For people upgrading from iPhone 15 Pro Max to iPhone 16 Pro Max, thoughts about transferring/setting up the new iPhone using WiFi or what about connecting the two directly with a Thunderbolt cable? Maybe the Thunderbolt connection could make things move along faster?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 16 Pro Max migrating from old iPhone to new iPhone, WiFi or Thunderbolt
- Thread starter andrewj
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Just keep both the old iPhone and new iPhone on & next to each other and let the old phone transfer the stuff over automatically. It’s brainless and painless and fast enough
Though wireless can take hours+. I'm hoping that the Thunderbolt wired connection will be faster.
You get the option to transfer it during the migration, or you can opt out and do it later.
iPhone not support Thunderbolt. You confusing USB-C connector with TB data protocol. USB-C is physical connector which support multiple data protocols. iPhone support USB protocol only.
Yup, that's exactly what I do too.
Does it use BT or NFC to transfer between phones ??
Last time I used a MacBook and Backup & Restore. This time I went direct from iPhone 15 Pro Max to iPhone 17 Pro Max over Thunderbolt 4. Around 300 GB of data took 54 minutes, which is roughly 0.7 Gbit per second. That is just sad.
Why can’t they make this faster? We are talking about Apple, not some shady startup with three employees. Even iPhone to MacBook transfers are underwhelming.
I am using a heavy duty Thunderbolt 4 cable, short, thick, 240W rated, and it still sucks. And no, I am not using iCloud, nor will I.
Why can’t they make this faster? We are talking about Apple, not some shady startup with three employees. Even iPhone to MacBook transfers are underwhelming.
I am using a heavy duty Thunderbolt 4 cable, short, thick, 240W rated, and it still sucks. And no, I am not using iCloud, nor will I.
Transferred from 15 Pro Max to 17 Pro Max in less than 20mins through the direct WiFi connection between the two phones.
The Thunderbolt may be faster, just check the estimated time between the two options.
THIS!
I have done this phone to phone migration on the last 3-4 phones. It has been flawless. I do not have time to set my phone up as new. I want everything in the same order the previous phone was. I don’t load junk apps on my phone so not inheriting any issues.
iPhones don’t support Thunderbolt, they use USB protocol only, so they’re limited to 10 Gbit/s.
When you transfer many files, there is a considerable slowdown. I assume Apple is transferring many files instead of archiving the whole filesystem, which reduces bandwidth. It’s how random I/O is slower than sequential I/O.
If they archived the whole filesystem then unarchived, it would speed up the transfer, but it would mean making a large file copy, and it would slow it down performing the archive/unarchive.
Setting a new iPhone from a backup is much faster than using a live system.
I don’t know, but anything under 100 MB per second is painfully slow. I got a message that the backup is corrupted, and the USB phone-to-phone transfer failed too. Now I’ve upgraded both phones to iOS 26.1, and hopefully I’ll get it transferred in the next few days.
By the way, 10 Gbps is theoretically 1250 MB/second. Even at 50% of that, I would be very satisfied.