New iPad won't restore from iphone backup - nothing is transferred :(

[RedTomato]

I've just got a lovely new iPad, and want to set it up the same as my iPhone (iPhone 4S on 7.1.2). I have over 100 apps and various email accounts on the iphone so I thought doing a restore from my iPhone backup would save a lot of work in setting up the ipad. (I know some apps won't transfer)

iTunes happily backs up my iPhone, then happily goes through the restore procedure of restoring the iPad from the iPhone backup. When the iPad reboots, then unlocks, it asks me for my iCloud password, then says successfully restored.

However, NOTHING IS CHANGED. All the factory install default apps and settings are still there. No apps or settings have been transferred

Any help?

 

[Night Spring]

Are your iPhone apps backed up to your computer? That is, when you backed up your phone, did you do a "transfer purchases," in addition to backup?

 

[asriznet]

I've just got a lovely new iPad, and want to set it up the same as my iPhone (iPhone 4S on 7.1.2). I have over 100 apps and various email accounts on the iphone so I thought doing a restore from my iPhone backup would save a lot of work in setting up the ipad. (I know some apps won't transfer)

iTunes happily backs up my iPhone, then happily goes through the restore procedure of restoring the iPad from the iPhone backup. When the iPad reboots, then unlocks, it asks me for my iCloud password, then says successfully restored.

However, NOTHING IS CHANGED. All the factory install default apps and settings are still there. No apps or settings have been transferred

Any help?

If you tried using local backup(iTunes on computer), try restoring from iCloud backup or vice versa.

1a. Backup your iPhone to iCloud
Settings -> iCloud -> Backup -> Backup Now
1b. Backup your iPhone to iTunes
File -> Devices -> Back Up

2. Connect your iPad to iTunes on Computer and Choose "Restore"

3. After iPad is restored, you have the option to restore from iCloud or iTunes in the setup wizard screen.

 

[RedTomato]

Are your iPhone apps backed up to your computer? That is, when you backed up your phone, did you do a "transfer purchases," in addition to backup?

Yup, all purchases transferred from iphone to iTunes on Macbook (latest iTunes / Mavericks) for backing up. Also made encrypted backup so that passwords would transfer to new iPad.

Still nothing actually being transferred over.

 

[Night Spring]

Yup, all purchases transferred from iphone to iTunes on Macbook (latest iTunes / Mavericks) for backing up. Also made encrypted backup so that passwords would transfer to new iPad.

Still nothing actually being transferred over.

That is very weird!

Only thing I can think of is to delete the iPhone backup and start over.

Also, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes.

Finally, if the restore works properly, iTunes should start copying the apps to the iPad. Since you say you have over 100 apps, the process should take a while. If it does start copying the apps, don't interrupt it until all the apps are copied.

 

[RedTomato]

If you tried using local backup(iTunes on computer), try restoring from iCloud backup or vice versa.

1a. Backup your iPhone to iCloud
Settings -> iCloud -> Backup -> Backup Now
1b. Backup your iPhone to iTunes
File -> Devices -> Back Up

2. Connect your iPad to iTunes on Computer and Choose "Restore"

3. After iPad is restored, you have the option to restore from iCloud or iTunes in the setup wizard screen.

Finally did it following this method. First cloud backup was projected to take over 3 hours, so I stopped it, removed all photos and other personal files from the iphone and tried again. Much quicker, only 30-40 mins to do a cloud backup.


Restore from the cloud went suspiciously quickly, only about 1-2 minutes to download files. A pop-up came up 'Settings will not be transferred', damn.

However, after restarting, it began to download all my apps automatically. That's a big help. It did throw my apps all over my home screens at random - no folders or anything, so I had to spent another 20 mins recreating my app folder structure and app ordering, and another 20 mins recreating my email accounts and looking for email passwords. I also had to manually set up icloud, which fortunately was able to link and carry over my reminders, calendar, and notes.

I have to say, Apple has dropped the ball big time here. Large numbers of people with only an iPhone or an iPad end up getting the other iOS device. Naturally most of them will want the two ios devices to have more or less similar set ups.

The setup process is an utter shambles. Some settings are carried over from the other ios device, many aren't. Email settings are abandoned, app ordering is abandoned, app folders are abandoned, iMessages history is abandoned, you have to enter iCloud passwords multiple times and manually connect to iCloud. lIt's a pain in the arse.

Compare this to restoring a new iPhone from a backup of an older iPhone. Smooth as butter, even webpages are carried over, and scrolled to the same place as on the old iPhone. Impressive. Why can't duplicating an iPhone setup to a new iPad be like this?

That is very weird!

Only thing I can think of is to delete the iPhone backup and start over.

Also, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes.

Finally, if the restore works properly, iTunes should start copying the apps to the iPad. Since you say you have over 100 apps, the process should take a while. If it does start copying the apps, don't interrupt it until all the apps are copied.

Yup, deleted the iphone backup twice from the laptop, didn't work. iPad didn't start installing apps from the cloud either. Finally got partial results from an icloud backup, see above.

 

[Night Spring]

As I said before, odd. I've had much better experiences with restoring an iPhone backup to iPad or vice versa. Granted, it's been a while since I last did it, but most of my settings did carry over, despite the "not all settings were restored" popup.

Having to reenter email passwords is a security feature, because otherwise, if someone got hold of your backup, they could restore it to a new iDevice, then have access to all your emails.

I'm sorry your restore process didn't go smoothly, and I'm not sure why it didn't. I do hope you will enjoy your iPad despite it. And I recommend turning on automatic iCloud backup on both your iPad and your iPhone. It's good to always have a recent backup without having to plug it into your computer every day.

Oh, something just occurred to me -- were both devices on the same iOS version?

 

[Rodster]

Hmm, this is out of left field but you could try naming the iPad the same as the iPhone and see if that might work.

 

[Night Spring]

Hmm, this is out of left field but you could try naming the iPad the same as the iPhone and see if that might work.

Isn't device name also transferred during restore? Like, my iPad is named Myipad, and if I restore my iPad backup to an iPhone, the phone would then be named Myipad, I think.

 

[RedTomato]

Hmm, this is out of left field but you could try naming the iPad the same as the iPhone and see if that might work.

Isn't device name also transferred during restore? Like, my iPad is named Myipad, and if I restore my iPad backup to an iPhone, the phone would then be named Myipad, I think.

Nope, name didn't carry over from the iphone. Interesting idea, i might try it next time i'm in this situation - if I remember. Got my ipad set up now anyway, thanks to all who contributed suggestions.

 

[nyjoe610]

I didn't even know you can cross restore like that