittsburgh, PA
Does anyone know if plugging the phones into each other after the transfer has already started will make them switch to the cable? For some reason my 256GB phones with only ~128GB used say they're going to take 6 hours.
I’m pretty sure the cables have to be connected before you start the setup process. Or at least definitely before you you choose the transfer method. Someone in an earlier comment said you’ll see an icon with two phones connected.
 
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cwosigns

macrumors 68020
Jul 8, 2008
2,266
2,744
Columbus,OH
Does anyone know if plugging the phones into each other after the transfer has already started will make them switch to the cable? For some reason my 256GB phones with only ~128GB used say they're going to take 6 hours.
For some reason during my initial wireless transfer, they both lost their WiFi connections and it estimated 20 hours. I plugged in the USB-C cord to both phones and nothing changed. I reset the 16PM and started again with a USB-C connection, it was much faster (4 hours vs. 20 hours). I am now down to 2 hours left.
 
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geoffeg

macrumors newbie
Jun 23, 2009
21
13
The estimate went up to 7 hours so I restarted with the phones plugged into each other and it went down to 1 hour... now it's up to 2 hours.
 
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dtuck90

macrumors regular
Apr 15, 2012
139
49
I’ve gone from 12 to 16 Pro. At first even though I had the cables connected it wanted to do it wirelessly. I found that putting my SIM card in my 16 Pro and starting again got it to work. Then took about half an hour.
 
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twanj

macrumors 65816
Sep 10, 2015
1,229
1,694
Pompano Beach, FL
Would USB2 transfer speed (lightning - USBC) be quicker than tranferring wirelessly?

If anyone has tried using a USB-C to Lightning cable to transfer from a pre-15 iPhone to a 16, can anyone confirm whether it is faster than doing so by WiFi?

I know USB2.0 isn’t exactly Speedy Gonzales, but it usually takes a while by WiFi as well (maybe an hour?). If anyone has real world data would be a big help!
Wired should be faster.

I used it last year upgrading my 14 Pro to 15 Pro and it was much quicker than over wifi.
 

DeanL

macrumors 65816
May 29, 2014
1,360
1,296
London
Does anyone know if plugging the phones into each other after the transfer has already started will make them switch to the cable? For some reason my 256GB phones with only ~128GB used say they're going to take 6 hours.
It won't, I tried that
 
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MrP90

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2017
256
131
Florida
My concern with USB-C to USB-C . Thunderbolt 3. IF I can use MagSafe charging in the event it is longer than a couple hours lol?
 
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adam1080

macrumors 6502a
Mar 29, 2012
597
983
Are you using the USB-C cable included with iPhone or different ? I am debating to use the included . I have an Apple Thunderbolt 3 but last year for some reason it took nearly 3 hours to restore a 150gb backup off a newer MBP .

Wired should be faster.

I used it last year upgrading my 14 Pro to 15 Pro and it was much quicker than over wifi.

I had a 1TB 14 Pro and spent time and effort putting the backup on my 2023 16" M2 Max MBP hoping and thinking that restoring the backup from iTunes with a TB4 cable would make for a quicker transfer. It doesn't and didn't which was crazy to me. The connection between Apple's 2 flagship devices with USB-C at the time was limited to USB 2.0 speeds... Infuriating. Only SSD could cake advantage of USB 3 speeds from the iPhone 15 Pros. So last year, no one benefited from USB3 speeds for restoring backups...

This device to device option does seem promising especially between the 2 USB-C iPhones, but until I see details that the iPhone 16 Pros actually use USB 3 speeds with any device except an SSD... I'm not gonna believe it.

But when my phone is delivered, I will try it... cause I have 400GB+ on my 15PM.
 

kamikasky

macrumors newbie
Aug 6, 2013
8
5
My phone kept running out of battery during this—It doesn't help that one phone charges the other, and then connecting one of the devices to MagSafe wasn't working too well (battery was still falling fast)

For reference I have around 400GB, but also I think I have issues due to small files and tons of apps stored on the device. I was using a Thunderbolt 4 cable. It's estimated at around 19 hours to transfer.

