How to Migrate Data to a New iPhone

It doesn't bring any App information over though. And you end up losing all the info on every App including saved games!!!

Thats a pain in itself.

I know that you don't get all the app settings from one iPhone to the other, but, at least, you get you personal files and settings. This should be better than nothing.

Hi. Thx for the article but will this also migrate my contacts (for me the most important thing on my phone)?

Apple says that using this method you will be able to migrate "saved SMS messages, email accounts, passwords, photos, notes, and other personal settings".

Contacts are not in this list, therefore you might want to use IDrive Lite ( http://www.idrive.com/idrive-lite/index.html ) to make sure you don't lose them.

i am using lockbox application on iphone. i have successfully backed up my 3G iphone.
i am planning to buy iphone 4.
1. Does backing up process backs up my data on all the applications on iphone?
2. Can i retrive data in lockbox when i sync with iphone 4?

No, it does not save your downloaded applications' data. See my first comment above.

In step 3 iTunes won't proceed because my old phone has iOS 4.1 and the new phone has iOS 4.02. When I upgrade the new phone to iOS 4.1 I no longer have the option to restore the old phone's backup onto the new phone. How do you work around that?

Thanks for your comprehensive instructions which I followed. Most of the data came across except custom ringtones and the notes on my old iphone which had been created on the old iphone.
Any suggestions on how I can get the ringtones and notes onto the new iphone4?

Unfortunately, iTunes will not allow you to move ringtones and/or notes between two iPhones.

As Apple says on their support website "Although iTunes backs up most of your device's settings, downloaded applications, your audio, video, and photo content are not included in the backup."

Ive just migrated an iphone to iphone 4 using itunes including photos videos contacts music and applications no problem.... just tick the relevant boxes when you backup and sync.

This article was excellent and SO helpful for me today as I upgraded to my iPhone 4.

Thanks so much!

Hello. How can I keep the Compass that's available in iphone 4 (in the factory settings) when i migrate from 3 to 4?

This worked perfectly - thanks for the help!

How come some people say photo's sync, but some people/apple say they don't...that's confusing :s

Apple says that, after restoring a backup to new iPhone, you will get "your saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes, and other personal settings" on your new device.

My friend transferred information from old iphone to new iphone and all the information on the new iphone was erased. Can he get it back?

If he still has the old iPhone he could try making another backup and restore it to the new iPhone.
If he does not have the old iPhone anymore he could try restoring the old backup again.
If none of the above apply then all the info on its old device is lost.

I just migrated from 3G to 3Gs. It was so easy. Only 1 SNAFU: my old emails that I've been saving on the 3G ever since I had the phone didn't transfer over. I can think of 2 possible reasons: 1) the 200 max made them all disappear because there were so many on the server currently 2) just the fact that they weren't on the server anymore, but just locally on my iphone made them not transfer.

Is there any way to get those old emails onto my new phone other than forwarding them individually as new emails?

Hello
Normal restore / or DFU restore with Itune restore only settings , mails account SMS, and photos,
To save and restore all App setting you must use a "non appstore" app
for exemple ATPBackup and APPbackup
availiable on Cydia
I use this to save all Pro and games settings, scores and data to Itunes and restore after a problem or an Applecare phoner change. it work nice, but this cool apps not allowed by apple are on Cydia for jailbroken phones only.
If someone did it why Apple don't allow this apps to be on appstore?
it's like group ring tones still not availiable ... no one know ...

The Reset Button on my IPhone4 stopped working so they gave me a new one. I did Transfer Purchases, and Backup on my old phone, copied my photos onto my pc, synched my contacts to outlook etc before the exchange.
Today, I connected the new Iphone4 to iTunes and did a Restore from Backup. Everything was restored, my Contacts, Notes, SMS messages, Call logs, Calendar settings, Safari pages, bookmarks etc, Alarm etc....

