iPhone 16 Pro Max Fastest transfer from older iPhone to 16

[dave006]

the ports dont do thunderbolt but a lot of USB-C cables only do usb 2.0 transfer speeds so by using a thunderbolt 3 cable which uses the USB-C connector your going to get at least USB 3.0 speeds.

USB-3 speeds are up to 10 Gbps slightly above your local Wi-Fi from your router's speed. The latest iPhones are only USC-C connections. Thunderbolt is a Mac additional feature. For Thunderbolt speeds you need a Thunderbolt port on both sides of your connection.

Dave

 

[oneteam]

If you back up to iCloud, you don't need your old phone. Just restore from the cloud backup and you are done.

 

[mavere]

I am going from a 15PM to a 16PM and i plan on transferring between both phones with a Thunderbolt 3 cable. Should have my new phone around 10:30 ish central time and can post back on how long it takes. i am using a 185 gigs on my current phone.

Yes please! Would be really useful information for posterity as well as the rest of us transferring later that day.

 

[earthdog]

Coming from a 15 Pro max, is it possible to just use a USB C cable between the 15 and 16 to transfer that way?

Yes you can

 

[reyalP]

If you back up to iCloud, you don't need your old phone. Just restore from the cloud backup and you are done.

What about the esim? Do we need to transfer this first or can we just trade our phone and leave?

 

[dave006]

What about the esim? Do we need to transfer this first or can we just trade our phone and leave?

Your e-SIM transfer instructions are Carrier dependent. Check your Carrier's online support notes...

Dave

 

[dmk1974]

For ever, I have always backed up and restored via wire to/from my computer and selecting the encrypted backup. Always seems to need less logins and passwords when I restore (just iCloud and Google I typically need to do).

Is it really more complete and faster to do via iCloud backup, direct WiFi, or now direct wire between the phones?

I'm coming from 13 Pro to 16 Pro so no sure if I can do that direct wire upgrade, can I (Lightning to USB-C cable)?

 

[HarryMudd]

I've done all three. The WiFi option has been the easiest. I think the reason it seems faster is that a lot of the data transfer will occur over time in the background via iCloud. I am going to pick up my phone at the store tomorrow and will bring it home and do the transfer here. After a day or two and I'm satisfied that everything has gone well, I will reset my 15 and use the trade in mailer to send it off. I've had issues with the transfer and carrier activation in the store. I actually had better luck at home, and it's more comfortable for me.

This year, my wife is going to upgrade to my 15. So I will transfer my 15 to the 16, then reset my 15 and transfer her 14 to the 15, and finally mail in the 14 on trade to Apple.

I will also backup both phones to my Mac, actually, I am going to do that right now!

 

[CMoore515]

Setting up as a new iPhone. I like to reinstall all my apps as I need them, it reduces clutter and apps I quit using.

The only reason I ever do device-to-device or iCloud restore is if I need a mid-year replacement or like today when I transferred my eSIMs and stuff to my 13 mini for the day so I wouldn't be without a phone after I trade in my 15PM.

Won't be able to setup the new phone until tomorrow night.

 

[bhall110]

So I have experimented with this the last couple of years.

The fastest to get into your phone is to use the Cloud. Seems like it wont be but it is. The phone basically downloads your settings and boom you are in the phone. Apps and photos download in the background.

If you transfer over cable everything must go over the cable and the phone is in transfer mode until it’s finished. Basically staring at a paper weight.

To each their own!

 

[Ntombi]

I’ll be doing the USB-C transfer process for the first time. 15 Pro to 16 Pro.

I usually do the WiFi transfer, so we’ll see if it’s much different. The only thing is that I am always running the public beta, so sometimes I have to update the new phone first. It just depends.

 

[Tyler.Schmaltz]

USB-3 speeds are up to 10 Gbps slightly above your local Wi-Fi from your router's speed. The latest iPhones are only USC-C connections. Thunderbolt is a Mac additional feature. For Thunderbolt speeds you need a Thunderbolt port on both sides of your connection.

Dave

95% of home users routers have a 1gig ethernet wan port so doesnt matter what speed wifi you connect with 5/6/7 your limited by the 1 gig ethernet lan connection. So a USB 3.0 connection will be 10 times faster on paper. Also 85% of USB-C Cable only do USB 2.0 transfer speeds. All my anker cables i use for charging only do USB 2.0 speed and the cable that was in the box with my iphone 15pm last year from apple only does USB 2.0. The easiest way to gaurantee USB 3.0 speed with a USB-C cable is to get a Thunderbolt 3 cable. So the fastest way to tranfer "everything" is a restore from a Mac encrypyed backup or a iPhone cable to cable tranfer. The quickest way to get a functioning phone and let everything download in the background is a icloud backup restore.

 

[dmk1974]

95% of home users routers have a 1gig ethernet wan port so doesnt matter what speed wifi you connect with 5/6/7 your limited by the 1 gig ethernet lan connection. So a USB 3.0 connection will be 10 times faster on paper. Also 85% of USB-C Cable only do USB 2.0 transfer speeds. All my anker cables i use for charging only do USB 2.0 speed and the cable that was in the box with my iphone 15pm last year from apple only does USB 2.0. The easiest way to gaurantee USB 3.0 speed with a USB-C cable is to get a Thunderbolt 3 cable. So the fastest way to tranfer "everything" is a restore from a Mac encrypyed backup or a iPhone cable to cable tranfer. The quickest way to get a functioning phone and let everything download in the background is a icloud backup restore.

