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Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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Hi!

Is there anything I should take note of when restoring an iPhone 4 backup on an iPhone SE? Is there any compatibility issues? I don't have my iPhone 4 anymore, and I'm buying an SE tomorrow. And then straight after that I'm going on holiday, so I hope it all goes well.

I'm not sure what the backup includes, but basically I just want all my text messages to be there. The other stuff will be there via iCloud, except the music library which I will sync with iTunes.

Anything I should look out for? I really hope it all works well and that my messages will be on it. :)

Can't wait to use the new phone.


Cheers :)
 

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
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What if the backup is too big? My iPhone 4 was 32 GB, the SE I'll buy tomorrow will be 16 GB.

Is there a way to restore just the text messages? Like I said, the rest will be either synced over iCloud or manually over iTunes anyway.

Do backups also include photos?
 

Channan

macrumors 68030
Mar 7, 2012
2,864
3,047
New Orleans
What if the backup is too big? My iPhone 4 was 32 GB, the SE I'll buy tomorrow will be 16 GB.

Is there a way to restore just the text messages? Like I said, the rest will be either synced over iCloud or manually over iTunes anyway.

Do backups also include photos?
If you use iCloud to back up your phone, you can choose what gets backed up. Turn off apps you don't need that require a lot of storage. Or just delete a bunch of stuff off of your iPhone to get it down to 16GB before backing it up and restoring your SE.
 

Paddle1

macrumors 601
May 1, 2013
4,801
3,110
What if the backup is too big? My iPhone 4 was 32 GB, the SE I'll buy tomorrow will be 16 GB.

Is there a way to restore just the text messages? Like I said, the rest will be either synced over iCloud or manually over iTunes anyway.

Do backups also include photos?
Not without the old phone, no. The only thing you can do is delete things as they get added to the phone before the memory fills up. Since you don't mind losing anything else just make sure there's enough room for your texts to restore.
If you use iCloud to back up your phone, you can choose what gets backed up. Turn off apps you don't need that require a lot of storage. Or just delete a bunch of stuff off of your iPhone to get it down to 16GB before backing it up and restoring your SE.
They can't do that as they no longer have their old iPhone.
 
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Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
1,735
457
Exactly, I don't have the old phone anymore and I don't have an iCloud backup as such. Just the stuff that syncs with iCloud - notes, contacts, reminders, etc.

I found my backup for my iPhone 4 in the finder and apparently it's just a little over 1 GB. I don't know if that's compressed or uncompressed. If that's uncompressed it should fit on my new phone. But that appears a bit small to me. Unless I didn't sync apps or something.

Also, if the backup is 26 GB for example, and the new iPhone has only 16 GB. (Assuming the 1 GB is in its compressed state now) How can I copy the whole thing to the next phone and delete stuff step by step? I guess it won't fit on it?


Thanks!
 

chscag

macrumors 601
Feb 17, 2008
4,622
1,946
Fort Worth, Texas
Just my opinion here but.... I would not buy a 16 GB iPhone. I had a 16 GB 5c for awhile and had to always watch what I downloaded or installed. My 6+ is 64 GB. I realize that a 64 GB iPhone SE may be expensive there in Europe but if you can afford it, I recommend going with the 64 GB model rather than the 16 GB model.
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,334
3,010
Between the coasts
The backup on your computer is not in a compressed state.

Whether we talk about iCloud or iTunes, "backup" is only half the equation. "sync" is the other half.

Backups mostly contain settings and app data. They do not contain apps or media files, with the exception of your Camera Roll (the iPhone 4 would have one, under iOS 8 and 9, Camera Roll would only be saved if you are not using iCloud Photo Library). Apps, music, movies, and documents stored in iCloud are not part of the backup, and neither are iCloud contacts, calendars, IMAP mail archives (gmail, yahoo, msn/outlook.com, icloud/me/mac.com, etc are all IMAP)...

Typically, the two largest components of a backup (either iTunes or iCloud) are the messages archive and Camera Roll (see previous paragraph regarding Camera Roll). If your backup is 1GB, neither of those are particularly large. You should be able to get that iPhone up and running.

After the restore from backup comes the sync - returning apps, music, movies, and photo albums to the device, along with iCloud contacts, calendars, and the like. This is where you may run into issues (compared to that 32GB iPhone 4). You go into iTunes Sync settings and decide what stuff you'll put onto the iPhone. There's a graph at the bottom of the iTunes' sync settings pages that show you if you have too many items selected to sync onto the phone.
 

Paddle1

macrumors 601
May 1, 2013
4,801
3,110
Exactly, I don't have the old phone anymore and I don't have an iCloud backup as such. Just the stuff that syncs with iCloud - notes, contacts, reminders, etc.

I found my backup for my iPhone 4 in the finder and apparently it's just a little over 1 GB. I don't know if that's compressed or uncompressed. If that's uncompressed it should fit on my new phone. But that appears a bit small to me. Unless I didn't sync apps or something.

Also, if the backup is 26 GB for example, and the new iPhone has only 16 GB. (Assuming the 1 GB is in its compressed state now) How can I copy the whole thing to the next phone and delete stuff step by step? I guess it won't fit on it?


Thanks!
With iCloud I believe you can still use the backup even if there isn't enough space to restore everything. You might have to delete things as they try to download, at least until everything you want is on there.

If you use an iTunes backup it should be easier to stop the (unwanted) syncing.
 
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