iphone restore - new and then use backup

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JamesD1957 Author

Level 1

46 points

iphone restore - new and then use backup

Helping someone with a new iPhone. I wanted to back it up to his iTunes account on his PC, but when I hook up the phone, it goes to a screen that wants to either set it up as "new" or use existing backup, which is dated over a year and a half ago. His phone is backed up to the cloud, and is current, but that is not a screen option. Obviously, I don't want to use an old backup, and I don't want to set it up as "new" without some research. If I "cancel", the iPhone is no longer connected to his iTunes page.

Question - If I set it up as "new", can I then restore it from an iCloud back up? If restored as new, would his iCloud backups be eliminated as well? I don't want him to lose any contacts or other information that would be backed up. He relies on that to remember phone numbers and such.

Help is appreciated.

iPhone 11 Pro

Posted on May 22, 2020 9:27 AM

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Answer 1

Demo

Level 10

166,747 points

May 22, 2020 9:43 AM in response to JamesD1957

The fact that you are seeing the option to set up as new, I believe means that his phone has never been synced with iTunes on his PC. You should be able to safely sync and then backup. iTunes sees it as a new phone.

However, in the interest of using all caution, why not just backup his old phone with iCloud one more time and then restore the new phone from that backup? If he hasn’t been syncing with iTunes, then there is no reason to use iTunes to set up the new phone.

If you were to sync with iTunes, that would have no effect on his iCloud backups whatsoever. I sync with iTunes and backup with iCloud and iTunes. I restored my iPhone XR and my iPad Air 3 from iCloud backups and then synced with iTunes to put my music and photos on both devices, but I was syncing all of my devices with iTunes for years.

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Answer 2

Demo

Level 10

166,747 points

May 22, 2020 1:13 PM in response to JamesD1957

As I said, I believe that you can safely sync the phone even though it wants to set it up as new. iTunes has never seen this phone before so it is a new phone to this iTunes library which makes sense.

Even if the sync went south, the important thing is the iCloud backup. If you set up the new phone from the backup of the old phone, then backup the new phone to iCloud before syncing with iTunes, you can always start all over again and restore the newly created iCloud backup. That’s really what you need to set up the phone anyway. There is nothing in iTunes for him to restore since his old backup is ancient.

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Answer 3

JamesD1957 Author

Level 1

46 points

May 22, 2020 11:40 AM in response to Demo

Thanks for the reply. He's one of those guys who gets a new phone every year it seems. He has used iTunes in the past, but hasn't synced this new phone with it yet, and when I hook up the phone, it shows to either set up as "new" or use a backup from January 2019. That's definitely not an option. My thought is 99% sure that I can just sync it as a new iPhone, then restore it from the cloud using a current backup, but again, if that doesn't work he would be in a lot of trouble. I think he gets his phones at Verizon and they set them up for him, but I'm certain they have to start out as "new", and then use a current cloud backup. I just need to be 100% sure about the end result before I do the same procedure.

Myself, I backup to the cloud and my PC often, and like you, have used iTunes for many years. I keep all of my Apple devices synced to the same library. He wants to start doing the same thing.

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iphone restore - new and then use backup

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