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
Interesting that there are still conflicting accounts about whether or not starting from a backup is worse for performance.

The idea someone here mentioned that the "other" disk space allocation is for things like texts, media texts etc makes sense so at least that's one mystery answered.

I like my sms history too much to give it up for the sake of a "new" setup (whatever advantage that confers, which is still being debated).
 
So if you set it up as new all your texts are lost, but I think the contacts would still be available as I rememebr going to the att store and they were able to copy the contacts over from the old phoen to the new.
 
I'd be interested to hear thoughts on how or why restoring from a backup would impact your phone's performance.

I have a 4S which I got on launch day last year. I setup that phone using a backup of my 3GS. The 3GS was stock at the time, (but had been running a JB at one time), and I had no issues at all with the 4S. No battery issues, no speed/lag issues, no corruption/error issues, nada.

I can buy into the theory that restoring a new phone from a backup taken from a JB phone could potentially hose things up, but going from a stock backup to a new phone shouldn't cause problems. Just my two cents :cool:
 
Hi all,

Could I have some clarification here. I currently have a 4S which backs up to iCloud.

1) When I get my iPhone 5, if I chose new rather than restore from backup, will it still restore all my contacts?

2) by choosing new rather than the backup from my 4S what EXACTLY will it put on my new phone? Obviously not the apps, but contacts? texts? photostream?

Can anyone simplify this as much as possible so I know the best route to take. Dont want to loose anything important if I decide to set it up as new.

Thanks :D
 
Jarson said:
As it has been mentioned, setting up as a brand new phone will not retrieve any of your previous data including Messages, Contacts (in iCloud), game saves, app settings, so defo I'll be going with iCloud backup.
Click to expand...

Not true. You can activate phone. Set up as new iPhone. Then you can sign into iCloud and it will retrieve your contacts, calendars and documents. It just won't auto restore your previously installed apps and their settings... or all of your alarms, settings preferences, ringtones...etc.

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Sir Ruben said:
Hi all,

Could I have some clarification here. I currently have a 4S which backs up to iCloud.

1) When I get my iPhone 5, if I chose new rather than restore from backup, will it still restore all my contacts?

YES

2) by choosing new rather than the backup from my 4S what EXACTLY will it put on my new phone? Obviously not the apps,

but contacts? YES

texts? NO

photostream? YES

Can anyone simplify this as much as possible so I know the best route to take. Dont want to loose anything important if I decide to set it up as new.

Thanks :D
Click to expand...

No prob!
 
1080p said:
Not true. You can activate phone. Set up as new iPhone. Then you can sign into iCloud and it will retrieve your contacts, calendars and documents. It just won't auto restore your previously installed apps and their settings... or all of your alarms, settings preferences, ringtones...etc.

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No prob!
Click to expand...

Nice one 1080p! Last question, email accounts?
 
Sir Ruben said:
Nice one 1080p! Last question, email accounts?
Click to expand...

Your .me/.icloud account will be there by signing into iCloud, but any others (GMail, Yahoo, exchange...etc) will need to be configured again.

I am setting up as new to avoid any lingering jailbreak data that may be in my iCloud backup.
 
1080p said:
Your .me/.icloud account will be there by signing into iCloud, but any others (GMail, Yahoo, exchange...etc) will need to be configured again.

I am setting up as new to avoid any lingering jailbreak data that may be in my iCloud backup.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, yeah I'm with you. I think setting it up as new is the way to go, plus a good way to free up a bit of space at the same time.

Im glad I came across this thread, come Friday I would have restored from my iCloud backup without even giving it a second thought.
 
Haha this is my first iphone from the 3G, I went blackberry for a bit, but I have an ipad. I'll be restoring.
 
Last edited:
weird how almost half of the users will set it up as new phone.

....i wanted to do this myself, but all text messages, call history, APP DATA/ SAVEGAMES, and alarms ect will all be wiped.
App data/save games ofcource the most important thing.

If i could set up as new, and have a way of selecting what apps can put back settings, and restore text history, i would set up as new.
But because it cant be done, im restoring from backup wich has probaly building up crap since iphone 2g. sometimes jailbroken then not jailbroken ect.
 
If I set up as new and then use iCloud that won't carry over the supposed bad files. That just syncs my contacts and favorites and pics in my camera roll right? I wanna make sure that restore from back up isn't same as seeing up iCloud when I get my phone
 
4rtemidis said:
Seems like there is a possibility to get your save games back...
Click to expand...

ive seen that....for that to work you have to manually make folders on your PC for every game(and the real app folder name, its not desame as the game name...it consists of almost a serial code), inside that copy the documents folder.
Then repeat for all my apps....Wich are about 200.

I wish that program had a function to just select apps wich document folder needs to be copied, then let it happen, and then after restore have a big "put back data" button.
 
iMaven said:
If you restore from a backup with an earlier iOS, it will install the earlier iOS then tell you an update is available. The best way to do a restore is to backup your current iPhone, update to iOS 6, back it up again, then restore it to the iPhone 5.

For me: new iPhone, new iOS, new setup, new backup.
Click to expand...

This is not true. Restoring from backup does not reinstall the OS - it just restores the data.
 
Finally after reading this thread I decided to trying deleting all my texts and transferred all my photos/videos to my iMac and now my 7gb of "Other" is gone. Thank god. Now I can finally backup to iCloud.
 
My contacts, calendar, mail etc. is in the cloud. So I'm going to start from New. But how do I delete the 4S backups from my computer once I get my 5?
 
Restore from back up, I don't want to lose anything. I can always clean up some unused apps before I swap.
 
I assume this decision does not affect the porting of your number?

I prepurchased through apple (with the att sign-in). I assume that it will port my number/automatically deactivate my old phone when I first plug it into itunes? Then i will decide whether or not to start as new or restore from backup?
 
I'm still wondering if iCloud backup is the way to go. It shouldn't carry over any jailbreak data right?

I could care less about my iMessage and text messages.

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I think I'm going to go with this guys option:

Originally Posted by weedr:
Is there a way to get contacts restored to your new iPhone without anything else?
Sure -- if you use iCloud all that data will come back once you enter your credentials. Same thing if you use Gmail. So basically once you get your new iP5 (this is what I do) just run through the setup screens and don't enter any of your info. When you get to iOS go into settings and start entering your various credentials... iCloud, email, Apple Store, etc. Your data will start populating and you can re-download any/all apps previously purchased through the App Store. Once you get your apps back start entering all your usernames/passwords. It's labor intensive but gives you that "clean" start.
Click to expand...
 
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