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How do you set up your new phone?


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    121

Sukach

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2011
210
36
Since the X, I've upgraded every 3 years (12 Pro now 15 Pro [Max?]). I've always taken this as an opportunity to clean my phone and not reinstall apps I don't use. What about others? Anybody else start from scratch with a new phone?
 
Agreed with the others, I always set up as new. Gives me a chance to purge all the crap apps I don't actually use and gives me an opportunity to reconsider how I use my phone when arranging apps/pages.
 
Always backup/transfer from old phone. Has generally worked for me. Only occasion where I ran into problems was when I got my 8: all sorts of odd behavior, crashes so re-setup that phone as new (EDIT: but that initial release of OS had a major Springboard bug/issue so might have been that causing most of the problems as new setup was still occasionally causing freezes).

As @cthompson94 said, want the settings just like previous. These days, there are so many settings, and in some cases buried deep or not obvious places, tough to remember every little switch or where it is. Add in now that Notifications can be hyper tuned, Focuses, Automations, and app settings in general, can spend ALOT of time going through everything to get back to the way it was.
 
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Always setup from my iCloud backup. But I make a point to go through and clean up photos, messages, and apps before the new phone arrives. That means it takes less time to get the new phone setup but I've also stripped it down to what I actually use/need.
 
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I restore from a backup - I've gotten too lazy to go through the whole rigamarole of starting from scratch. But I'm also pretty good about only keeping apps loaded that I use on a regular basis.
 
As new always. Who wants their new phone looking exactly like their old phone? Boring! New lock screen and home screen wallpapers, similar app icons layout, new ringtone & alerts tones, no bugs carried over. Yeah it takes a day or two but that's part of the fun of a new device.
 
As new always. Who wants their new phone looking exactly like their old phone? Boring! New lock screen and home screen wallpapers, similar app icons layout, new ringtone & alerts tones, no bugs carried over. Yeah it takes a day or two but that's part of the fun of a new device.
Would love to do this. One thing I don’t know is how to deal with unpairing/re-pairing my Watch during this process.
 
I always set up from backup. Takes away some of the fun but there are just too many settings and preferences for me to want to try to remember how I had it.
 
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Since 2007 I've restore from backup.

Prior to flagship iPhones having 128GB storage I'd often leave out Photos app data. Last few years I do not bother doing that anymore as I'll be forced to a 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max.
 
I am careful about what I put on my phone so there is not a lot of junk. I do not have time to set us as new and for the last 2-3 iPhones just put them next to each other and let them get acquainted. Everything is set up just like your previous phone and I have never had even the slightest problem.
 
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i’m not sure what i do actually, i just know it transfers everything from the old phone to the new one. nothing from the cloud or restoring or backups .. just goes from one phone to the other
 
Since the X, I've upgraded every 3 years (12 Pro now 15 Pro [Max?]). I've always taken this as an opportunity to clean my phone and not reinstall apps I don't use. What about others? Anybody else start from scratch with a new phone?
I use iCloud sync for everything, so a backup is kind of pointless in my case.

I like to use a new phone as an opportunity to start with a clean slate of apps and only install the ones I’m currently using.

Also, in the early days of iOS I had instances of corrupt settings or network preferences being restored from a backup, so I’ve been cautious ever since.
 
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