Apple iPhone gurus, please help with backup & transfer issues

Geekomatic on 26/08/2020 - 21:13

I'm not an Apple person, so any time I try to help someone with their device, it rapidly goes down the Apple rabbit-hole.

Neighbour has iPhone 5. The screen started lifting so she bought a 7 at the AU Post. She asked if I could transfer her data and etc. Sure, I think. How hard could that be?

First, decided to backup her photos to a PC, "just in case". I did this via Windows file explorer. There turned out to be nearly no storage left on the original phone. All good. I then do an iCloud backup, followed by a backup to my PC via iTunes. All "successful". I launch the restore, via iTunes, to the 7 and after forever it fails, not enough space.

I log-in, online to iCloud.com, and it shows 436 photos NOT a part of the backup. I want to delete the "too large" backup but it states ALL photos will be deleted and I'm confused at how there are photos in iCloud which aren't on the phone?

Question: how do I transfer everything from 5 to 7, w/o the photos, but NOT delete that backup/those "other" photos?

Thank you

Computing

Comments

  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 26/08/2020 - 21:39
    +1

    Maybe put the photos into google photos and then remove them from the backup. (Re download them to the 7 via google photos)

  • jackinyourbox on 26/08/2020 - 21:43
    +1

    Setup new iPhone 7, it should detect old phone near by and you use the 7 camera and point at this swirly blue warp moving thingy picture and it should then transfer old phone to new.

    No computer required. A full on clone.

    And good luck with the girl next door 👍

    • Geekomatic on 26/08/2020 - 21:45

      iPhone 5 can't get the update to do what you've said. I looked at that 1st, but thanks.

      • jackinyourbox on 26/08/2020 - 21:49

        Ah bugger. I can’t help then. Sorry dude

  • jjjaar on 26/08/2020 - 21:53

    Sometimes it’s not even the space issue - it’s the fact that the 5 may not have been able to update to the same level the 7 is updated to. If they don’t have the exact same iOS then it won’t work.

    Otherwise - if you have backed up all the photos via windows file transfer, then you might just have to delete them on the 5 and then do the iTunes backup of the 5 and set up the 7 from the iTunes backup without those images.

    • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 26/08/2020 - 22:08

      it’s the fact that the 5 may not have been able to update to the same level the 7 is updated to. If they don’t have the exact same iOS then it won’t work.

      That’s incorrect, I was able to switch to an iPhone 6 from an iPhone 5 with the 6 running a newer version and didn’t have any issues.

      • jjjaar on 26/08/2020 - 22:18

        How!? I’ve never had any luck with this. Including on my devices and on family members.

        I envy your experience!

  • Geekomatic on 26/08/2020 - 22:32

    What I don't understand is that there seems to be two different "iCloud" photo backup locations, courtesy of Apple. I expected that when I backed-up the 5, I'd see ALL photos in one spot. However, it looks like there's more than one spot that Apple stores them online. When I look at the account on the phone, it shows the 20+ gig of photos in the backup AND it has a separate listing of the 846mb (436 photos) not apparently in the backup, which existed prior? I'm afraid of dumping the backup I made as it warns that ALL photos in iCloud will be deleted. Good Christ— I spent hours just trying to drill-down into their idiotic phone menu + their idiotic online, worthless forums (same as MS, where only users help users— the mods are useless). Apple's "description" of iTunes/iCloud/Storage is just horrific. So confusing & nothing at all about what I'm asking.

    WTAF?

    • Hybroid on 27/08/2020 - 05:33
      +2

      Difficult to help trouble-shoot with anecdotal information. Suggest install iTunes, do a single local backup to hard drive. Restore new iPhone with that single local backup and it'll work fine. It works for everyone else and I've done it for every annual upgrade since the 2008 3G till X.

      If you run into space errors, delete a couple of the larger apps or videos on there to reduce and see if that works.

  • AustriaBargain on 27/08/2020 - 05:21
    +3

    If she has more than 5GB of stuff, then just pay the big scary price of $3 to upgrade her data for one month, backup the phone to iCloud, restore phone to new handset, cancel the $3 a month recurring fee. Or talk her into keeping it, if it's going to be her only backup then maybe $3 a month isn't so bad. She's got all those important things but can't pay $3 for iCloud, but she can take up hours of your and our time to figure out how to do it for free, that sounds off. She values your time maybe 2 cents per hour.

    • pantsparty on 27/08/2020 - 08:56
      +1

      This is the best answer in my opinion.

  • try2bhelpful on 27/08/2020 - 11:11
    +1

    I, normally, do my backups using iTunes onto the PC, then restore from there. You can have issues if the new phone has less storage than the old one but it, generally, works. Although IOS incompatibility can raise its head. I, usually, Clean up the phone as much as possible before doing the backup by offload my photo using the Windows File option. I then delete the photos and all the apps I don’t use anymore.

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