Switching from one iPhone to another

[terrapin1969]

...do I need to simply unpair from current phone and pair with a new one or does every device change force me to reset the watch.

 

[exxxviii]

If you are just moving and do not care about preserving data and watch setup, just un-pair and then re-pair with the new phone.

Phone switch process... https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...o-losing-activity-data.1920848/#post-21950957

 

[Cowboy1629]

All you need to know...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204568

 

[Mr.C]

I upgraded from a 6 Plus to a 6S Plus. What I did was first un-pair the watch from my 6 Plus which in turn made a back up of the data on my phone. I then did an encrypted back up of my 6 Plus in iTunes. After I restored from the back on my new 6S Plus which retained all the data and settings from my watch as well as all the passwords from my 6 Plus.

 

[MrBukey]

I've just had the problem of moving from my 6 Plus to 6S Plus. Due to another issue, the new iPhone has been setup as new. This means that there isn't a backup from the watch and I've lost all my data.

Hopefully Apple will sort it so that the Watch backup is "app data" in iCloud or iTunes like any other app's data, and therefore can be restored from iCloud or iTunes via an iPhone independently of a full iPhone backup...

 

[exxxviii]

I've just had the problem of moving from my 6 Plus to 6S Plus. Due to another issue, I the new phone has been setup as new. This means that there isn't a backup from the watch and I've lost all my data.

Yep. Apple needs to rewrite the entire backup architecture and bring it forward from the dark ages. You lost all of your Health data too, if that was important to you.

 

[Cowboy1629]

You didn't have a backup from your old iPhone that had your health data on it?

 

[MrBukey]

I have a backup from the old phone, including Watch backup. I just couldn't use a restore of the entire phone, and therefore couldn't restore the Watch as it is a component of the wider device backup.

 

[Cowboy1629]

If you have a copy on iTunes use this to pull all of your health data and load it to your new iPhone, of course you will need to start your new iPhone as new again but you will have your old health data.

https://deciphertools.com/download-decipher-activity-transfer.html

I used it on an iPhone 6 pulling the health data from my 6s backup, works just like they say!

 

[MrBukey]

That's a cool find. It takes a few hours to restore from backup and tweak/re-add things that don't get pulled across (eg Apple Pay cards, the odd setting here and there, have the phone re-download all apps and music)... It takes more hours to do a reset from new... Then when your phone is replaced at the Genius Bar and you restore from a backup from the setup from scratch takes a few hours again....

After going through all of the above processes I think I'm just going to live with the lost data rather than have to go through everything again (especially as I've just had to re-add my cards to Apple Pay on the new iPhone and Watch after updating to 9.1 / 2.0.1 respectively)...

Hopefully Apple will get it figured out before the next upgrade...