Q: How much can I backup from my old phone and restore to the one I plan to buy tomorrow?

I already looked there, and it did not answer any of the questions that I asked here.

This is the type of instructions that led to the fiasco last time.  There is nothing about what is in the "full backup".  It mentions that if I use iTunes for the backup and restore that I need to stay online for the stuff in iCloud - but it never mentions what I need to store in iCloud that is not in the so-called "full backup".

I know that I will be missing things, and I need to figure out in advance how to capture these things.

Does anyone know?  Or am I the only one that trusted the iTunes "full backup" concept?

Exactly  ! ! !

Apple publishes only a fraction of the useful information that a customer might need..

Thanks LACAllen.  Unfortunately, I know from bitter experience that the statement "An iTunes backup includes nearly all of your device's data and settings" is a deceptive statement that can only be made true by stretching "nearly all" to surprising limits.  I recently lost a fair amount of data that I assumed would be backed up and restored under Messages.  No messages were restored from my backup last month.  If my phone were still functional, I would be able to step thru other apps that came back empty instead of including the "nearly all" of my data.

For some reason, Apple doesn't want to say what it DOES back up.   Seems really odd, and more than a bit frustrating since my wife uses her phone very differently from the way that I use mine.

Sadly, calling the "geniuses" doesn't give reliable answers either.

LACAllen wrote: "I don't see their statement as deceptive. Developers are free to back up their data or not.  ...   The native Messages app should back it all up though. Without knowing what data you may have lost, it's tough to comment."

The problem is that I lost every text message received and sent by the native Messages app.  Is that clear enough?

I have NEVER used iCloud, and I am VERY angry that apparently I am being forced to.  Perhaps this is where I went wrong, since I never stumbled on the pages that implied that this is the only way to have an adequate backup (note LACAllen's post of information that Apple makes available to developers, not typical users like me).

I am EXPECTING to lose data in purchased (or free) apps.  What appalls me is the loss of data in apps that came WITH the iPhone.  I find it astounding that Apple would create an iTunes page that claims to do a "full backup" and then fail to backup all that data in THEIR OWN APPS.  But when I called the "geniuses" they confirmed that the full backup is not a FULL backup.  Now I am trying to determine what is backed up in iTunes, what is backed up to iCloud, and what is really at risk.

I am resentful beyond words that I am being forced to use iCloud in order to maintain an adequate backup.  But I am slowly coming to terms with this outrage.  So then . . . .

When I activate my iCloud connection, what else do I need to do to make the backups happen?  Do I just wait a full 24 hours and it eventually happens?  Do I have to touch all of several hundred Notes and Messages to make sure that each one gets backed up?