Existing watch - New iPhone

[maxpax444]

Morning all,

I've got a new 12 mini and have set it up as a clean, new phone - I'm trying to move my Apple Watch series 4 across to it. I've unpaired from my old phone, done the backup and when pairing to the new phone there isn't an option for restore from backup only for set up as a new watch.

Any ideas how to get around this?

 

[griss0r]

Just use the transfer method instead of setting up as new. When I did this it moved my watch over to the new phone perfectly. Without unpairing and repairing.

 

[Apple_Robert]

What @griss0r is talking about works very well, although you will need to start the set up process over.

 

[maxpax444]

Just a quick one before considering the transfer route - all my health data is on iCloud. If I just set up the watch as new will it pick all of that up along with the saved activity data or will it be erased when I set up the watch?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Just a quick one before considering the transfer route - all my health data is on iCloud. If I just set up the watch as new will it pick all of that up along with the saved activity data or will it be erased when I set up the watch?

In my experience and according to Apple, your health data should be safe etc. What you want to do, is back up your phone first and foremost. Make sure to do an encrypted back to the Mac, as well as the normal iCloud route. Once your backup is done, wipe the phone. If you still have your old phone or iPad, use one of those devices to transfer data to the new phone. During that process, you should be asked if you want to transfer your watch to the new phone. I have done this process before and haven’t had any problems. Just know that you could still run into a software glitch where your health data goes missing. While it is very rare, I have read a few instances on here of people experiencing such a problem.

If I have missed a step, someone please chime in and correct me.

 

[axantas]

Your health data is not affected in any way. I already did it several times - different ways. Your health data is on iCloud, signing in with the same account, you will get back everything.
I never lost anything.
I would - however - not wipe the old phone immediately. There is no reason for that.