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Will you be setting up your new iPhone X as new or restoring from backup?

I don't care about messages, photos, app data and settings BUT only want my contacts to remain as they are right now.

I can see my contacts on iCloud.com portal/website. If I choose to set up my iPhone X as a new device instead of restoring from backup, will my contacts copy over from iCloud? Again contacts are the only thing I care about. I'm leaning towards setting up as new device.
 
Mikeeee said:
What about freeing up memory? If your phone is sluggish and you see memory is highly used doesn't closing apps free up the memory and improve performance?
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Nope. You’re thinking of how a PC works, which is not how the phone works. You actually use more battery and such by closing apps, because since they’re no longer stored in memory, the app has to completely reload from scratch next time you open it. Leaving apps “open” doesn’t do anything except save the last state they were in, but leaves them completely inactive (except for apps you specifically allow background updates of course). These phones actually run more efficiently the more filled up the memory gets. And if it needs more memory, it dumps your least used apps, the ones you haven’t touched in the longest time, to allow another app in.

It does everything for you, and more efficiently than you. You honestly never have to worry about it, except for the times when an app freezes/crashes and you need to force restart the app.
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monisriz said:
I don't care about messages, photos, app data and settings BUT only want my contacts to remain as they are right now.

I can see my contacts on iCloud.com portal/website. If I choose to set up my iPhone X as a new device instead of restoring from backup, will my contacts copy over from iCloud? Again contacts are the only thing I care about. I'm leaning towards setting up as new device.
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Yes.

But I would keep the backup just in case you find that something is missing, or change your mind and may want to actually do the restore.
 
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NovemberWhiskey said:
There is no need to set up from scratch unless you have some sort of error, or you enjoy the placebo effect. It won't help you unless you have some sort of corruption with your backup.
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If only there was a way to tell what was actually an error, and what's just Apple's inability to fix a bug despite 25 new iOS releases... I still have no idea if starting new will let me listen to an audiobook without having to restart stupid iBooks repeatedly.
I guess I can give it a try, realize it was a complete waste of time as it's probably just a persistent Apple bug, and then do the whole restore from backup anyway.
 
monisriz said:
I don't care about messages, photos, app data and settings BUT only want my contacts to remain as they are right now.

I can see my contacts on iCloud.com portal/website. If I choose to set up my iPhone X as a new device instead of restoring from backup, will my contacts copy over from iCloud? Again contacts are the only thing I care about. I'm leaning towards setting up as new device.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I want to do. Can someone answer this?
 
I've been running iOS 11 public Beta on my iPhone 7 Plus (don't have an iTunes backup before beta). I'm getting the X on Nov. 3 and trying to figure out if I should restore to 11.0.2 using the 7 Plus ipsw to get the beta off before the X comes or just delete the profile (pretty sure I did that last year moving from 6s Plus to 7 Plus). Any information or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
I always restore from backup because I want to keep my messages, and have found no way to restore them without apparently using third party software. Also I only have the 5GB iCloud.
 
I’ve restored from backup since the original iPhone in 2007, and have used iCloud Backup since introduction.

But...I’m setting up my X as a New iPhone on 11/03.

I did this with my iPad Pro this year and it was a nice change. It forced me to go through every setting screen. I only downloaded the apps I currently use (instead of having pages and pages of folders with apps), rearranged icons, etc. It feels fresh, somehow.

I also did it with the Series 3 Apple Watch. Setup as new. Went through all the settings and changed a few things around. Cool.

I’m really looking forward to doing this with the X. After 10 years, it’s time to move some icons around and get rid of those flashlight apps, haha!! :D
 
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I’m considering setting up as new rather than a backup. I used to have both my iPhone and iPad jailbroken but haven’t for awhile now. I think there is still some traces of the jailbreak left on my devices and backups because I have never been able to get Mario Run to run on my devices. I believe Nintendo set up Mario Run to not run on jailbroken devices and it keeps crashing on my devices that used to be jailbroken.
 
Marshall73 said:
Restoring from backup. I have 5GB of historical chats I want to keep so I need to restore until they roll out cloud sync/backup for iMessage.

You can do a settings reset after restore if you are worried about odd settings causing battery usage issues but that normally is only a concern after running betas.
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Good point!
 
If I want to set it up as new but sign in to iCloud will I be able to restore my Apple Watch to keep my move streak and achievements?
 
WARNING: For all those setting up the phone as new and I am happy to be corrected on this but iMessages will not carry over unless your restore (either iCloud or iTunes).
 
twennywonn said:
Why not just use an encrypted iTunes backup?
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iTunes backups are not viewable on the computer. You are forced to restore the backup on the phone to see contents. With something besides iTunes backups like the above, I can look at text messages backed up on my computer without ever needing an iPhone meaning I can start fresh!
 
Always set up as new. Will likely go from 11.1 to 11.2 also if it allows me. I imagine Apple is working through X kinks quickly.
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gpoop said:
Always restore from backup. Took years to build music library/playlists, appointments/ alerts to pay bills on the calendar,why on earth would I want to just undo all that?
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iCloud pulls all that relevant info when you set up as new. The only thing I add back on is apps.
 
I use iTunes for backup (whenever I've tried switching to iCloud, I always lose old calendar and contact information), and I always restore from backup so I don't lose Health data, texts/messages, etc. I think last time I did this (2 years ago) I waited until I got home, since iTunes is on my laptop at home, but tomorrow I'm debating installing iTunes on my work computer and doing it all at work so I don't have to wait...

And hoping that it can restore from encrypted backup without my needed to have remembered the password! Last week when I was backing up, I tried to change the encryption password and nothing worked, so I must've forgotten that old password. I followed Apple's instructions and reset all settings on my phone. According to their article HT205220, that should have removed my encrypted backup password so that I could connect to iTunes again and create a new encrypted backup. Except that it didn't. It created a lot of work for me to have to redo settings, but when I reconnected to iTunes, it still didn't let me create a new encrypted backup password. I don't care about accessing the old backups, I'd just like to be able to create a new encrypted backup...
 
As new. I have way too many battery life issues on my 6S Plus to restore from backup. It's a pain in the ass, but the only way I can tell.
 
susan12369 said:
I use iTunes for backup (whenever I've tried switching to iCloud, I always lose old calendar and contact information), and I always restore from backup so I don't lose Health data, texts/messages, etc. I think last time I did this (2 years ago) I waited until I got home, since iTunes is on my laptop at home, but tomorrow I'm debating installing iTunes on my work computer and doing it all at work so I don't have to wait...

And hoping that it can restore from encrypted backup without my needed to have remembered the password! Last week when I was backing up, I tried to change the encryption password and nothing worked, so I must've forgotten that old password. I followed Apple's instructions and reset all settings on my phone. According to their article HT205220, that should have removed my encrypted backup password so that I could connect to iTunes again and create a new encrypted backup. Except that it didn't. It created a lot of work for me to have to redo settings, but when I reconnected to iTunes, it still didn't let me create a new encrypted backup password. I don't care about accessing the old backups, I'd just like to be able to create a new encrypted backup...
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In the future, make sure to write down your passwords, or save them to a program like 1Password.
 
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