iPhone 16 Pro Get calls/texts and upgrade without the phone for a couple days?

[dmccombs]

I am upgrading my phone this year and will be picking up my new 17 Pro on Friday morning. I am going to sell my old phone locally to help fund the new phone. I am thinking about listing it today. This means I would be without my phone for 2 days, so I had a few questions.

1) I have an apple watch with cellular, and my mac is always on wifi. They can receive calls and texts right now. If I sell my phone (and wipe it of course), will I still get calls/texts during those 2 days when I don't have an iphone enabled?

2) I usually setup a new phone via phone to phone transfer. A few years ago I had problems with my watches being restored properly when I used the icloud back-up restore process. Will the watch setups be transferred to the new phone if I use an icloud backup to set up the new phone? I have a lot of watch faces and apps configured on my 2 watches, and I do not want to set these up again manually.

3) Would there be any other issues you can see with selling my current phone 2 days before getting my new phone?

Thanks in advance for any help...

 

[Bigwaff]

1) I have an apple watch with cellular, and my mac is always on wifi. They can receive calls and texts right now. If I sell my phone (and wipe it of course), will I still get calls/texts during those 2 days when I don't have an iphone enabled?

You Apple Watch and iPhone are paired. When you Erase All Contents and Settings in preparation for selling your iPhone, your Apple Watch will be unpaired and erased.

Sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone

Before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, delete your content and settings.

support.apple.com

You get iMessages on your Mac but you won't receive text messages as those are the result of text message forwarding feature on iPhone, which you have erased.
TLDR Answer: No.

2) I usually setup a new phone via phone to phone transfer. A few years ago I had problems with my watches being restored properly when I used the icloud back-up restore process. Will the watch setups be transferred to the new phone if I use an icloud backup to set up the new phone? I have a lot of watch faces and apps configured on my 2 watches, and I do not want to set these up again manually.

The Apple Watch unpairing process will do a final backup. You can restore your Apple Watch from back up when you set up and pair Apple Watch with your new iPhone.

Restore Apple Watch from a backup

Your Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your paired iPhone, and you can restore it from a stored backup.

support.apple.com

Search Apple Support site. Lots of good info.

 

[dmccombs]

You Apple Watch and iPhone are paired. When you Erase All Contents and Settings in preparation for selling your iPhone, your Apple Watch will be unpaired and erased.

Sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone

Before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, delete your content and settings.

support.apple.com

You get iMessages on your Mac but you won't receive text messages as those are the result of text message forwarding feature on iPhone, which you have erased.
TLDR Answer: No.

The Apple Watch unpairing process will do a final backup. You can restore your Apple Watch from back up when you set up and pair Apple Watch with your new iPhone.

Restore Apple Watch from a backup

Your Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your paired iPhone, and you can restore it from a stored backup.

support.apple.com

Search Apple Support site. Lots of good info.

Thanks for the reply in-depth. It is greatly appreciated.

When I upgraded my phone last year, my watches didn't get wiped, like they had in previous years. They rebooted, and then they reconnected. I didn't try to use them though when the phone was being upgraded, so I have no idea if they would work during the 2 days I could be without a phone.

Great point regarding texts. It sounds like phone calls would be a problem also. Even if the watches don't get wiped, I think I would be out of luck regarding text and calls since the phone wouldn't be in service to forward anything. I guess I will tell folks my old phone is available starting Friday afternoon. 🤷‍♂️