Sep 20, 2024

The iPhone Transfer Pain Box

Why is it still *so* hard to transfer to a new iPhone after all these years?

Hello from Transfer iPhone Land where it's constantly 110 degrees on the back of your device and always a quarter til never.

Yes, I picked up the new iPhone 16 (Pro Max – Desert Titanium, aka "DunePhone") today. I would love to tell you it's great, but I can't really tell you anything right now as it's still transferring over from my old phone – which is not, in fact, old, but is an iPhone 15 (Pro Max – Natural Titanium, aka "TitaniPhone"). You'd think we'd have this issue solved by now. I understand it's not that easy but I also understand it's 2024 and we're 17 years into iPhones at this point. Can't we just, say, do a back up and flash of my exact phone in like, I don't know, 30 seconds? Even if it has to be over a wire, like animals?

Like everyone else, I've been complaining about this for years and years. But with each passing year, it's more and more surprising to me how long this takes. I used to actually just start "anew" each time and manually reinstall apps (a nice way of filtering down to the apps you truly want/use) but that grew too cumbersome with all the re-logins required. WiFi restore is faster than device-to-device, but it still seems to take forever to download everything and then you still have to log-in again to most things.

I've been led to believe that iPhone-to-iPhone is the way to go and have done it a number of times now. But each time it seems to take longer (maybe due to transferring more and more photos in addition to larger apps, not sure?).

Yes, before you ask, the devices are next to each other and both are plugged in to power. I vaguely recall quoted times in the past that were humorously long when, in fact, it would take about 2-to-3 hours. Still way too long, but better than, say, 11 hours. Which is what I've been quoted for the past 3 hours or so during this backup. We're approaching the point where I'm mildly concerned that it's actually going to take 11 hours. Or that I've somehow bricked both phones.

At the very least, it would be nice if iOS would make the progress bar move just a little? Even if I'm in fact no closer to completion. Humor me, Apple.