The only thing is that not all the Apps are showing up. I see only a few, abt 15% of the original I had on the other phone.

These Apps are all in the iTunes Library, but when I go to the App tab after clicking on my iPhone, the Apps are all greyed out. I do see a list though, and the Apps are checked off.

If I Sync Apps now, it will transfer all thoes Apps on iTunes to my iPhone, right?
But what about the folders I had made and the icon placing on my old phone? Are those settings lost?

From what you're saying, it seems that Restrictions are ON on your iPhone.

You should go to Settings > General > Restrictions on your iPhone and make sure they are OFF. After turning Restrictions OFF, just restart the iPhone and sync it again.

This should solve your problem.

don't know how to get my calendar from my old iphone to my new iphone4

Is there a way to restore to a new iphone but the new iphone is with a different carrier??

Migrating your data from your current iPhone to a new iPhone has nothing to do with the carrier (or your iPhone model for that matter), although the Apple Support article related to this matter says that this applies to "the same carrier" (see here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2109 ).

The only thing that matters is that the iPhone you are trying to transfer your information should have the same iOS version or a newer one. If it has an older iOS version you may lose data in the process or the migration will not work at all.

Please can you assist..? My iPhone 4 was stolen, luckily I kept my iPhone 3G.
I want to transfer all data from the iPhone 4 back-up to the iPhone 3G. Is this possible? I am afraid I will somehow overwrite the iPhone 4 back up. Phone numbers and calendar events are particulary important.

I plugged in the 3G and in itunes wanted to restore from the iPhone 4 back-up, it only shows me the last backup of the 3G. The iPhone 4 backup is still there in the mobilesync folder, and I can see it under iTunes mobile device preferences.

You should follow the exact procedure for restoring from a backup described on Apple's support website at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766.

If that fails, restore to factory settings using the instructions available at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414 and, after you finish restoring to factory settings, try to restore the iPhone 4 backup again.

I just got the 4 and did the update from my 3G and it worked very well. My question is that in the upper left corner it still says 3G not 4 G--should it say 4 G? Is it possible to transfer the 3G OS to the 4G phone-How do I know I have the 4G OS?

The 3G on your iPhone's upper left corner has nothing to do with the iOS version installed on your device.

It stands for the 3G mobile telecommunication technology that your mobile carrier uses (you can find more details about 3G at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G).

You seem to be a bit confused... the iPhone backup restores all application data! It doesn't restore the applications themselves, because that's part of the _sync_, not the backup, just like photos, music, etc. You restore a backup to get the settings, and sync to get the media, and you're as good as new. A backup and restore is part of updating the iOS, so of course it saves everything, otherwise you couldn't update without losing all of your application data. Not sure why you're telling everyone that it won't restore anything.

Restore doesn't always work for app data. I have lost app data on many iphones.

Perfect Thanks

I want to migrate from iPhone3G to the new iPhone4S. They do not have and cannot have the same iOS. Will the restore from backup still work?

As I said in a reply above, the only thing that matters is that the iPhone you are trying to transfer your information should have the same iOS version or a newer one.

If it has an older iOS version you may lose data in the process or the migration will not work at all.

Please help! I am trying to transfer all the data on my old iphone to my new one and have followed all the instructions above but each time I connect the new iphone, and restore iphone OS, I then get prompted to either set-up as new phone or "restore from (old) backup" but the "old" back up that appears is the name of the new iphone and the back-up of the old phone does not appear so I cant choose it! I have tried re-synching the old phone (which itunes has no problem with) and then trying it all over again a number of times but the old iphone never appears as a back-up option for the new iphone-please help!!!! thank you!

Open itunes and connect your old phone to the system. Be sure that your old phone is using the latest version of the OS. If so, use a right mouse click on the phone icon in the device listing and select backup this iphone. This should create a backup using this device name. You may have been syncing in the past and not actually doing a backup.

