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luckyluca

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 15, 2019
48
6
Hi,

Me and my wife own an Iphone 11 and XR respectively.

Would it be possible for my wife and me to swap Iphones and have the complete exact installations passed to our respective new devices?

I would like to port over the exact content of the devices including apps datas, settings, pictures, everything, without the need to setup anything from scratch nor the need to reinstall apps.

Please note we do not use Icloud and never backup to the cloud. Is this doable?
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,335
3,012
Between the coasts
Yes, it can be done.

First, make sure both iPhones are on the same version of iOS.

Next, backup both iPhones to a computer with iTunes (or via Finder if it's a Mac with Catalina).

Make sure you have turned off Find My iPhone on both iPhones (I know, you said you don't use iCloud, but nearly everyone really does use iCloud for features like Find My iPhone and syncing Contacts and Calendars, even if it's not for backups).

Then you can restore the backup of the iPhone 11 to the iPhone XR, and vice versa.

Although this Apple support article refers to transferring to a "new" iPhone, it will still work if it's a "different" iPhone. https://support.apple.com/HT201269
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,921
13,274
iTunes/Finder encrypted backup and restore. Apps will now re-download from the cloud but the computer must have enough free space to store iPhone backups.

Just to give you an idea, I had a 128GB iPad with 100GB storage used. Backup size was ~80GB. How much storage the backup will use depends greatly on the type of content stored on your phone. In my iPad's case, it had 80GB worth of personal data.
 

luckyluca

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 15, 2019
48
6
Yes, it can be done.

First, make sure both iPhones are on the same version of iOS.

Next, backup both iPhones to a computer with iTunes (or via Finder if it's a Mac with Catalina).

Make sure you have turned off Find My iPhone on both iPhones (I know, you said you don't use iCloud, but nearly everyone really does use iCloud for features like Find My iPhone and syncing Contacts and Calendars, even if it's not for backups).

Then you can restore the backup of the iPhone 11 to the iPhone XR, and vice versa.

Although this Apple support article refers to transferring to a "new" iPhone, it will still work if it's a "different" iPhone. https://support.apple.com/HT201269

Would app reinstall themselves?
and if so would they retain their data?
i.e.
imovies projects
whatsapp chats
photos media and albums

and regarding icloud I was thinking of turning off everything ( contacts inotes etc) as you rightly pointed out.

Thanks for your replies!

thanks
Luca
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,335
3,012
Between the coasts
Would app reinstall themselves?
and if so would they retain their data?
i.e.
imovies projects
whatsapp chats
photos media and albums

and regarding icloud I was thinking of turning off everything ( contacts inotes etc) as you rightly pointed out.

Thanks for your replies!

thanks
Luca
Yes, after you restore from a backup (whether from iTunes or iCloud) the apps reinstall themselves (you need to be signed into iTunes & App Store, of course), and the app data is retained/restored.

I don't know why you're concerned about using iCloud features, but the important one here is Find My iPhone. What you do with the rest of your data is your business. Failure to turn off Find My iPhone before doing what you plan will complicate the process unnecessarily.
 

maerz001

macrumors 68030
Nov 2, 2010
2,537
2,449
Afaik in whatsapp u have to do the backup manually under settings. As its stored on facebooks servers
 
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