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iPhone 13 Pro Max Major DOWNGRADE from an 13 Pro-Max to the original iPhone SE: What problems can I expect?

H

h4lp m3

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 29, 2011
502
46
New Orleans
I have a 13 PM and I'm almost ready to switch to this iPhone SE, but I'm still a little hesitant to pull the trigger...
IMG_3802.jpeg

WHY DOWNGRADE? The 13PM is just so big and bulky and I'm willing to sacrifice all that camera stuff like Telephoto, Portrait and Wide because I really REALLY love the 4-inch form factor that I can carry in my Levi's 5th pocket and forget about it (plus, I love the headphone jack). I'll still be able to use Apple Pay and use it with my Watch 5, but what I'm really concerned about it THINGS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY due to the fact that the SE can only go up to IOS 15.7.5. and other things I might have overlooked.

IS THIS DANGEROUS? What problems can I expect?
 
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Currently I have no apps not working because of iOS 15 itself.
But recently I noticed more and more apps not to be suited properly for the small screen anymore.
Meaning, fields to enter text simply cannot be selected because the keyboard is in the way and the apps interface is not designed to be scrollable.
I have to put the text/password in the clipboard and then select the field and click paste.
I cannot evaluate how critical Safari security updates actually are that soon won't come to iOS 15 anymore.
Because of a good deal, I recently acquired a 13 mini as its successor (which unfortunately causes heavy nausea for me).

EDIT: other cons of the SE:
- no Continuity Camera
- no Spatial Audio (if you own eligible Airpods)
- Shortcuts.app is missing some features (like activating VPN)
- doesn't support NFC tags (only Apple Pay)
- no SMS functionality via WiFi-Calling (may differ for your carrier)
- no wireless charging / MagSafe
- not compatible with iCloud Advanced Data Protection
- Battery shows its age and all 3rd party replacements performed very poorly for me (but Apple still offers a replacement for $69)
 
Last edited:
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I would get a 13 mini. More modern internals means more long term support.

You can get them cheaper from Apple's refurb site. Meaning new battery and eligibility for AppleCare.

The SE design and form factor are going to be obsolete soon enough
 
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daneoni said:
The SE design and form factor are going to be obsolete soon enough
Click to expand...
I'd say that the 4.0" design (from the 5/5S) is already dead. Modern versions of iOS and especially third party apps are not made with a screen that small in mind. I think that the design of the SE 2 and 3 (from the 7) still has time left in it, but the differences between it and the newer design are getting bigger each year now.
 
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h4lp m3 said:
I have a 13 PM and I'm almost ready to switch to this iPhone SE, but I'm still a little hesitant to pull the trigger...
View attachment 2202507
WHY DOWNGRADE? The 13PM is just so big and bulky and I'm willing to sacrifice all that camera stuff like Telephoto, Portrait and Wide because I really REALLY love the 4-inch form factor that I can carry in my Levi's 5th pocket and forget about it (plus, I love the headphone jack). I'll still be able to use Apple Pay and use it with my Watch 5, but what I'm really concerned about it THINGS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY due to the fact that the SE can only go up to IOS 15.7.5. and other things I might have overlooked.

IS THIS DANGEROUS? What problems can I expect?
Click to expand...
Why does your 13 PM have a cracked screen?
 
h4lp m3 said:
I have a 13 PM and I'm almost ready to switch to this iPhone SE, but I'm still a little hesitant to pull the trigger...
View attachment 2202507
WHY DOWNGRADE? The 13PM is just so big and bulky and I'm willing to sacrifice all that camera stuff like Telephoto, Portrait and Wide because I really REALLY love the 4-inch form factor that I can carry in my Levi's 5th pocket and forget about it (plus, I love the headphone jack). I'll still be able to use Apple Pay and use it with my Watch 5, but what I'm really concerned about it THINGS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY due to the fact that the SE can only go up to IOS 15.7.5. and other things I might have overlooked.

IS THIS DANGEROUS? What problems can I expect?
Click to expand...
One obvious thing…you won't get 5G. The SE and the SE2 do not support 5G. You're LTE only.

One perhaps not so obvious thing…you can't restore a backup made on a newer version of iOS to a phone on an older version of iOS.

So, if you were thinking you could restore an iOS 16 backup to a phone running iOS 15, you can't.
 
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-The Apple Watch needs a certain iOS version depending on the WatchOS version running on it (although you can ask Apple to downgrade the watch if I am not mistaken).

