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Resolved iPhone to iPhone USB C data transfer?
- Thread starter yoheywut
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Hey guys, just to confirm a few things. I am going to migrate from iPhone 13 Pro Max to iPhone 16 Pro. I need to transfer about 500 GB of data and I am going to use a standard Apple OEM USB – C lightning cable. Anything else I need to do besides connect the cable before powering on both phones? Can I assume there is a good chance it will complete within 1-2 hours?
I'm getting a 16 pro tomorrow by fedex. I have a 13 mini running iOS 17.7. I assume the 16 will come with iOS 18 installed.
1. Do I need to upgrade the 13 to iOS 18 before I transfer, either wireless or Lightning to USB-C cable? I prefer not to. My internet is not fast where I live. Like 11 Mbps download at best.
2. Several posts have mentioned FaceID. Do I need to use FaceID? I never have before and don't want to start now.
3. How to you keep charging the phones if the ports are taken up by the wired transfer?
Thank you in advance!
1. Do I need to upgrade the 13 to iOS 18 before I transfer, either wireless or Lightning to USB-C cable? I prefer not to. My internet is not fast where I live. Like 11 Mbps download at best.
2. Several posts have mentioned FaceID. Do I need to use FaceID? I never have before and don't want to start now.
3. How to you keep charging the phones if the ports are taken up by the wired transfer?
Thank you in advance!
Your 16 SHOULD have iOS18 but it may not be 18.1.1. In any case FWIW when I tried transferring Wife's Old-to-New iPad I said YES to doing the update at the start of the transfer and that was a MISTAKE. Did not go smoothly at all.
1. Re: old-to-new iPhone I say don't bother wiring them together. It's so easy to fire them up (plugged-in to power if they're low on juice) and let them "find each other". If it takes a little longer "cuz WiFi" then sobeit.
2. Don't have to turn on FaceID, but after you're all done and happy, by all means try it. Makes life much simpler, and in fact when I updated my own iPad recently I did so to a ne iPad Pro BECAUSE it had the liDAR/FaceID feature.
3. Just plug them into a power brick if they're low.
1. Re: old-to-new iPhone I say don't bother wiring them together. It's so easy to fire them up (plugged-in to power if they're low on juice) and let them "find each other". If it takes a little longer "cuz WiFi" then sobeit.
2. Don't have to turn on FaceID, but after you're all done and happy, by all means try it. Makes life much simpler, and in fact when I updated my own iPad recently I did so to a ne iPad Pro BECAUSE it had the liDAR/FaceID feature.
3. Just plug them into a power brick if they're low.
Turns out it was all easy, except . . . see below.
I just put the new 16 Pro next to the 13 Mini and went through the automatic transfer. That took less than an hour, plus a couple of hours for all the apps to download. During the app downloading, I was able to use the phone to set up the eSim.
Then I went to Tracfone and activated the first eSim as a new phone, picking up the number from the 13 Mini with its SIM card. That worked well, too. A first for Tracfone, in my experience. Maybe that was because it was all online and without having to deal with any tracfone (non)support person.
Then I updated the new phone from iOS 18 to 18.2. That was pretty quick, even though my internet is only around 9 Mbps download.
Of course, there were lots of apps (not all) requiring me to login again once.
What didn't work was any transfer of my email. On my old phone, I have many thousands going back years. I use POP3. I still have them on my old phone and my laptop, but they did not transfer to my new phone. In past iPhone upgrades, the emails always did transfer. Right now, the only emails on my new phone are the most recent week, which were still on the POP3 server.
I also had an archive folder on my old phone. That's gone, too. It probably had 5,000+ emails in it.
The question is, are they really just not ever going to show, or are they somehow hidden? Maybe it has something to do with my old phone having iOS 17 and the new one having iOS 18? Any advice about this would be appreciated.
I just put the new 16 Pro next to the 13 Mini and went through the automatic transfer. That took less than an hour, plus a couple of hours for all the apps to download. During the app downloading, I was able to use the phone to set up the eSim.
Then I went to Tracfone and activated the first eSim as a new phone, picking up the number from the 13 Mini with its SIM card. That worked well, too. A first for Tracfone, in my experience. Maybe that was because it was all online and without having to deal with any tracfone (non)support person.
Then I updated the new phone from iOS 18 to 18.2. That was pretty quick, even though my internet is only around 9 Mbps download.
Of course, there were lots of apps (not all) requiring me to login again once.
What didn't work was any transfer of my email. On my old phone, I have many thousands going back years. I use POP3. I still have them on my old phone and my laptop, but they did not transfer to my new phone. In past iPhone upgrades, the emails always did transfer. Right now, the only emails on my new phone are the most recent week, which were still on the POP3 server.
