Trying to pair a new AW4, but the latest backup it's showing is from 2017. Which is strange because my current AW3 is paired and working fine with my iPhone. Do have I HAVE to unpair an AW to get a backup going?
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- Thread starter shareef777
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Just curious what's so great about a backup when it comes to the watch?
Setting it up as new possibly helps avoid some issues that can pop up.
Setting it up as new possibly helps avoid some issues that can pop up.
Just to get pre-existing configs pre-installed (watch faces, wallet, app settings, etc). Going to unpair existing and see if that creates a backup.
[doublepost=1538759357][/doublepost]Unpaired and no backup was made. Very strange. Will check once new watch is paired if it starts backing up again.
I can see that, but to me it's kind of fun to set up from new. I just did that with my phone too going from iOS 11 to iso 12.
Very strange: I setup as new (last backup still showed from 2017). Just noticed right now that it still shows all my steps and other exercise details from before the watch was even delivered.
It seems like apple watch no longer backs up (for me). It stopped somewhere in July. When I got the 4 I had no recent backup to start from so setup as new. For the apple watch that is pretty painless only taking a couple minutes to get everything back how I liked it.
If it were not for the credit cards I would set up as new but I have had zero problems restoring both iPhone and Watch with backups. It is fast, easy and complete! I would never just depend on the Cloud for backing up my phone, use iTunes encrypted back ups weekly. Seen Cloud backups go wrong.
How important is the data on your iPhone?
How important is the data on your iPhone?
If it were not for the credit cards I would set up as new but I have had zero problems restoring both iPhone and Watch with backups. It is fast, easy and complete! I would never just depend on the Cloud for backing up my phone, use iTunes encrypted back ups weekly. Seen Cloud backups go wrong.
How important is the data on your iPhone?
Agreed. So now I'm not sure how I can verify backups are working without trying to restore to another watch. Which I did and confirmed I have a clean backup of my new watch. Just want to be able to check on backups later without having to test using another watch.
Update your new watch to 5.0.1. Your series 3 probably backed up on 5.0.1 and the S4 is probably still on 5.0. You can't put a newer backup on an older software version.
If it were not for the credit cards I would set up as new but I have had zero problems restoring both iPhone and Watch with backups. It is fast, easy and complete! I would never just depend on the Cloud for backing up my phone, use iTunes encrypted back ups weekly. Seen Cloud backups go wrong.
How important is the data on your iPhone?
That is interesting, I am surprised they still support legacy backups like that. I have had far more issues with that form of backing up than I have ever had with the cloud. On top of that having to manually perform backups sounds bad.
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I thought that might have been the case but had no interest in pairing new, updating, then restoring. I also clicked "delete all backups" since they were too old to care. Since then no new 4 backups have shown up. No idea why it decides to backup.
Oh sorry, didn't realize you didn't unpair yet. Yeah, you gotta unpair to create a backup, at least from the not-using-a-computer side of things.
Not sure that's the issue. Otherwise, why would it offer up backups from 2017.
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How do I got about deleting all the old backups.
I had the same problem then remembered I recently switched from iTunes backup to the cloud and hadn't backed up since that time. When I switched back to iTunes backup in my iPhone all the previous backups for the Apple Watch became available again when setting up the watch.
So I tried to pair back my old AW3 and it now shows as a restore option my AW4 (running 5.0.1), a backup of my AW3 after it was unpaired (also 5.0.1), and a backup of my AW3 from 12/2017 (running watchOS 4.2). Not that I recall if I unpaired the watch in 12/2017, but odds are that it's indeed only backing up when un-pairing the device. Not ideal really. What happens if the watch breaks or gets lost? Would be nice if it backed up whenever the iPhone backups occur.
"legacy backup" LOL!
What is bad about it. I have always used an encrypted iTunes backup to restore my new phones because it is fast and complete. Even my passwords move over.
Backing up to iTunes is rather painless. You do not need to sit there and watch it. Start it before dinner and it will be done in no time. There are people here who have had trouble with cloud backups. iTune backups are just another layer of safety for me and I am not trusting everything solely to either method!
Same here. Love encrypted backups via iTunes. Best part is all my 2FA keys migrate over. Don't have to login to a dozen sites to reset my 2FA keys.
It scares me that some refer to iTunes backups as "Legacy".
Makes me thing way more are depending only on the Cloud.
Sorry, I run my company from my phone and my data is way to important to me and it sounds like to you!
I back up to iTunes encrypted as well before a major iOS version upgrade, but then I set the phone up as new and use iCloud sync. It's been working for me, and it helps me get rid of some of the clutter that builds up over time.
Health was my biggest concern in the past, since there was no iCloud sync for that, but it's not an issue any longer as OP found out with steps and exercise data carrying over without a backup.
Yep. There's far way too many things that iCloud backups don't cover for me to rely on it.
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Health and Messages were the big ones, but there are still 3rd party backups that don't exist in iCloud (specifically apps like Duo on the iPhone).