people having issues with phone to phone transfer?

[powerslave65]

It has to be really close to the other phone or it won’t work until you move it closer. My phone had 360 gigs of stuff on it and a ton of apps and transfer from old phone took 1 hour and 55 minutes. Then another 50 minutes for all the apps. The process is still so slow for this day and age.

 

[Toratek]

Mine transferred ~660 gb from my 15 Pro to my 16 Pro in about 45 minutes, total time about 75 minutes after re-entering security info for cards in wallet and waiting for various apps to download. Both phones were plugged into power. Both running iOS18.

I wonder if transfer from older devices accounts for some of these accounts of excessive time required for phone to phone setups.

As usual, the only thing that didn’t transfer were Bluetooth settings for non Apple devices. I did have to go into settings to change the device name, as the old name copied over as well, which is also normal.

I set battery max charge to 95%- this morning pulled off the charger at 5:30 AM and was astounded to find it still at 90% at 11 AM despite continuing background optimization going on.

 

[thewhitehart]

I had an issue right off the bat with transferring my eSIM from my iPhone 15 to iPhone 16. While the cellular signal disappeared from my 15 and appeared on my 16, the busy wheel spun on the 16 for more than a half hour. It was at that point I cancelled the process and was presented with a menu to restart the iPhone 16, call emergency services, etc. But the menu was frozen. I had to force restart the iPhone 16. Luckily the eSIM did transfer over, so it had a signal when I turned it on again. But I had to start the transfer from the 15 all over again.

I hope in the future these kinks can be worked out. Anyone less tech savvy would've probably called Apple or returned the phone; there's no documentation in the box that actually tells you how to turn the phone off.

 

[ashkir]

I just make sure everything is synced to icloud. I t hen download the apps as I need it all over again. The data transfer is just messages & photos mostly in icloud. Then I spend 5 minutes resetting up my authenticators.

 

[Brad Smith]

Mine completed with the device to device transfer finally, but none of the apps copied over. They are all downloading in the background now. Many apps I still have to log back into.

 

[lwilliams]

It took mone around 6 hours to do the transfer - reminding me why last year I said I would never do that again. From now on, I muct remember to do the restore from iCloud.

.

 

[gpoop]

It took mone around 6 hours to do the transfer - reminding me why last year I said I would never do that again. From now on, I muct remember to do the restore from iCloud.

.

Got my phone yesterday. Set it up today. Transfer took 3 hours.

 

[bousozoku]

I came here just wondering if it worked. I was trying to help someone with his new iPhone 15 last year and it failed miserably.

I just got my iPhone 15 and it went back and forth but never got to the point where it would actually transfer anything. I ended up using my backup that I made on my Mac last night.

 

[goldmac2006]

I’ve only ever done direct transfers between iPhones since they came out in iOS 14/15, and I’ve done it twice.

The first time was with an iPhone XR that i got used. It had the same storage as my iPhone 7, but it couldn’t go through as the 7 had used 95% of its storage. I had to set it up as new and restore my data from iCloud, which meant I lost a year of activity data from my Apple Watch Series 1. I kept my iPhone 7 because it still had the photos I couldn’t transfer to the XR. It took me about 5-6 hours to do the transfer, and I had to multitask doing my homework with it.

The second time was with the iPhone 15 Pro that I bought new. This time, it was able to transfer fully within an hour, except for a half-hour for the eSIM quick transfer and charging my 15 pro when it arrived at my door. I was finished when I just finished reading half of my new book, Harvesting Dreams, as the data transferred and I made a quick update to iOS 18.3.

Since both iPhones can’t be used during the transfer process, and the old one can’t go on any other apps during this process (no matter if it’s wired or wireless), I highly suggest reading a book you have (not Apple Books unless you have an iPad around the house), going on your computer, or doing some chores or cleaning around the house. Or unbox your cases you got for your new iPhone, clean it and put it on.

 

[goldmac2006]

Because I traded in my old iPhone at Apple Store, I can't received the texted code to enter to transfer my cell # over.

Sort of dumb to have Apple take my old iphone on the spot and then leave me in the lurch like this.

Waiting 1 hour for call back from TMO.

Luckily, I backed everything on my Mac Studio before I left to the Apple store.

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Hey, you should’ve taken your time at the Apple Store setting it up together with the Specialist instead of rushing home after getting your iPhone 16 Pro. The specialist won’t take it away until you transfer the eSIM and data on-site, and everything is set up and ready to go. If you prefer taking your time at home, you can have the iPhone shipped to your place and set it up your way. Instead of mailing the old one back, you can pop by the Apple Store to return it once you reset everything, remove the old eSIM, and take it out of Find My. Just a friendly reminder that the old iPhone needs to be prepped and returned within a month of getting the new one. That way, you won’t have to waste time doing the hard way.