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So, exactly what will I lose if I "set up as new"?

SisterBlue22

SisterBlue22

macrumors demi-goddess
Original poster
Apr 29, 2015
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Arizona
Every year when I get my new iPhone, I always restore from a backup. This year, I'm wondering if I should just start over clean and set it up as a new phone. I know I'll lose text messages, which has me on the fence. Besides that, will things like Contacts, etc sync back from the cloud? Apps? I've never done it as new, so if someone who has can tell me exactly what to expect, I'd appreciate it!
 
I do the same when I get new devices. If you sign into iCloud with your Apple ID on the start up menu, basically everything you had turned on or "green" will come over. So yes, if contacts is on right now, along with notes, etc then those will make it over while still being able to "start over".
 
The biggest pain in the butt for me when doing this is re-downloading my apps and arranging them to my liking.

I amdon't remember but I also think I had to redo all my settings and everything that comes with that. Can anyone confirm?
 
heyyitssusan said:
I do the same when I get new devices. If you sign into iCloud with your Apple ID on the start up menu, basically everything you had turned on or "green" will come over. So yes, if contacts is on right now, along with notes, etc then those will make it over while still being able to "start over".
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Thank you so much! I have everything turned on to sync with Cloud, so I should be good. Just need to decide if it's worth losing the text message history.
 
SisterBlue22 said:
Thank you so much! I have everything turned on to sync with Cloud, so I should be good. Just need to decide if it's worth losing the text message history.
Click to expand...

If you have text message forwarding set up, you won't have to worry about it because all of texts you send and receive will show up on the other devices until you go in and delete them. So even if you start your new phone as new, and say you have text message forwarding on on your Macbook, then you can access your old texts from there.
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noobinator said:
The biggest pain in the butt for me when doing this is re-downloading my apps and arranging them to my liking.

I amdon't remember but I also think I had to redo all my settings and everything that comes with that. Can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is true.
 
Badandy said:
"If it's worth losing..."

No, it isn't, because you're not gaining anything by setting it up as new.
Click to expand...

Yeah the idea that this makes your iphone perform better is a bit of a superstition that has persisted for a while. But if you're doing it to "start clean" then I guess there's some utility in that.

I don't do it because of texts and the loss of app data, particularly for games.
 
I went from 4s to 5s to 6 Plus to 6s Plus using iCloud. Never had any issues. Battery life good, apps all work. I do a hard reboot and save to cloud before i do the transfer to new phone. Not sure that's needed but nothing is running when I do the last save.
 
noobinator said:
The biggest pain in the butt for me when doing this is re-downloading my apps and arranging them to my liking.

I amdon't remember but I also think I had to redo all my settings and everything that comes with that. Can anyone confirm?
Click to expand...
Take screenshots of the homescreen with the apps and you won t lose the order again.
 
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I did this with my SE. App restore wasn't too bad, but the worst part were all the settings (sound and vibration, Apple Pay, roaming settings...) that I lost. It's not worth it.
 
DMVillain said:
I did this with my SE. App restore wasn't too bad, but the worst part were all the settings (sound and vibration, Apple Pay, roaming settings...) that I lost. It's not worth it.
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OK, yeah...this stuff is exactly what I was dreading. Restore from backup it will be! :)
 
I think the answer to this question depends on how you have your data stored. I personally setup every phone that I get as new. iPhone and android. I have all my contacts and photos stored with Google so those always come back no matter where I go. Everything else I enjoy setting up as new. It's fun to me and helps reduce the clutter apps that I wasn't using anyway.
 
Badandy said:
"If it's worth losing..."

No, it isn't, because you're not gaining anything by setting it up as new.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was going to say. I don't know why some people insist that setting up as new will somehow make your device run better. Over 5 years and 4 iOS devices I've always restored each one from the back up of the last, even iPhone to iPad. I've never had any problems. If you're going to re-sync it from iCloud/iTunes and then manually setup anything that's lost, you're just doing the same thing in a much more roundabout and less effective fashion.
 
