Why is changing phones so painful?

[FelicityW]

I have had at least 6 iPhones between upgrading and replacements. Changing never gets easier, partly because just enough time goes by that I forget to do some of the steps required to actually have all my data transfer. Ideally, when a phone is backed up, everything is backed up. This would include all my data that is relevant to third party apps. This could be a step specific to phone replacement and not happen every back-up (although it should be done regularly). Conceptually, I want to take a 'lightening to lightening' cable and just transfer all the data from one phone to the other. The big clue that isn't what happened is that my new phone had 45GB available space and my old phone only had 26GB. What did I lose? Well, for starters, all the data for my car and every gas stop for the last year because I did not back up the individual app data. I bought a 64GB phone so the data could live on my phone, not in the cloud! Why can't that be backed up and transferred over?

Also, a lot of the settings go to something other than what I had. Why on earth can't my settings be backed up and transferred? Going through and finding the 'easter eggs' of things that changed (or rather did not transfer my original changes) is a lesson in frustration. It is really a ridiculous notion to have to back-up all the apps individually; I have many apps on my phone and it is tedious at best.

I am wondering if there is a technical reason (for which I will have some sympathy) or if it is simply an Apple-centered reason as to why this is such a crappy customer experience over and over.

That said, if it is technically feasible but just not done, why doesn't someone invent a total back-up app that really does take a 'snapshot' of everything, including the settings, on your phone? I would pay for that one.

 

[lelisa13p]

I am sorry for your woes. I've never had anything but a flawless transfer/upgrade experience since first owning an iPhone 3GS in 2009. I always perform an iTunes backup just prior to performing the device upgrade and then restore the new device from that backup. Never has anything gone amiss when moving from iPhone 3GS > 4 > 5. All apps, text messages, music, videos, pix & Settings have transferred flawlessly. Same procedure used when passing my old iPhones on to my son for use as his upgrades.

It seems that you do not perform all of the necessary steps for successful upgrading/transferring as a single, time-consuming operation done all at once.

Don't blame Apple for your unpreparedness or lack of common sense approach. Do your due diligence and prepare ahead of time for what can be (and has been for me) a non-event.

 

[FelicityW]

That is great news! I am always willing to admit/accept pilot error. I did back up my phone and restore it from the back-up so perhaps part of the issue was the iTunes library as I recently moved that when I got a new MBP in November.

I do want to know if you had the same stellar experience with 3rd party apps (you don't mention those; everything that you mention is from Apple) and the data behind them. I admit that didn't work for me in part because I did not back those up to their corresponding sites, but part of my complaint is that that is even necessary. I have data on about 30 different apps. The ones that have full syncing across devices (i.e. Evernote) are fine, but the standalone iPhone apps lost their data.

I am sorry for your woes. I've never had anything but a flawless transfer/upgrade experience since first owning an iPhone 3GS in 2009. I always perform an iTunes backup just prior to performing the device upgrade and then restore the new device from that backup. Never has anything gone amiss when moving from iPhone 3GS > 4 > 5. All apps, text messages, music, videos, pix & Settings have transferred flawlessly. Same procedure used when passing my old iPhones on to my son for use as his upgrades.

It seems that you do not perform all of the necessary steps for successful upgrading/transferring as a single, time-consuming operation done all at once.

Don't blame Apple for your unpreparedness or lack of common sense approach. Do your due diligence and prepare ahead of time for what can be (and has been for me) a non-event.

 

[lelisa13p]

Third-party apps transferred fine, including preserving game scores. I use NoteMaster and keep some locked files in it containing P/W info, etc. and those also transferred.

I should mention that I only backup to iTunes and don't use iCloud except for Find My iPhone.

 

[FelicityW]

Thank you. I have renewed hope and appreciate the clarification as I think the cloud created some of the issues because the podcasts for instance were all 'hanging' there, waiting to be downloaded again. Naturally, I figured that out on the road and had to download some over cellular data. I was annoyed because I felt like that which was on my phone, should have been put back on my phone, but Apple decided to leave in it the cloud. I alternate backing up between the cloud and my computer so that probably made a difference.

BTW, I love your tag line quote.

Third-party apps transferred fine, including preserving game scores.

I should mention that I only backup to iTunes and don't use iCloud except for Find My iPhone.

 

[lelisa13p]

BTW, I love your tag line quote.

That was a lesson hard-learned in my youth, and an example of why I'm so painstaking in many things.

Good luck on unraveling your scramble. Perhaps it might be worth it to wipe your new phone and back up the old one to iTunes & use that for setting everything up again. This is, of course, if you still maintain possession of the previous device.

 

[macbanda]

Backup preserve Texts and Pictures?

Thank you

 

[RiddlaBronc]

I just put my phone to new and what a pain. Different accounts for everything iCloud, Apple ID etc. now I can't set up my student email account that was working previously.

 

[bjpad2]

I've never had anything but a flawless transfer/upgrade experience since first owning an iPhone 3GS

I just tried to upgrade my iphone4. I did a full backup before upgrading, did the upgrade, and then itunes would not restore any of my data. I had to use some third-party programs to peek into my data so I could get my contacts back then I entered them manually into the new phone. I could not get my photos back and I really wanted them back because I sometimes use my phone as a portable photo album.