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Are you planning to improve to a brand new iPhone 16? It’s thrilling, we all know, however it’s finest to proceed intentionally when establishing your new iPhone to keep away from inflicting your self complications. Comply with these directions whenever you’re able to switch your knowledge—and, for many individuals, a lot of your digital life—to the brand new iPhone. Apple additionally has a sequence of movies you may watch.
- Replace your previous iPhone to the most recent model of iOS. In case you have an Apple Watch, replace it to the most recent model of watchOS. This course of can take a while, so it might be finest achieved in a single day earlier than you progress knowledge to your new iPhone.
- Be sure to know your Apple ID and password, and when you’ve got an Apple Watch, its passcode. You’ll doubtless should enter them no less than as soon as throughout this course of.
- Again up your previous iPhone to iCloud or your Mac. (When you again as much as a Mac, make sure you encrypt the backup, or else it received’t embody saved passwords, Wi-Fi settings, looking historical past, Well being knowledge, and name historical past.) Or again as much as each, for security’s sake. We favor iCloud backups as a result of they’re simpler and don’t introduce further variables, like flaky USB cables. When you don’t often again as much as iCloud, Apple provides you with momentary iCloud storage to make a backup when shifting to a brand new iPhone. To provoke an iCloud backup, go to Settings > Your Identify > iCloud > iCloud Backup and faucet Again Up Now.
- In case you have an Apple Watch, you don’t have to unpair it out of your previous iPhone at this level within the course of. (Later, if the automated switch has not labored, you may unpair it manually and pair it once more later. If you find yourself taking the handbook route and have a mobile Apple Watch, you’ll be requested if you wish to maintain or take away your plan. When you’re conserving your Apple Watch to re-pair along with your new iPhone, maintain the plan.)
- You shouldn’t want to fret about transferring a SIM card. When you ordered your new iPhone by way of Apple and related to your mobile service account throughout buy, activating the brand new iPhone ought to trigger it to take over your cellphone quantity. The identical ought to be true in the event you’ve bought instantly by way of your service. In addition to, it’s doubtless that iPhone 16 fashions offered within the US will depend on eSIM and lack SIM trays just like the iPhone 15, so solely non-US customers may have to switch the SIM card from the previous iPhone to the brand new one. Even then, it’s higher to contact your service and get them to activate the brand new SIM within the new iPhone as a result of previous SIMs don’t at all times help all present mobile options, corresponding to full 5G help.
- Switch your knowledge, settings, apps, and bought content material in considered one of these 3 ways. None of them might be fast, regardless of the primary one’s identify, so provoke the switch solely when you could have loads of time:
- Fast Begin: With the Fast Begin characteristic, content material out of your previous iPhone copies instantly out of your previous iPhone to your new one. We suggest this system as a result of it’s extra more likely to protect app logins, one thing that’s much less true when restoring from an iCloud backup. Put your iPhones subsequent to one another (plugged into energy), use the previous iPhone to scan the animation on the brand new one, after which observe the remainder of the steps.

- iCloud: With this system, the brand new iPhone will obtain your content material out of your previous iPhone’s iCloud backup. When you’ve joined a Wi-Fi community on the brand new iPhone and tapped the Restore from iCloud Backup button, you’ll have to pick the proper backup—doubtless the newest one you simply made. Preserve your new iPhone plugged into energy the whole time to make sure that all of your content material syncs throughout this step.
- Finder or iTunes: With this method, you’ll restore your previous iPhone’s content material from a backup made to your Mac. Join your new iPhone to your Mac utilizing an applicable cable, open a Finder window (or iTunes on an previous Mac), choose your gadget within the left-hand sidebar, click on Restore Backup, and select the suitable backup—doubtless the newest one.
- Fast Begin: With the Fast Begin characteristic, content material out of your previous iPhone copies instantly out of your previous iPhone to your new one. We suggest this system as a result of it’s extra more likely to protect app logins, one thing that’s much less true when restoring from an iCloud backup. Put your iPhones subsequent to one another (plugged into energy), use the previous iPhone to scan the animation on the brand new one, after which observe the remainder of the steps.
- Carry out post-transfer duties. Guarantee you can make and obtain a cellphone name. If obligatory, pair your Apple Watch with the brand new iPhone. You’ll additionally have to pair your Bluetooth equipment—together with AirPods—along with your new iPhone. Plus, some app knowledge must sync to your new iPhone, so open the Mail, Contacts, and Calendar apps and verify if they’ve your knowledge. It may take a couple of minutes for them to refill. Apps might request notification permissions once more, and chances are you’ll have to obtain content material and in-app purchases.
- When you use two-factor authentication with an app like 1Password, Authy, or Google Authenticator, guarantee you will get your 2FA codes utilizing your new iPhone. 1Password and Authy are good about offering entry to 2FA codes from a number of units—simply log in to your account from every gadget—however Google Authenticator might require some further setup because it didn’t initially provide any option to switch codes to a brand new cellphone.
- Lastly, if obligatory, arrange single sign-on for work or faculty. In case your office or faculty makes use of a safety system like Duo, you’ll doubtless wish to activate your new iPhone and deactivate the previous one. Utilizing any gadget, navigate to a typical single sign-in login display screen out of your group, search for a hyperlink for managing your logins, click on that hyperlink, and observe the prompts.
Though Apple works laborious to make the method of transferring from an previous iPhone to a brand new one as painless as attainable, some issues might fail to switch seamlessly. For that motive, we strongly suggest holding onto your previous iPhone for per week or so to make sure the brand new one can do all the pieces the previous one may. Throughout that point, put the brand new iPhone by way of its paces with a watch towards checking each app you want.
(Featured picture by iStock.com/valiantsin suprunovich)