I too like to set up as new. I tend to clean shop as I do this clearing out apps I no longer use. You just can't know if any of your configure files are screwed up and by setting up as new you know for sure they aren't. Also, especially this that have gone through many generations of iPhones, hook up your phone to iTunes and look at how much space "other" takes up. These are cache files and other goodies that will not get cleared out unless you set up as new or reset all settings and takes up a lot of space. I also take screenshot of all my app screens and re-setup according to that. Also, it's much quicker to load and rearrange the apps from iTunes.
 
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I give it my apple id, I leave it on the table for an hour, and I come back and everything's synced, as if i am picking up my old phone.. real world calls and i can continue using it.

If it's a new device i'd spend ages going through everything the way I want.

Just not having a custom vibration for certain contacts, or having to order a favorite list again or whatever else I might suddenly have to do again is just not worth a little clean up. vs just having life move forward and not having to worry about stuff.
 
Floris said:
I give it my apple id, I leave it on the table for an hour, and I come back and everything's synced, as if i am picking up my old phone.. real world calls and i can continue using it.

If it's a new device i'd spend ages going through everything the way I want.

Just not having a custom vibration for certain contacts, or having to order a favorite list again or whatever else I might suddenly have to do again is just not worth a little clean up. vs just having life move forward and not having to worry about stuff.
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I completely understand.
I'm a little anal when it come to clean systems I still reload Windows every year to have a clean system. It comes from too many years at a software/hardware company.
 
rstark18 said:
I too like to set up as new. I tend to clean shop as I do this clearing out apps I no longer use. You just can't know if any of your configure files are screwed up and by setting up as new you know for sure they aren't. Also, especially this that have gone through many generations of iPhones, hook up your phone to iTunes and look at how much space "other" takes up. These are cache files and other goodies that will not get cleared out unless you set up as new or reset all settings and takes up a lot of space. I also take screenshot of all my app screens and re-setup according to that. Also, it's much quicker to load and rearrange the apps from iTunes.
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem with my "other" accumulating.
 
rstark18 said:
I completely understand.
I'm a little anal when it come to clean systems I still reload Windows every year to have a clean system. It comes from too many years at a software/hardware company.
Click to expand...
If I would still run windows, I'd install a new hard drive every 6 months just to make sure there's no ransom ware on the master boot drive, and then flash my bios, etc. I sorta feel windows is just utterly compromised from the top down. *shivers* ..
But I think we're going offtopic :D
 
Generally, anything that isn't stored in iCloud, be prepared to lose. For me, that's pretty much only text messages.
 
I generally set up as new. Like you mention the contacts, calendar, etc etc are synced to the cloud so those will be restored when logging into your iCloud. If you have your photos synced those will repopulate as well.

imessage/text are lost. No big deal for me personally because I keep them on my Mac in case I need to revisit and old text....I never have.

Apps will need to be redownloaded. A lot of apps save data to there respective servers so all you need to do is log back in and continue where you left off. Other apps it won't matter, like google maps. This has never really been a problem for me. Actually its kind of nice, I'll redownload apps as I need them so apps I never use never get redownloaded which saves me space.

The only annoyance I ran into and I don't know if this was suppose to sync or not was ApplePay. Putting my credit cards back in was pain. And my wifi passwords were all gone. I consider both these issues to be minor inconveniences and saying them aloud makes me think first world problems but when you have two dozen wifi passwords it can be kind of awkward asking for them again given certain circumstances.
 
Re-downloading apps and redoing settings and all that is a pain but I set all my new phones up as new. I don't think it provides a better experience but it's part of the process of getting a new phone for me and I enjoy doing it. It allows me to re-explore my apps and see if I don't need some. I also get to mess with settings again and make changes if I see something I'd like to change.
 
I also always setup as new, the only thing missing really is the apps afterwards. It would be nice if Apple added just a list to icloud of apps you want to download on a new install.
 
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