-If your 13 Pro Max is on iOS 16, you can’t restore a backup of it into the SE.

-Battery life will be a lot worse.

The rest should all be fine.
 
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eyoungren said:
So, if you were thinking you could restore an iOS 16 backup to a phone running iOS 15, you can't.
Click to expand...
FeliApple said:
-If your 13 Pro Max is on iOS 16, you can’t restore a backup of it into the SE.
Click to expand...
Well, it's not officially supported by Apple hence no guarantee that everything works, but just leaving the info here that you can - if you have a local backup and edit the following section of the Info.plist to contain the proper (lower) version.
Code: 
<key>Product Version</key>
<string>16.4.1</string>
 
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arw said:
Well, it's not officially supported by Apple hence no guarantee that everything works, but just leaving the info here that you can - if you have a local backup and edit the following section of the Info.plist to contain the proper (lower) version.
Code: 
<key>Product Version</key>
<string>16.4.1</string>
Click to expand...
Now that you mention it, I had read about that once but I inexplicably forgot. Thanks for the information!

As you can probably infer, I’ve always started from scratch, but it’ll come handy to OP and perhaps somebody else who reads this.
 
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I've already ran into my first problem... Can't restore from a 13 Pro backup due to IOS 16.
IMG_3816.jpeg



Should I restore from an old iPhone 7 back up OR an iPad from today?
What's most important to me is transferring all my iMessages to the SE, but after playing this game about 50 times, I'm expecting failure because I have NEVER ONCE successfully synced all of my iMessages from one device to another and had 100% off all my messages and attachments be there.

On Messages for macOS you have a Sync Now button, but I don't think it exists for iPhone yet.
Screen Shot 2023-05-15 at 8.35.24 PM.png
 
h4lp m3 said:
Should I restore from an old iPhone 7 back up OR an iPad from today?
Click to expand...
I'd do neither but try the following first:
Connect your 13 PM via USB to a Mac/PC and create a lokal backup with Finder/iTunes.
Then edit the file according to post #12.
Connect your SE via USB and restore from the up-to-date backup.
The location of the backup/file depends on the OS you are using.
 
If you're signed in to iCloud the messages should restore regardless of backup. As for backups themselves it's unknown what data will be erased due to incompatibility or wrong versions of apps or iOS or device.

Overall it's still usable but you'll be making compromises as you've already seen. Ideally the SE would've been already set up pre-iOS 16 so it would have its own backups that would be up-to-date.
 
It's not a SE 1rst Gen. 1rst Gen had a Design like Iphone 5. I bought one, bec it was cheap. Don't take the SE (all of them until now) when you com from a pro. The SE can only be a Backupphone. In all those years i had so many iphones. That's why i tell you - get a 12 or 13 mini if you want a smaller size. They are much, much better. Look for a sealed / unused one, so it will stay for many years to come.
Compare them @ Apple: https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/
 
I cannot remember exactly when, but relatively recently Apple introduced a new system for Reminders.
As long as any of your devices uses the new system, the reminders would not be accessible by the SE (I don’t have time to check for sure, but I believe the SE cannot handle the new reminders).
 
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h4lp m3 said:
I have a 13 PM and I'm almost ready to switch to this iPhone SE, but I'm still a little hesitant to pull the trigger...
View attachment 2202507
WHY DOWNGRADE? The 13PM is just so big and bulky and I'm willing to sacrifice all that camera stuff like Telephoto, Portrait and Wide because I really REALLY love the 4-inch form factor that I can carry in my Levi's 5th pocket and forget about it (plus, I love the headphone jack). I'll still be able to use Apple Pay and use it with my Watch 5, but what I'm really concerned about it THINGS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY due to the fact that the SE can only go up to IOS 15.7.5. and other things I might have overlooked.

IS THIS DANGEROUS? What problems can I expect?
Click to expand...
Why not both. Since you already own them, set them both up, get a duplicate sim which is often just 5$/month and use whichever device you want.
 
Berti10 said:
Why not both. Since you already own them, set them both up, get a duplicate sim which is often just 5$/month and use whichever device you want.
Click to expand...
Besides, have you tried using that old device. Had my 8+ for a battery replacement and used the 6 for that hours in between. Battery did not even lasted 2h, photos without smartHDR were really bad, it was slow and got hot very quickly which drained battery fast.
 
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