Once completed, eject your old phone, and start your new iphone. Go through the menus and when it asks if you want to use this as a new device or restore a backup, you should be able to choose the backup from your old phone that you have recently created.

The process is simple after that. Continue to follow the menus. I've just completed this to move all of my data from my old iphone 3gs to a new iphone 4s. Not only did I get all of my personal data, but all of my app data and photos were also transferred. At least all of those hours on angry birds were not wasted.

I've just migrated from my original iphone to the iphone 4s .... and in the process, my contacts did not migrate. As these are only on my old iphone, I hope you can help.

First of all backup your old iPhone (use the tutorial available at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766 ).

Afterwards, connect the iPhone 4S to your Mac and open the iTunes application. Select the iPhone in the source list and, on the "Set Up Your iPhone" screen, choose to restore from a specific backup.

Make sure you choose your old iPhone's backup, and click the Continue button to proceed.

Now you should have your contacts on the iPhone 4S.

I did all this & everything worked fine except my phone says "No Service" & iTunes says "Phone number: n/a." I've tried everything about 4 times now & it is still like this. This seems to be a common problem & an issue with AT&T rather than Apple. I'm going to the AT&T store at lunch today to see if they can help but this is super frustrating.

I think you are right. This sounds like a SIM problem to me.

Again, another wrong post. If you do what you're saying to do here, you're new iPhone 4s won't have the new features. Siri, voice dictation, etc... I had to do a factory restore on my 1 hour old phone after doing this excersize of yours. You've posted BAD INFO.

my iphone was stolen five months ago, while i was living abroad. i just had my number transferred to a friends old iphone 3gs. i need to transfer my data onto this "new" phone, but it is not prompting me to restore to my backup. i REALLY want to have my data transferred! help!

I don't know if this is the case, but make sure you have the latest iTunes version installed on your Mac.

Also, you should make sure that the iPhone you are trying to restore your information has the same (or a newer) iOS version as your stolen iPhone.

What if I only what to transfer my contacts and not the apps for instance. How would that work?

moved from iphone 3 to iphone 4s. made sure latest version of itunes installed. I synced the phone with itunes on a regular basis. on my device tabs, i just had “sync apps”, “sync music” and “sync tones” boxes checked, the other tabs were not checked to sync (my contacts are synced through my gmail acct). so i just right clicked on device name and selected “back up”. then i unplugged iphone 3 and plugged in iphone 4s and just right clicked on this device’s name and selected “restore from backup” (mine didn’t prompt me automatically so that’s why i had to right click for the restore). the iphone 4s brought over everything from old phone, pictures (even though this sync button was not checked), music, ringtones, etc. I was told by an IT person that if I did this, it would mess up the new phone but it looks perfectly fine to me. brought all my apps over the way i had set them up (groups of apps in the boxes even). all my settings were carried over. and the new apps from iphone 4s (game center, videos, etc) are still on the new phone (was afraid they would get deleted). i don’t understand why anyone would set this up as a new phone and manually setup up everything from scratch if they have an iphone prior to upgrading – just make sure to sync it regularly in your itunes acct and backup. I got super paranoid about my pics possibly not transferring but they are all fine (it was a “backup” in theory so I don’t know why I freaked out). I do recommend downloading Dropbox and uploading your photos there as a backup method though.

This doesnt say anything about transferring purchases first... pretty important to make sure all apps and purchsed music etc is moved to itunes. also does not say anything about checking all check boxes for syncing are ticked

"After selecting the iPhone, you will have to go through the tabs to change or verify all the items you want to sync to the new iPhone. When finished, click on the Apply button to sync your new iPhone with iTunes." This should do the trick.

This is my 3rd iphone, now a 4S and I've restored but it won't transfer my itunes music. Everything is there, but the music. What gives?

This was a fantastic piece of advice -I ust wasted $20 on another programme which didnt work and you give this advice for FREE! Thanks guys

the data on the aps was not transerred though. how do you transfer data on all the apps that you use