I accidentally ran into some interesting Apple Watch learnings that could apply to setting up a new iPhone. The following is my experience after doing a restore on my current IPhone 6+ so I could unlock it. This is from my experience, there could be a better way.
1. Unpair your watch which will create a backup on your phone. Give it time.
2. Create a backup with Encryption using iTunes - preferably with your iPhone in Airplane mode to keep the backup clean. This will include passwords and Health data.
If you have done that already, make sure you know your password - in the previous iTunes setup, it was NOT saved to keychain, so you'll have to remember it vs. looking up in Keychain. Yet my mac remembered it so I could backup without knowing it, I just couldn't restore.
If you forgot your password, just turn off encryption then set it again and you can set another password. If you recently set your password, it will be in keychain. Note the password is associated with the specific backup, so if you forget your password, that backup isn't usable. Luckily, I finally got mine right.
3. Do your restore to new iPhone. If you restore, and your backup fails as corrupt, there is a mac/windows app you can buy called Decipher that successfully cleaned up my backup which finally restored cleanly.
BUT First try to restart your mac & iPhone and put it in airplane mode. That didn't help me though.
There's a free trial, I'm not sure if you can restore without a license though - I could't figure out how anyway although it might be that it just doesn't tell you how to do it unless you pay. It creates a new backup file with the name Decipher - you use that when you do the iPhone restore.
4. Pair your Watch, then answer prompts on watch and iPhone. One will be to restore from backup. This takes a little time.
*****
For AT&T users - if you paid off your NEXT, you can request an unlock. I had to do this several times and finally chat got it through - I kept getting denials that I was under contract when my account clearly showed it paid off. Once they approve it, a day later you will need to backup your phone, do a restore then restore from backup. The restore (button at the top section above the backup restore, will tell you that your phone is now unlocked. You need to do this while you still have an active SIM card... I think. So you'll want to plan ahead. I did try someone else's non AT&T sim just to be sure.
Now I just need my iPhone 6s+!
Updated 9/21
1. Unpair your watch which will create a backup on your phone. Give it time.
2. Create a backup with Encryption using iTunes - preferably with your iPhone in Airplane mode to keep the backup clean. This will include passwords and Health data.
If you have done that already, make sure you know your password - in the previous iTunes setup, it was NOT saved to keychain, so you'll have to remember it vs. looking up in Keychain. Yet my mac remembered it so I could backup without knowing it, I just couldn't restore.
If you forgot your password, just turn off encryption then set it again and you can set another password. If you recently set your password, it will be in keychain. Note the password is associated with the specific backup, so if you forget your password, that backup isn't usable. Luckily, I finally got mine right.
3. Do your restore to new iPhone. If you restore, and your backup fails as corrupt, there is a mac/windows app you can buy called Decipher that successfully cleaned up my backup which finally restored cleanly.
BUT First try to restart your mac & iPhone and put it in airplane mode. That didn't help me though.
There's a free trial, I'm not sure if you can restore without a license though - I could't figure out how anyway although it might be that it just doesn't tell you how to do it unless you pay. It creates a new backup file with the name Decipher - you use that when you do the iPhone restore.
4. Pair your Watch, then answer prompts on watch and iPhone. One will be to restore from backup. This takes a little time.
*****
For AT&T users - if you paid off your NEXT, you can request an unlock. I had to do this several times and finally chat got it through - I kept getting denials that I was under contract when my account clearly showed it paid off. Once they approve it, a day later you will need to backup your phone, do a restore then restore from backup. The restore (button at the top section above the backup restore, will tell you that your phone is now unlocked. You need to do this while you still have an active SIM card... I think. So you'll want to plan ahead. I did try someone else's non AT&T sim just to be sure.
Now I just need my iPhone 6s+!
Updated 9/21
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