Via iTunes on my Windows PC which has a superspeed USB-A jack, I plan to restore my backup from my iPhone 13 Pro to the new iPhone 16 Pro tomorrow. With this cable, (or similar spec) wouldn't it actually be the fastest speed possible to upgrade? Still being able to use my 13 Pro while it restores to the 16 Pro and that USB 3.0 speed?

 

[zach-coleman]

In every case besides transferring from a 15 Pro to 16 Pro, cable transfer should really not even be considered unless Quick Start fails to work. USB 2.0 speeds are capped to 460Mbps, or 60MB per second, and any iPhone besides a 15 Pro would not be capable of USB 3.0. In the past, besides last year, downloading from the iCloud backup has always been the fastest.

Last year, my phone glitched and deposited a 160+GB backup to the iCloud server. I was stuck at the store for several hours because I had already signed my previous phone away for trade in. I think I was there for over 3 hours, and the final transfer ended up taking over 40 minutes. (Prior attempts stalled repeatedly.) So in the off chance you end up in that situation, be glad cable sync can save you.

I actually complained to Tim Cook's email so I like to believe I was a small part responsible for this fail safe, lol. It definitely did not exist last year, I asked them to plug it in just to humor me and nothing ever happened.

 

[Big Stevie]

A quick iCloud question please regarding transferring data from old phone to new, and factory resetting your old phone....

Wiping content from a phone also deletes it from iCloud, as well as any other linked devices. So seeing as you are wiping content from your old phone, how come that content doesn't also erase from iCloud as well as the new phone too?

 

[zach-coleman]

A quick iCloud question please regarding transferring data from old phone to new, and factory resetting your old phone....

Wiping content from a phone also deletes it from iCloud, and any other linked devices. So seeing as you are wiping content from your old phone, how come that content doesn't also erase from iCloud and also the new phone too? Is it because whilst your deleting content from the old phone, that same content is now living on your new phone so it remains in iCloud?

Your iCloud backups remain in iCloud for roughly 180 days unless manually deleted, even after a factory reset. If you download that iCloud backup into a new phone, it will automatically delete the old backup attributed to the old phone and replace it with a new one attributed to your new phone.

Factory resetting isn't the same as pressing delete on a photo. They're considered different kinds of "deleting." Even if the backup expires, your contacts and photos would continue to exist in iCloud for example. (Assuming you have the respective sync switches enabled in Settings>Your Name>iCloud.)

 

[cannono]

In my experience, iCloud transfer lets you use the phone fastest because it downloads everything slowly in the background once it has your settings.

But transferring phone to phone is more complete, requiring fewer apps to be logged back in.

 

[Big Stevie]

Your iCloud backups remain in iCloud for roughly 180 days unless manually deleted, even after a factory reset. If you download that iCloud backup into a new phone, it will automatically delete the old backup attributed to the old phone and replace it with a new one attributed to your new phone.

Factory resetting isn't the same as pressing delete on a photo. They're considered different kinds of "deleting." Even if the backup expires, your contacts and photos would continue to exist in iCloud for example. (Assuming you have the respective sync switches enabled in Settings>Your Name>iCloud.)

Thanks for the explanation, I wasn't aware of that.

 

[GuruGuy]

I still find the best way to transfer is cable connection to encrypted backup on mac. Very few, if any apps require username and password when done like this. The backup image seems to contain slightly more data.

 

[Jackbequickly]

I have used the wireless transfer method the last 3 years and it has worked perfectly. Good job Apple!

 

[cannono]

I used cable to transfer phone to phone today and it was much faster than wireless phone to phone. Last year, wireless phone to phone took over an hour and a half. This year, wired took about 50 min.

My phone has about 120GB of data on it, for reference.

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

the ports dont do thunderbolt but a lot of USB-C cables only do usb 2.0 transfer speeds so by using a thunderbolt 3 cable which uses the USB-C connector your going to get at least USB 3.0 speeds.

FWIW, I am doing it right now from 15 PM to 16 PM with the included USB-C cable, and its slow af. Not any faster than when done over WiFi in the past.

 

[Tyler.Schmaltz]

FWIW, I am doing it right now from 15 PM to 16 PM with the included USB-C cable, and its slow af. Not any faster than when done over WiFi in the past.

The included apple cable only supports USB 2.0 480mbps speeds. I used a thunderbolt 3 cable and i plugged both phones with that cable and turned the new phone on and started my timer and it took 35 minutes to tranfer everything with the iphone storage stats on the old phone said i was using 185 gigs.

 

[Fred Zed]

I have used the wireless transfer method the last 3 years and it has worked perfectly. Good job Apple!

Wonder how long 395GB will take me 😅

 

[DarthBradicus]

FWIW, I am doing it right now from 15 PM to 16 PM with the included USB-C cable, and its slow af. Not any faster than when done over WiFi in the past.

It wouldn’t be. It should actually be slower, since that’s a USB 2.0 cable which maxes out at (theoretically) 480 Mbps. Wi-Fi would’ve used Wi-Fi 6e. I forget the theoretical max on that, but realistically you could get at least 1 Gbps or more.