Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

nehope

macrumors member
Nov 27, 2012
50
0
Have never had a problem restoring from backup and didn't this time. It takes a long time for music, pictures, videos, etc. to get reloaded but I just set it down and let it do its thing.
 

respectabilia

macrumors regular
Oct 24, 2010
236
5
Would love to hear some informed opinions on this.

I don't know if it's my perfectionism but not knowing whether a clean install is better is hard!

If there is that slight possibility that a clean install will lead to better battery life and better smoothness, I want to go for it...but is that just a myth?
 

iphone5att64

macrumors 6502
Sep 19, 2012
405
37
Is there a way to restore only certain data like messages, voice mail and voice memos? I don't want to reinstall all the apps I had.
 

dacreativeguy

macrumors 68020
Jan 27, 2007
2,032
223
I tried to restore my new 6 from my 4s and ended up with a 20GB "Other" data tumor I couldn't get rid of. Ended up starting over fresh and it didn't return.
 

GalvaJ

macrumors regular
Oct 28, 2011
212
42
I too would be very interested to know if the Set Up as New is better for performance or if it's just a myth as well. I always do a clean install because over the years I've heard of many who do restores from previous backups and end up with odd bugs or bad battery life that they fix by reinstalling as new. Plus "Other" files seems to grow with time so you get rid of that too. Besides, there's something about a fresh start that I just love on my iPhone and Mac.
 

ladytonya

macrumors 6502a
Oct 14, 2008
924
198
I tried to restore my new 6 from my 4s and ended up with a 20GB "Other" data tumor I couldn't get rid of. Ended up starting over fresh and it didn't return.

Where did you see this "other" data? I restored from back up on my 6 Plus and the only thing I see is "Used" and "Available" in Settings < General < Usage. I have 24.9 GB used and 89.2 available. That adds up to an odd number, where can I see a more detailed summary of my usage?
 

Mortis360

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2013
154
88
Norway
I´m always setting up as new, I dont like to bring settings and apps, I´ll rather download everything again, to avoid smaller issues.
 

roberthodgson

macrumors 6502
Jul 18, 2010
327
74
Setup as New, cleans up all the unused apps and other space that can only be cleaned up with a new install


Notes and contacts all come back from iCloud the only thing I miss is the text messages and iMessages.
 

Newtons Apple

Suspended
Mar 12, 2014
22,757
15,253
Jacksonville, Florida
Never restored as new in years and years and all works perfectly.

Do as you wish but my 5S backup brought my 6 to "ready to go" condition in about 10 minutes including all my music!
 

JBuck

macrumors newbie
Jun 2, 2014
11
8
Gonna setup as new this time, like others have said ive restored from backup in the past, but as i go through stages of jailbreaking and then updating and not jailbreaking i think my 2 year old iphone 5 has too many skeletons in its backup closets, battery, file structures, settings, i just think a fresh setup is best.

the biggest thing for me is, i cant help thinking restoring from backup inherits any battery gremlins relating to previous iOS's.

:apple:
 

InsideTJ

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2012
114
13
I set up my 6 as new.

I manually backup my photos/videos. I use iTunes match. I use google for contacts/calendars. So everything for normal use is synced via google or iTunes match. Many of my apps use iCloud for data (day one app, etc).

For game saves and other finicky app data, i use iexplorer and export/import. For example, every day photo app has 3 years of daily photos. I poked around with iexplorer and exported/imported my photo history into the new phone. Same for several games.

It took a little while, but I'm back like my old phone but with a fresh install.
 

kastorff

macrumors regular
Oct 7, 2006
132
20
I use PhoneView on my Mac to backup texts and other data on the old phone, and then setup as "new". I figure after two years a clean start is needed, since I tend to keep all of my text/iMessage history.
 

Traverse

macrumors 604
Mar 11, 2013
7,688
4,400
Here
I set up as new because I tend to find that my devices run slightly better (mainly older ones). I've found that a lot of games like Infinity Blade save your data in iCloud so even when you set up as new, the data is there. As for pictures or RSS apps, I just manually put those back to normal. It's not bad. The whole sync and restore process takes about 2 hours, but I don't have to be involved with the device during most of that time.

Also, my music is custom arranged in iTunes so if I did decide to restore from backup I would need to delete the music on my phone and then back it up one last time.
 
Last edited:

BeK

macrumors regular
Mar 2, 2012
183
14
Restoring From Backup or Set Up as New?

I will finally be receiving my 6 Plus in the mail today and i had plans to restore a previous backup from my 5S. Would this lead to mediocre performance by restoring from a backup?
I ask because some have alluded to the idea that setting up as a new iPhone will lead to better performance from the device.
Can anyone clarify? Thanks.
 

Shadowbech

macrumors G3
Oct 18, 2011
9,038
5,894
You should be fine restoring from backup. If performance is an issue after you restored from back up then you can just restore the phone again and set it up as new.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.