Trying to understand how to use the backup I made from my old iPhone 7 on my Mac to restore the data and apps on my new iphone 11

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Level 1

8 points

Trying to understand how to use the backup I made from my old iPhone 7 on my Mac to restore the data and apps on my new iphone 11

I had a company iPhone 7 which I backed up on my Mac. I then turned in that iphone to the company when I resigned. I bought a new iPhone 11. It has been activated by Xfinity. When I try to restore the data and apps by connected the new phone to my Mac it does not work - most of the time it does not even show the new iPhone in the Finder as a location, but sometimes it does. In those cases no matter what I do next it loses that location again and nothing happens.

iPhone 11

Posted on Jun 24, 2020 11:14 AM

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Answer 1

doylerj Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 24, 2020 3:06 PM in response to LACAllen

I have since contacted Apple Support and they were able to figure out what the problem was. To answer LACAllen's (good) questions - this was a backup to my Mac via cable using the Finder (not iTunes). I had the latest version of macOS 10.15.5 on my Mac and was using the new cable that came with the new iPhone11. The problem turned out to be that the new iPhone did not have the latest version of macOS and so the restore function did not operate. The iPhone 11 would connect in the Finder and you could see the location but as soon as you started the Restore process it would disconnect. The solution was to setup the iPhone independently of the mac to start, update the operating system to the latest version, then go through the Restore process. Apple should really have an error code for this instead of just disconnecting the device.

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Answer 2

LACAllen

Level 8

43,590 points

Jun 24, 2020 4:11 PM in response to doylerj

Apple should really have an error code for this instead of just disconnecting the device.

Glad you got it sorted.

A standard piece of troubleshooting for quirky iOS behaviour is always update to the latest iOS version. iPhones off the shelf will not always be up to date. They will typically be at least 1 level behind.

This step is almost every iOS troubleshooting article I've ever seen. No code.

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