iPad Questions about migration of old iPad to new one

[convergent]

My wife has an iPad Air (first generation) and an iPhone SE. The iPad Air is 64G and about 44G is taken up with old messages and attachments. I bought her a new iPad Pro (prior generation) on Prime Day that has 512GB of storage. Eventually we will replace her iPhone, but not now. She would ideally like to keep the 44G of message history on her new iPad Pro and will of course have plenty of space for it.

What is the best way to migrate this? We don't have a paid iCloud account. Also, how does she let her message history continue to grow on the iPad Pro, and not have it all on her iPhone to save space there? If she deletes a message thread on the iPhone, does it stay on the iPad Pro?

Thanks!

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Connect the Air to iTunes, on a Mac or PC.
Do a full backup .... choose the encrypted backup.
Then connect the iPad Pro to iTunes, and restore from that backup.

This is basically the best way to ensure EVERYTHING on her iPad Air, is restored to her iPad Pro.

 

[akash.nu]

Also, definitely pay for iCloud. It’s a no brainer for the convenience it provides.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Also, definitely pay for iCloud.

Paying for iCloud is common sense.

 

[rui no onna]

Also, definitely pay for iCloud. It’s a no brainer for the convenience it provides.

Agreed. We have the $2.99 200GB/mo plan for the family which is more than sufficient for our iCloud backup and photos. The automatic backups while charging makes unplanned device replacements (broken devices, etc) so much easier.

 

[convergent]

Agreed. We have the $2.99 200GB/mo plan for the family which is more than sufficient for our iCloud backup and photos. The automatic backups while charging makes unplanned device replacements (broken devices, etc) so much easier.

200GB isn't likely going to cut it for us, and I really don't want yet another cloud service to deal with... already using Google (Photos for the family), Amazon (NAS backup and photos), AND Microsoft (Onedrive for documents, and Lightroom library sync).

I can try to use iTunes, but both Macs are pretty well full of picture backups prior to our giving up and just sending family pics to Google. (and I don't use either Mac for anything - Mini and Air with about 2TB storage combined - using Windows mostly now) I hate to purge the old ones though.

Any thoughts on the idea of scaling back messages on one device, but not the other?

 

[rui no onna]

You don't have to use iCloud for Photos or anything else if you don't want to. We don't have a ton of photos and videos so the 200GB plan is more than sufficient to hold our iCloud Photo library. If it wasn't, I'd still use it for automatic, relatively seamless iCloud backup. iCloud doesn't really require any manual intervention for that. Plug in the charger while connected to wifi and it's gonna back itself up.

Disabling Messages in iCloud might do the trick. Alas, not sure about this one.

 

[akash.nu]

200GB isn't likely going to cut it for us, and I really don't want yet another cloud service to deal with... already using Google (Photos for the family), Amazon (NAS backup and photos), AND Microsoft (Onedrive for documents, and Lightroom library sync).

Not sure if you were aware of but Google photos compressed pictures and iCloud doesn’t. So you keep your original quality of pictures taken. Between auto backup and photos I’m fully invested in iCloud and it’s so seamless that I can’t even imagine life without it.