I also had an archive folder on my old phone. That's gone, too. It probably had 5,000+ emails in it.
The question is, are they really just not ever going to show, or are they somehow hidden? Maybe it has something to do with my old phone having iOS 17 and the new one having iOS 18? Any advice about this would be appreciated.
Holy crap. Below article feels mostly useless but suggests emails are stored in iCloud which implies recoverability unless of course your iCloud storage has been eviscerated already. You say the archive folder on your old phone is gone??? I was gonna suggest to "try upgrading again" but...no archive on the 13?
I guess I'd contact Apple Support for help. You have a new 16 Pro so are 100% entitled.
www.devicemag.com
I haven't used POP for a long time, but in my fuzzy memory it seems there was a "retain in server" option such that some number of back emails (and all of your archives) might still be there.
I guess I'd contact Apple Support for help. You have a new 16 Pro so are 100% entitled.
Troubleshooting When Emails Did Not Transfer to a New iPhone - DeviceMAG
We all know how frustrating it can be when you get a new device and your emails don’t transfer to it. It can be especially confusing if your emails are moving
www.devicemag.com
I haven't used POP for a long time, but in my fuzzy memory it seems there was a "retain in server" option such that some number of back emails (and all of your archives) might still be there.
I use POP3 but have it configured to leave only the last 30 days or so on the server. The article suggest incompatible email programs but in my case, it is Apple Mail on both. It would (should) have simply transferred over all settings when I set up my new phone.
The one possible clue in the article was: "The most common reasons include . . . using different versions of iOS on each device." That was my case. But it seems hard to believe that the transfer would have duplicated all my email accounts and settings correctly on the new phone but not also transfer the emails.
I've never used iCloud so that isn't an option. Unless I could copy the emails still left on my 13 to iCloud and then restore all of them to the new phone. Somehow, that doesn't seem likely.
I do have some right to Apple Support with the new phone. I've never used them before but will probably try them.
The one possible clue in the article was: "The most common reasons include . . . using different versions of iOS on each device." That was my case. But it seems hard to believe that the transfer would have duplicated all my email accounts and settings correctly on the new phone but not also transfer the emails.
I've never used iCloud so that isn't an option. Unless I could copy the emails still left on my 13 to iCloud and then restore all of them to the new phone. Somehow, that doesn't seem likely.
I do have some right to Apple Support with the new phone. I've never used them before but will probably try them.
What...really? So you've had zero backups of your 13 for the duration?
Basic iCloud is free so I dunno why you wouldn't take advantage of it.
Not to worry, laserfan. I'm a big advocate of backups, going right back to the days of Fastback on floppy disks, then tape drives, etc.
It's not the cost of iCloud. I just don't like putting any of my stuff i the cloud. Too many stories of security failures at every level, even up to DoD.
I have been using iTunes to my PC laptop for years for backup. In the past, before QuickStart, when I got a new iPhone I would always set it up from the iTunes backup. Worked fine. Also worked when I wanted to have a backup iphone set up just like my main one. One had a US SIM card, the other a French SIM card. I have also played around with some commercial iPhone backup programs, though simply for doing a full backup, they don't seem any better than iTunes.
Now to the interesting point about iCloud backups. Is there any way that I could take my 13, turn on email backups to iCloud, and use that to transfer the emails from my 13 to the cloud and then to my 16? I also have an archive folder on my 13 for my primary email account. What happens to that folder if I use icloud?
Incidentally, i looked at imyphone as a possible solution. It can pull out most data from an iPhone backup, except emails. Too bad.
It's not the cost of iCloud. I just don't like putting any of my stuff i the cloud. Too many stories of security failures at every level, even up to DoD.
I have been using iTunes to my PC laptop for years for backup. In the past, before QuickStart, when I got a new iPhone I would always set it up from the iTunes backup. Worked fine. Also worked when I wanted to have a backup iphone set up just like my main one. One had a US SIM card, the other a French SIM card. I have also played around with some commercial iPhone backup programs, though simply for doing a full backup, they don't seem any better than iTunes.
Now to the interesting point about iCloud backups. Is there any way that I could take my 13, turn on email backups to iCloud, and use that to transfer the emails from my 13 to the cloud and then to my 16? I also have an archive folder on my 13 for my primary email account. What happens to that folder if I use icloud?
Incidentally, i looked at imyphone as a possible solution. It can pull out most data from an iPhone backup, except emails. Too bad.