Stoke of genius, I decided to use my powered Thunderbolt 4 dock that I use for my Mac. So now I have both devices receiving charging and it's still transferring over the wire! ETA 17 hours/15 hours/18 hours/12 hours. We'll see :)
 

dcrumbaugh

macrumors member
Apr 17, 2011
88
88
Frustrated, because I have to leave for a wedding in an hour. I picked up my 16PM at 8 this morning, and when I got home tried the TB3 cable between my 15PM and it. Around 720GB used, so I knew it wasn’t going to be “quick”. After it got rolling, estimating 5 hours, both batteries started to drain and swapped back and forth “charging” the other. MagSafe cabling didn’t really help, because the “sucking power” phone will always prefer the USB port over MagSafe. So what ended up happening was both phones getting down to 15% left with 3 hours to go, so I cancelled it and just punted to iCloud restore. The WiFi quick start estimate was 20 hours.
 
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slippery-pete

macrumors 68020
Jun 23, 2007
2,284
1,263
My phone kept running out of battery during this—It doesn't help that one phone charges the other, and then connecting one of the devices to MagSafe wasn't working too well (battery was still falling fast)

For reference I have around 400GB, but also I think I have issues due to small files and tons of apps stored on the device. I was using a Thunderbolt 4 cable. It's estimated at around 19 hours to transfer.

Stoke of genius, I decided to use my powered Thunderbolt 4 dock that I use for my Mac. So now I have both devices receiving charging and it's still transferring over the wire! ETA 17 hours/15 hours/18 hours/12 hours. We'll see :)
19 hours? Geez.

I am at about the same GB and I think It took 1:45 last year when I did it via wireless.
 
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metsjetsfan

macrumors 65816
Feb 2, 2011
1,405
246
Frustrated, because I have to leave for a wedding in an hour. I picked up my 16PM at 8 this morning, and when I got home tried the TB3 cable between my 15PM and it. Around 720GB used, so I knew it wasn’t going to be “quick”. After it got rolling, estimating 5 hours, both batteries started to drain and swapped back and forth “charging” the other. MagSafe cabling didn’t really help, because the “sucking power” phone will always prefer the USB port over MagSafe. So what ended up happening was both phones getting down to 15% left with 3 hours to go, so I cancelled it and just pnted to iCloud restore. The WiFi quick start estimate was 20 hours.
thanks for sharing. sounds like this maybe more trouble than it is
 
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MrP90

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2017
256
131
Florida
Frustrated, because I have to leave for a wedding in an hour. I picked up my 16PM at 8 this morning, and when I got home tried the TB3 cable between my 15PM and it. Around 720GB used, so I knew it wasn’t going to be “quick”. After it got rolling, estimating 5 hours, both batteries started to drain and swapped back and forth “charging” the other. MagSafe cabling didn’t really help, because the “sucking power” phone will always prefer the USB port over MagSafe. So what ended up happening was both phones getting down to 15% left with 3 hours to go, so I cancelled it and just punted to iCloud restore. The WiFi quick start estimate was 20 hours.
Ok, I might go the old fashioned way. Maybe cable for iPhone to iPhone is suited for a smaller amount of storage versus larger lol
 
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filmgirl

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2007
394
359
Seattle, WA
Thanks for these updates. When I tried to do transfer between my cracked-screen iPhone 15 Pro Max and replacement model, there was no speed improvement via cable (using an Apple TB3 cable) versus just using WiFi. I had hoped that it would be faster this year between the 15 Pro and 16 Pro, but that appears anecdotal at best.

Since it still has to do cloud downloading in the background for apps, I’m unsure if anything short of doing a MacBook backup and then restore over TB3/4 would offer any speed improvements. And even that seems like it won’t work.

My phone arrives in the next 30 minutes. I’ll grudgingly prob just do the wireless transfer.
 
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