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iPhone 17 How can you tell if a wired iPhone-to-iPhone migration was performed and not wireless?

Luba

Luba

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
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I connected a USB-C charging cable to the 2 iPhones and selected Transfer From Phone, the transfer took about the same time (2 hours) as the last time when I did a wireless iPhone-to-iPhone migration. Same amount of storage on the phone as the last time I did a transfer, about 200 GB storage on old iPhone (16 Pro). I don't think all 200 GB was transferred to iPhone 17, apps and other data are downloaded in the background after the transfer.

The transfer was stuck at "1 minute remaining" for about 10-15 minutes and my old iPhone (16 Pro) was down to 15% battery so I connected to power and almost instantly the transfer was complete. The new iPhone (17) was also gaining in battery percentage so it seems the old iPhone was also charging it!
 
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I wish I had an answer for you, but I was recently in a similar situation. I was transferring between two phones that were connected by wire, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was even working. Seemed to be taking just as long as the wireless connection I had aborted.
 
Problem is not all USB C cables are equal: they support different data speeds (and charging rates). If you were using one that only supports USB2 speeds for data it could potentially take longer for a wired transfer than wireless.
 
alFR said:
Problem is not all USB C cables are equal: they support different data speeds (and charging rates). If you were using one that only supports USB2 speeds for data it could potentially take longer for a wired transfer than wireless.
Click to expand...
I used the Apple USB-C charging cable that came with the 16 Pro. Probably at USB2 speed?

The source phone (16 Pro) was charging the target iPhone 17, was that a feature of the 16 Pro?
 
Luba said:
I used the Apple USB-C charging cable that came with the 16 Pro. Probably at USB2 speed?

The source phone (16 Pro) was charging the target iPhone 17, was that a feature of the 16 Pro?
Click to expand...
Yes - included cable is USB-2

Yes - 15 & later will charge anything that supports USB Power Delivery - 4.5W according to Apple.

If the new device was a 17 (not Pro) then only USB-2 speeds anyway.
 
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darthbane2k said:
The clue is the message on the screen. If wired it asks you to keep iPhone connected to the new phone, if wireless it tells you to keep close to the new phone. Agree this could be clearer.
Click to expand...
Message was keep phone close, but I had cable connected!?!
 
palemonkey said:
At the point where you select iCloud restore or phone transfer the little icon on the button changes to be an iPhone with a cable.
Click to expand...
I selected phone transfer, but don’t recall iPhone with cable icon
 
Here is an example of the message shown on the source device when the transfer occurs via USB:

IMG_0169.jpeg
 
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In my experience transferring via a proper USB3 thunderbolt cable isn’t any faster than over WiFi.
 
SierraVista said:
Here is an example of the message shown on the source device when the transfer occurs via USB:

View attachment 2559764
Click to expand...
It definitely wasn’t that message. Mine was keep phone close and connected to power.

The cable I used is not defective because I’ve been using it and just used it to backup my phone to my Mac. Should I have connected a cable with both phones turned off, then turned both on for transfer using a wire?

Or maybe I should have selected Other Options to get another screen for wire transfer?? The first option button was iCloud and other was phone-to-phone, the there was a small narrow rectangle button with “Other Options”. Perhaps I should have selected “Other Options” and Wire Transfer button would have appeared. I thought I was doing a wire transfer because I didn’t need to enter the WiFi password on the new iPhone
 
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Luba said:
It definitely wasn’t that message. Mine was keep phone close and connected to power.

The cable I used is not defective because I’ve been using it and just used it to backup my phone to my Mac. Should I have connected a cable with both phones turned off, then turned both on for transfer using a wire?

Or maybe I should have selected Other Options to get another screen for wire transfer?? The first option button was iCloud and other was phone-to-phone, the there was a small narrow rectangle button with “Other Options”. Perhaps 8 should have selected “Other Options” and Wire Transfer button would have appeared. I thought I was doing a wire transfer because I didn’t need to enter the WiFi password on the new iPhone
Click to expand...

On the source device there should have been a “Do you want to allow this device to connect?” prompt as would appear when connecting the phone to a computer, etc. Did you see that prompt and select “Accept”?

In any case, the transfer may have used WiFi if the devices determined that it would be faster than using USB if a low-speed USB cable was used. The example I posted above was a 16 Pro to 17 Pro transfer using an Apple Thunderbolt 4 cable.
 
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On older iOS versions, I remember setup gave the option to select wired for phone-to-phone transfer.

This time, I wasn't given that option and it just used wireless directly.
 
It's easy to miss but these are the 2 types of icons you will see if it wired or wireless.

iphone-migration.png


JdAXpbdcYT-gt7uunoVxOek9-6Ik_id97B0Z36_5Gak.jpg
 
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SierraVista said:
On the source device there should have been a “Do you want to allow this device to connect?” prompt as would appear when connecting the phone to a computer, etc. Did you see that prompt and select “Accept”?
Click to expand...
That prompt didn't appear, so it must have been a wireless migration. The transfer time using a Thunderbolt cable is under 15 min? Wow, I'll get a Thunderbolt cable just for migrations!
 
Luba said:
It definitely wasn’t that message. Mine was keep phone close and connected to power.

The cable I used is not defective because I’ve been using it and just used it to backup my phone to my Mac. Should I have connected a cable with both phones turned off, then turned both on for transfer using a wire?

Or maybe I should have selected Other Options to get another screen for wire transfer?? The first option button was iCloud and other was phone-to-phone, the there was a small narrow rectangle button with “Other Options”. Perhaps I should have selected “Other Options” and Wire Transfer button would have appeared. I thought I was doing a wire transfer because I didn’t need to enter the WiFi password on the new iPhone
Click to expand...
When did you connect the cable? Apple's article says to connect the cable before turning both devices on. Not sure how important that step is though. Maybe it just needs to be connected before getting to the transfer screen.

Use a wired connection to transfer data to a new iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

You can transfer your iPhone data to a different iPhone using a wired connection.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
BigBlur said:
When did you connect the cable? Apple's article says to connect the cable before turning both devices on. Not sure how important that step is though. Maybe it just needs to be connected before getting to the transfer screen.

Use a wired connection to transfer data to a new iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

You can transfer your iPhone data to a different iPhone using a wired connection.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
Right, I'm thinking that was my mistake. iPhone 17 was in the box and naturally it was turned off. I should have turned off my 16 Pro, then connect the cable to the 16 Pro, connect cable to the 17, then finally turn on 16 Pro.

I connected cable to 16 Pro while it was turned on, then when I connected the cable to the 17 it turned it on automatically. I think because it was charging the battery on the 17.
 
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Luba said:
Using the cable in the iPhone box which is only USB2 and the transfer time is under 15 minutes!! Wow! My wireless transfer time was about 2 hours so with a wire transfer it would have been under 15 minutes!
Click to expand...
Those are random pictures I grabbed off the internet so ignore the times listed. For me I had about 120GB of data and it was about maybe 30 minutes using USB2.
 
Seems the 16 Pro stopped transferring once the battery was below 20% (red zone) in order to save power, which was why the transfer was stuck at "1 minute remaining" for about 10-15 minutes, once I plugged the phone into power it finished off the transfer process almost immediately.
 
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