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Will you set up your new phone "as new" or will you restore from backup

Will you set up your new phone "as new" or will you restore from backup?

  • Restore from back up.

    Votes: 313 45.2%

  • Set up as new

    Votes: 283 40.9%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 96 13.9%
  • Total voters
    692
Probably from backup at first because I'm leaving town immediately after getting hold of the phone. Later I might go ahead and set up as new, once I'm back home.
 
Every time i back my contacts up to my iTunes they don't go to the address book on my Mac. Guess ima just save myself the headache and write them all down and put them in my phone. Not too computer savvy haha
 
Lakers224 said:
Every time i back my contacts up to my iTunes they don't go to the address book on my Mac. Guess ima just save myself the headache and write them all down and put them in my phone. Not too computer savvy haha
Click to expand...

Really? Mine do. I have NO IDEA how I set that up. Haha.
 
I usually setup as new every year, but I recently restored my iPhone 4S as new and I've been keeping it up-to-date and empty of useless stuff so I'll probably end up restoring from backup this year.
 
Interesting debate here. I do however have a couple of questions since I will be facing this when I get my new iPad or iPad mini and again next year when I get the iPhone 5s ;). When restoring from a backup will I be asked which backup? My wife and I have different things on our phones but will be going through this process at the same time. I'd want my backup to go to my phone obviously, and the same for hers. Suppose I set up as a new phone/iPad/etc., if my contacts, pics, notes, etc., are on both of my devices (iPad and iPhone) courtesy of icloud won't they automatically show up on my new device when I toggle those things on? Would the biggest benefit of restoring from a backup the fact that you would not need to spend the time reloading apps, music, pics, etc? Even Dropbox and Evernote have cloud storage for documents and other things. I can see how it would be a bit time-consuming to reload all of my goodreader and notability documents, but this can still be done pretty easily.
 
I wonder how many people know that iCloud synchs all your contacts automatically. Also, you can redownload purchased apps right from the app store on the iPhone and just pick the apps you use. Many apps now a days also have Dropbox synch or increasingly now iCloud synch for data. Also, iTunes match takes care of the music so it stays synced between my phone, iPad, and computer with 0 intervention on my part. I am surprised to hear so many people still synching to iTunes.

The only thing I ever plug my iPhone in for is to synch videos with iTunes but that's typically only after vacations or trips since usually I just take pics only which are synced via photostream anyway.
 
I've made a list of the apps I have on 4s atm. I plan to set up as new and go from most important app on. I wanna see how the phone runs brand spanking new with not a thing on there.
 
Haven't completely made up my mind yet, but I'm leaning towards setting up as new. That's what I've done for my past two upgrades.

I like to think of it as a good time to do some "spring cleaning" and get rid of apps I don't use anymore and change things around a bit.
 
New, started with the iPhone 3G then 3GS, then carried over to 4 and 4S but now time to start all new, even if it means losing all of my Game data in Angry Birds
 
SHirsch999 said:
Interesting debate here. I do however have a couple of questions since I will be facing this when I get my new iPad or iPad mini and again next year when I get the iPhone 5s ;). When restoring from a backup will I be asked which backup? My wife and I have different things on our phones but will be going through this process at the same time. I'd want my backup to go to my phone obviously, and the same for hers. Suppose I set up as a new phone/iPad/etc., if my contacts, pics, notes, etc., are on both of my devices (iPad and iPhone) courtesy of icloud won't they automatically show up on my new device when I toggle those things on? Would the biggest benefit of restoring from a backup the fact that you would not need to spend the time reloading apps, music, pics, etc? Even Dropbox and Evernote have cloud storage for documents and other things. I can see how it would be a bit time-consuming to reload all of my goodreader and notability documents, but this can still be done pretty easily.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't think it would be an issue, because I'm always given a drop down list of previous backups to choose from which (if I remember correctly) include date/time stamp. Though, I can't say if it parses them out by name or not. My husband and I keep our phones backed up to different computers. I tried to use Cloud for contacts for my husband and I and even when we created two different iCloud accounts, our contacts got jumbled together, so I don't use the cloud anymore. Wasn't a big deal for me.

The benefit of restoring from backup is that it keeps your apps in the folders, and everything is set up just like it was on your own phone. Personally, I have a tendency to download some new free apps to try them out...then stop using them...so I like using the restore from backup as a time to purge. I believe some also like it because it allows them to keep their message/text history. Personally, I like using it as a time to purge that too. I don't have a need for the old message history. Photos, I believe, are also kept...but again, I am sitting with ~2,300 photos/videos on my 4s right now...so I'll be downloading those to my computer one final time (I make several backups of photos), and then I email myself a handful of "favorites" as an extra backup. That way it forces me to start anew on my new phone.

Oh and another difference in setting up as new versus restoring from backup...some people have games that they like to keep their "spot" in...for example, if you've gotten through multiple stages of Angry Birds, you may not want to have to go through beating all those levels again. Big gamers, may want to keep their "high scores" list from games...things like that. Not a huge deal for me. I play some games here and there, but I'll just see it as a reason to play them all again and get through all the levels again.
 
as new, my 4s was jailbroken and has a lot of crap on it. ill just sync my old pictures but it sucks they wont be in my camers roll
 
Gregintosh said:
I wonder how many people know that iCloud synchs all your contacts automatically. Also, you can redownload purchased apps right from the app store on the iPhone and just pick the apps you use. Many apps now a days also have Dropbox synch or increasingly now iCloud synch for data. Also, iTunes match takes care of the music so it stays synced between my phone, iPad, and computer with 0 intervention on my part. I am surprised to hear so many people still synching to iTunes.

The only thing I ever plug my iPhone in for is to synch videos with iTunes but that's typically only after vacations or trips since usually I just take pics only which are synced via photostream anyway.
Click to expand...

So if I start the phone as new I can go into the cloud and sync all of my pictures? I also have some pictures stored in an app that are not in my photo stream or camera roll. I will lose those if if I start as new correct?
 
nandopr said:
I am just curious. I would also like to know is there is a benefit selecting one over the other.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm going to set up as new to avoid battery problems. Nearly all of my data is in the cloud so those apps will pull it back down anyways.
 
With the games I care about saving their data in the cloud anyway, will just setup as new
 
I know this is probably asked all the time... Any way to get just my text messages transferred to the new phone?
 
Wow this is a very helpful thread!

When I voted, it didn't even cross my mind to set up as new, but after reading all the stuff about possible corrupt files from jailbreaking...

I usually have no pictures on my phone, and my contacts are sync'd to iCloud, mail and calendar and bookmarks are thru Google/Chrome, don't use notes, reminders are under a third party app...

I think I'm gonna set up as new and just rearrange the apps and sync the music playlists on iTunes!

Thanks everyone! :)
 
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