I just chatted with Apple Support. They confirm that external emails (like RandyDandy@comcast.net) are not backed up to iCloud, so that is no solution.
I guess I just have to suck it up and be glad that all my emails are still on my laptop in Thunderbird, and two years worth are on my 13, which I plan to keep.
Or, I could return the 16 (I've only had it two days) and just use my 13 with all those emails still on it. . . . . . Probably not.
I guess I just have to suck it up and be glad that all my emails are still on my laptop in Thunderbird, and two years worth are on my 13, which I plan to keep.
Or, I could return the 16 (I've only had it two days) and just use my 13 with all those emails still on it. . . . . . Probably not.
Well cut-off my leg and call me Stumpy! My head is spinning that Apple Mail contents are not backed to iCloud. I have a program called iMazing which keeps incremental backups of our iGizmos on my PC and it seems that while I can look-up all manner of info on past backups (I have many dozens) including Messages and Notes and Books and Voicemail and Ringtones and what-hae-you, I CANNOT look-up old emails and thus it appears Apple has indeed crippled that (for what reason?). I have observed in the past that Reminders can't be backed-up, and I have Resilio Sync with many gigabytes of personal PDFs and such on our gizmos, and those files aren't backed-up either, but I've always known that and it's just as well as there's a crapload of personal and financial info I keep there.
Like you, I have Thunderbird on my Windows laptop with all email and archives on it, and my opinion therefore is to continue to maintain (and backup!) that and bite on a bullet about the 16. Not sure I'd keep the 13 just "cuz emails" are on it but you seem to know what you are doing.
It occurs to me that my Mac Mini (MacOS) has email on it and I have to check now to see if my own email is backed-up to the Time Machine I have here.
EDIT: Let me add also that about two months ago I upgraded from an iPhone 8 to my new 16 Pro and all my old emails, Apple and 3rd Party, came-along so I dunno what happened in your case. Heck the 8's iOS couldn't be updated anymore beyond iOS 16 and I'll bet the 13 is 17 yes?
I do wonder now if you asked Apple Support "OK so no iCloud backup but why didn't my email transfer from the 13 to the 16?" I might almost be tempted to wipe the 16 and try it again. OTOH it might have do do with your POP vis my IMAP i.e. maybe My emails did not transfer at all, that instead the 16 re-downloaded all of them from the email servers and I just didn't realize that was happening.
Like you, I have Thunderbird on my Windows laptop with all email and archives on it, and my opinion therefore is to continue to maintain (and backup!) that and bite on a bullet about the 16. Not sure I'd keep the 13 just "cuz emails" are on it but you seem to know what you are doing.
It occurs to me that my Mac Mini (MacOS) has email on it and I have to check now to see if my own email is backed-up to the Time Machine I have here.
EDIT: Let me add also that about two months ago I upgraded from an iPhone 8 to my new 16 Pro and all my old emails, Apple and 3rd Party, came-along so I dunno what happened in your case. Heck the 8's iOS couldn't be updated anymore beyond iOS 16 and I'll bet the 13 is 17 yes?
I do wonder now if you asked Apple Support "OK so no iCloud backup but why didn't my email transfer from the 13 to the 16?" I might almost be tempted to wipe the 16 and try it again. OTOH it might have do do with your POP vis my IMAP i.e. maybe My emails did not transfer at all, that instead the 16 re-downloaded all of them from the email servers and I just didn't realize that was happening.
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I think you're probably right that it was because you used iMap. My email server has some limits, and so I doubt that it would hold my many thousands of emails (with attachments) going back to 2007 if I had used iMap from the beginning!
Since you're using Tbird, I do suggest you do a separate backup of just your Tbird profile. That is also the way you can transfer Tbird in full to a new machine.
I normally use Macrium Reflect for full disk backups. But Windows files have gotten so much more complex that I'm not confident I could pull out just the Tbird files from a full disk backup. Ditto for my Picasa files. So each of these gets its own, independent backup.
I'm not eager to wipe my new 16 for any reason. I had a Tracfone SIM in my 13. Normally, transferring a Tracfone account to a new iPhone involves many calls to Tracfone (non)support people, 3/4 of whom will say your new iPhone is not compatible with Tracfone at all. In this amazing case, I avoided customer support and was able to move my old Tracfone phone # to an eSim on the 16 just via the Tracfone website. I know several people who couldn't do this online at all.
Thanks I use Acronis and can easily pull my Tbird files from any of my daily Windows laptop (primary computer) backups.
I'm less familiar with my Mac mini and my Time Capsule but intend to look further at that. Haven't used it enough to warrant making Image backups there yet.