How to Use Automatic Setup in iOS 11 to Get Your New iPhone 8 Up and Running Quick

[walnuts]

I’m still not clear on the best practice, and it has nothing to do with the article- actually I find the article quite clear and helpful- thank you!

But, given that I’ve got time and good internet, I wonder whether I should just restore the whole thing from a backup in one shot. Seems simpler and less risky than compartmentalizing the restore process? Or, does this make for more of a fresh install while transferring basic settings in one step and app data in another. Just wondering aloud...

 

[Allards]

I’m still not clear on the best practice, and it has nothing to do with the article- actually I find the article quite clear and helpful- thank you!

But, given that I’ve got time and good internet, I wonder whether I should just restore the whole thing from a backup in one shot. Seems simpler and less risky than compartmentalizing the restore process? Or, does this make for more of a fresh install while transferring basic settings in one step and app data in another. Just wondering aloud...

I personally never did a one-shot iTunes restore; but the iCloud method worked for me as flawless as i could this for!

 

[JRobinsonJr]

I still use iTunes backup for upgrades to make sure all apps etc go across too.

iCloud backup has never been sufficient for a device to device transfer in my eyes, and is only good for unplanned device loss/damage

Agreed... as long as you haven't upgraded to the latest version of iTunes. That functionality no longer exists!
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How disappointing. Apple had an opportunity to add a really awesome feature to speed upgrading your device, direct device to device data transfer, and didn't bother to do it.

This would have been really good for rural customers who have heavily metered satellite connections. Why send several GB of data to and from the Internet when all the data is already right there on the device?

Sigh.

Agreed completely! With the availability of high-speed Internet access Apple (and most others) assume it is OK to send massive data to/from the cloud. That's a great way to store/save data but is also wasteful.

I'll take it a step further and suggest that there should be a way to locally cache streaming data, whether it is a device backup or my music (owned or Music) that is frequently streamed, or TV/Movies (owned) that are frequently played. It is ridiculous to send the same data repeatedly. That just makes things slower for everyone... and adds zero value to anyone.

 

[rbailerum1]

I've updated the post, please give it a look and let me know if I've made it clearer what Automatic Setup does and does not do. Also, let me know if there's anything else I should add. Thanks for the feedback, guys

Thanks for the great article!

I think the confusion is from a couple things, both of which would be helpful if addressed in the article.

1) why would anyone use this feature when restoring from an iCloud or iTunes backup not only does the same thing, but does more? IOW, what’s the purpose of this feature if it is not going to restore all of your data? Is there a large portion of the population who do not want to restore their apps? It seems like this only serves a small portion of iPhone users, and may even be confusing to them since they likely will think that it is going to move all of their data. Most iPhone users are not people that comment on the Macrumors forms (most of the people here are fairly tech savvy), and genuinely need things to be somewhat dummy proof. I can see this feature causing even more confusion among the general public.

2) why use this feature first, and then do a restore from iCloud or iTunes back up? Isn’t that redundant?

 

[Knightcastle]

Agreed... as long as you haven't upgraded to the latest version of iTunes. That functionality no longer exists!
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really?

 

[leesweet]

Not sure what happened in my case. I did the ‘auto transfer’ between the two devices and ended up having to type in my WiFi password by hand.

I always do an iTunes encrypted backup but you need to get Wi-Fi working before you can get to that point to restore from iTunes or iCloud. Then the iTunes restore did everything but of course the apps took hours to actually redownload from the hammered App Store.

If the Wi-Fi setup had been automatic (like it was with my new ATV) it would have been smoother.
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It does restore everything from iCloud even all App settings. I recently wiped and restored my iPad

After the setup process all my App and settings where just like before!
Even tricky Apps as my banking App just worked without having to set them up, going to a painful authorisation process.

Basically my iPad was just as I left it before the wipe!

Is this new? In the past, iCloud wasn’t ‘encrypted’ so it never saves any passwords
(Wi-Fi or other) so when I did this, every account (mail, WiFi, app) needed to be re-setup. When you do an encrypted iTunes backup, none of that is needed. The only delay is that the apps do need to download over the air from the App Store.

So I’m confused how an iCloud backup can do this unless something basic has recently changed. Love to hear how, as I hate iTunes!

 

[Weaselboy]

Not sure what happened in my case. I did the ‘auto transfer’ between the two devices and ended up having to type in my WiFi password by hand.

I wonder where you went wrong. I just setup my iPhone 8 from a 7 and it worked really well bringing over the password and iCloud. Do you have an odd wifi encryption type that it could not handle maybe?

 

[Knightcastle]

I wonder where you went wrong. I just setup my iPhone 8 from a 7 and it worked really well bringing over the password and iCloud. Do you have an odd wifi encryption type that it could not handle maybe?

Did it bring over apps, folders, in app logins etc?

 

[Weaselboy]

Did it bring over apps, folders, in app logins etc?

No... it just brings over wifi password, Wallet, and iCloud account and password. Then I restored from an encrypted iTunes backup and that brought in passwords for my apps. Then the apps themselves get downloaded over the air from Apple.

 

[NoBoMac]

Mine failed as well. Can't recall the message I got. Maybe partially worked? Hard to tell since this go round of phone switching was painful and ultimately required changing settings on the wifi (lots of "unexpected error" messages anytime needed to enter AppleID, contact App Store).
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Is [encrypted iCloud backups] new? In the past, iCloud wasn’t ‘encrypted’ so it never saves any passwords

Not that new. 2.5yrs, maybe. I recall when HealthApp first popped up, people were complaining about iCloud backups not saving that information due to lack of encryption. Was corrected not that long after iirc.

Anyway, per this link, backups are encrypted.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

And this link, it is about iTunes backups, but, does state iCloud backups are automatically encrypted.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205220

 

[leesweet]

Mine failed as well. Can't recall the message I got. Maybe partially worked? Hard to tell since this go round of phone switching was painful and ultimately required changing settings on the wifi (lots of "unexpected error" messages anytime needed to enter AppleID, contact App Store).
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Not that new. 2.5yrs, maybe. I recall when HealthApp first popped up, people were complaining about iCloud backups not saving that information due to lack of encryption. Was corrected not that long after iirc.

Anyway, per this link, backups are encrypted.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

And this link, it is about iTunes backups, but, does state iCloud backups are automatically encrypted.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205220

Well, dayum, on the iCloud. I follow this stuff pretty closely, and I never knew that. I may try that next year, as iTunes is a pita...

Thanks for the reference!

And for the 'automatic update', I installed an ATV 4K (guess that's the legal name and not 5 lol), and it worked fine. But the phone definitely blew up.

Edit: Hm, looking at that link again, I don't see Health, etc., data. Looks like if you want everything you may still need to use iTunes?

 

[NoBoMac]

Edit: Hm, looking at that link again, I don't see Health, etc., data. Looks like if you want everything you may still need to use iTunes?

Looks like not all their documentation is updated. Go to your iDevice's iCloud settings, and you will see the Health App toggle button. Pretty sure all iCloud data is encrypted end-to-end.

Your health data stays up to date across all your devices automatically using iCloud where it is encrypted while in transit and at rest.

https://www.apple.com/ios/health/

 

[Howard Brazee]

It's been working 13 hours now.

I wish iTunes hadn't forced me to reset my iPhone to be able to read it yesterday morning.
I wish iTunes had been able to read my backups (it thought my password was wrong).
I wish this process worked.