iPhone 11 Pro PSA: New iPhone, Catalina and using Restore

[robjulo]

My Xs quit working, so I purchased an 11 Pro today. My iMac is on Catalina. The iPhone showed up in Finder, and I began the Restore process by accepting the Terms and Conditions, however each time I accepted and hit continue, to start the actual restore process, the iPhone would immediately disappear from Finder with no warning and the Restore wouldn't happen. Happened over and over.

I found, after a quick search, there are plenty of others who had the same issue. For anyone else having the issue, force the phone to be set up as a new phone first, that will update the software, and then do the Restore. It's the only way to get it to work (for me) and there is zero warning or instruction telling the user to do that first.

 

[now i see it]

good tip. Or restore via iCloud if a backup is in iCloud

 

[ericwn]

Interesting observations, thanks for sharing. Setting up as new doesn’t update the software by itself, right? So you’d have to set up as new, then update to the latest version of iOS, then restore from a backup?

I wouldn’t be too concerned that the internet has others who have a similar issue. For one it’s part of our nature these days to share our negative experiences all the time, and Apple has sold over a billion (or was it two...) iOS devices - there will always be a likeliness that you find others.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Interesting observations, thanks for sharing. Setting up as new doesn’t update the software by itself, right? So you’d have to set up as new, then update to the latest version of iOS, then restore from a backup?

I wouldn’t be too concerned that the internet has others who have a similar issue. For one it’s part of our nature these days to share our negative experiences all the time, and Apple has sold over a billion (or was it two...) iOS devices - there will always be a likeliness that you find others.

That is correct. You could also use DFU and the phone would be updated to the latest OS and then you could restore.