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Restore from backup or set up as new?

T

TheNormsk

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2015
81
36
Colorado
When I get my iPhone 6S+ I'm wondering the best way to set it up. I'm moving from an iPhone 5. My 5 currently has issues in that apps like Health will stop working after a few days unless I reboot the phone; then the data comes back. A few other apps are flakey as well. In the past I would just restore from a backup but I am hesitant in case this brings some corruption along with it.

So setting up from new sounds the best approach but it is a lot of hassle to get everything just how I like it again. I'm also not sure if it is possible to transfer health data between phones without a restore. Is there anyway to get the health data off the off phone and onto the new if it is set up fresh?

As I want to keep my health data is it even possible to set up the new phone without a restore?
 
I always set up a new telephone as a new phone and I will save my camera roll photos by importing those onto my desktop computer and then air dropping them back on my phone because those don't get backed up. I then go to the app store and click on updates and then click on purchased and download the newest Versions of the apps that I want on my phone one at a time. And then I organize all of those apps on my phone in a way that I prefer them to be. It doesn't take too long for me to do all of this, however if I have a ton of space taken up by "other" that will be imported to the new phone whenever it is loaded from backup. Setting up as a new phone allows you to start fresh without any bugs or corrupt apps. Downloading the apps one at a time from your purchased menu is a good way to get the freshest and newest app versions. I hope this helps.
 
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mattopotamus said:
Restore from backup....it is easy, and I cannot remember the last time I ever had a problem doing so.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Since the original iPhone I've done this. Never any issues whatsoever.

I'm afraid to set up as New because wouldn't that mean manually typing in all my contacts again? That would take a full day if I did nothing else.
 
I like to start off clean and set up as new. Just feels right when you're getting a new phone. Just import my contacts and I'm good.
 
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CarboysDesire said:
Agreed. Since the original iPhone I've done this. Never any issues whatsoever.

I'm afraid to set up as New because wouldn't that mean manually typing in all my contacts again? That would take a full day if I did nothing else.
Click to expand...

You could set up as new and then just login to your iCloud and get all of that stuff back very easily. It just would be a pain to do your settings and app arrangement again.

It really is not that big of a difference to restore or set up as new if you use cloud services....especially apple cloud services.

I won't lie, it can make it feel like a new phone setting it up again.
 
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Back in the day a lot of people became "fresh install" for life because there were some oddities, especially with battery life, in one of the major iOS early releases. So they started doing anything to remedy it.

Honestly, I really haven't seen any problems for a while so I say backup unless you just like a fresh slate.
 
I've always restored from backup in the past since my iPhone 2g. However, when I upgraded to IOS9, my phone corrupted in restoring photos. They are all in iCloud photo library, but is corrupted and work if I restore from backup.

Apple recommends that I setup from new and just turn on iCloud to get my stuff downloaded. The only thing I manually need to download is all my apps.
 
So it looks like restore from backup is the best option. My understanding is that all the app will download as new anyway but it restores all my settings and health. If it weren't for Health I might have tried the set up as new to shake things up as everything else is in iCloud anyway.
 
I always recommend family and friends to set up as new. I used to work for Apple in the past as well and here's why it's good to set up as NEW!!

  1. if you set from backup, whatever that's corrupted in the OS from the phone will transfer into your new phone. you wonder why your battery sucks on your new phone, well that's because you restored it from back up.
  2. a lot of people want the following:
 
I always recommend family and friends to set up as new. I used to work for Apple in the past as well and here's why it's good to set up as NEW!!
  1. if you set from backup, whatever that's corrupted in the OS from the phone will transfer into your new phone. you wonder why your battery sucks on your new phone, well that's because you restored it from back up.
  2. a lot of people want the following:
- pictures, text messages, and app data
truth be told, I understand the concern and legit worries on this but there are 3rd party apps you can download to individually back up these items yet still set up as a new phone and import the text messages, photos, app data, etc.
​
 
I've done both before - I've found I generally prefer to set up as new because it helps "declutter" - any app with information important to me is generally stored online and linked with a username, so it's just a matter of signing back into icloud/dropbox/whatever else and my pictures/contacts are all still accessible through iCloud.

That being said, I've never really had an issue restoring from a backup on a new device either. It's all about what feels right for you.
 
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samcheezay said:
I always recommend family and friends to set up as new. I used to work for Apple in the past as well and here's why it's good to set up as NEW!!
  1. if you set from backup, whatever that's corrupted in the OS from the phone will transfer into your new phone. you wonder why your battery sucks on your new phone, well that's because you restored it from back up.
  2. a lot of people want the following:
- pictures, text messages, and app data
truth be told, I understand the concern and legit worries on this but there are 3rd party apps you can download to individually back up these items yet still set up as a new phone and import the text messages, photos, app data, etc.
​
Click to expand...

I feel like that was relevant a few years ago, like 3+. It makes sense, but why not suggest restoring from backup and if you have problems then do it as new?
 
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mattopotamus said:
I feel like that was relevant a few years ago, like 3+. It makes sense, but why not suggest restoring from backup and if you have problems then do it as new?
Click to expand...

Yeah you definitely could, but it's just a pain to wait for the restore from back up, then find out you need to set up as new (time to save your stuff manually) then setting up as new AND THEN transferring it back manually haha :)
 
samcheezay said:
Yeah you definitely could, but it's just a pain to wait for the restore from back up, then find out you need to set up as new (time to save your stuff manually) then setting up as new AND THEN transferring it back manually haha :)
Click to expand...

Good points. I use iCloud for my email, contacts, calendar, photos so setting up as wouldn't take much longer in the event there was problems.
 
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I've had a lot of issues with the iOS 9 beta that have not gone away when I installed the GM or public release, so I will be setting up my 6s as new.
 
mattopotamus said:
Good points. I use iCloud for my email, contacts, calendar, photos so setting up as wouldn't take much longer in the event there was problems.
Click to expand...
mattopotamus said:
Good points. I use iCloud for my email, contacts, calendar, photos so setting up as wouldn't take much longer in the event there was problems.
Click to expand...

Ah! Well, can't wait for the 6s +!!!!!!! d;lskafdfhdsfhdhgdgdfs
 
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jtrue28 said:
You have to encrypt your backup, otherwise health data won't transfer to your new phone.
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That only works for a full restore. I believe there are some apps that will allow you to export and reimport health data but they're clunky. I need to look into that more though.
 
mattopotamus said:
You could set up as new and then just login to your iCloud and get all of that stuff back very easily. It just would be a pain to do your settings and app arrangement again.

It really is not that big of a difference to restore or set up as new if you use cloud services....especially apple cloud services.

I won't lie, it can make it feel like a new phone setting it up again.
Click to expand...

Except I don't use iCloud. I don't trust having my info up there in the clouds for hackers to some day access. I back-up to my own Mac and it backs up to my Apple Airport Extreme.
 
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