New iPhone 13 stuck on software update

One of the other solutions worked for me. I understand patience plenty. Having waited for 8+ hours for a new phone to function is beyond my expectations, especially when this has never happened to me before. I don’t appreciate your “polite condescending” answer.

Hi Axel,

In my case (brand new iPhone 12 and want to transfer data from iPhone 8+ [with 15.1]) the download does not even start ... I have left the phones close to each other for more than 2 hours (both plugged in to power source) and nothing happened ... still the same picture "... 15.1.1 software update" and the "View details" below. :(

I restarted the entire process the 3rd time now and start to give up :(

Do You have any workaround to skip the update and allow the data transfer?

Thank You in advance for Your help.

hey i may be a little late for your issue, but if anyone is still having this issue i just had to plug the phone up, and then it went to the download screen after staying on the "preparing to update" screen for too long. I'm currently watching it update so hopefully that goes well and doesn't take too long.

I did as you said… but my iPhone 13 pro max already has the updated software?

still says it’s going to take 6 hours to transfer my phone? Yet as it’s “downloading” or doing it … it seems to be frozen or not going anywhere at all?

I have my phone plugged in and everything else as stated prior by your post & the other very helpful post above

Did you or anyone else ever figure out anything to make the phone transfer work or work better etc?

Thank you 🙏🏻

I have followed every action as required and there seems to be an issue for some devices in their ability to "sync" with an older device as well as getting stuck in the subsequent process of updating the new phone software. Would it not be better, since I am seeing multiple issues for the same item, to write the code so that a new phone goes to the WiFi setting to create a connection and then request the software update? I have had to reset the new phone back to factory, taking it through a full new device set up and still get stuck at the software update screen "update requested". This is quite annoying and definitely not a good customer experience. Really thinking hard about returning the phone and looking at other options. I will not troubleshoot a brand new product from any company

thanks. It took longer than should be necessary, but all is working now with going through the manual set up on new phone, updating the iOS, resetting the phone to factory, then performing the sync with the old phone. Someone at Apple really needs to review the way the process is created. Old phone was on the latest software, new phone was not and evidently the new phone attempting to sync and update does not work. Should force an update first, reset itself and then begin sync

appreciate you helping out @woodturner47

Reset the new phone to factory settings (Settings/General/Transfer or Reset Phone/Reset/Erase all content and settings), then follow these instructions→Transfer data from your previous iOS or iPadOS device to your new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support or watch this companion video:

Totally agree. Absolutely garbage experience. I may try to return this phone.

I agreed with you and share your frustration having had the same experience and subsequently, since I was able to resolve the issue I have been tagged by Apple support to trouble shoot this issue over and over for other customers

as to a solution I had to do the software update on the new phone before porting over the data from its predecessor

good luck

this is painful!! Just got the 13max pro and it’s been updating software for well over an hour now.

this is wrong on all levels… my patience is running thin. I’m about ready to bring this piece back and look at something different.

Literally having the exact same problem. It’s absolutely a complete disaster, and I really question how much I want to keep using an iPhone in the future. Trying to set up a new iPhone 12 for 4 hours. Had to restart multiple times because I just get stuck with this update.

I just got a new iPhone 13 pro and I was stuck on downloading for hours. I read thru the thread and reset the phone and downloaded ios 15.5. But how do I transfer my icloud info to the new phone? I don't have the options that I was given in the beginning and I don't want to wait hours again by starting all over.

In the most respectful way, you've got to be patient.

We live in a very instantaneous world, but there are some things that require patients. This is one of them.

Your setting up a new phone, it'll finish, just leave it be

Super glad to hear that Rugger_707!

Sorry to see you were displeased with my response. Nowhere did I see the duration of your wait time, otherwise I would have responded differently. Waiting 8+ hours is an issue. Glad you found a solution that worked.

Typically it can take up to 1.5 hours to update software and transfer the data from one device to another. Having to wait over that can be considered an operational error.

Have a great day!

I also had this exact same issue a while ago when I was moving my data from my iPhone 7 to my new iPhone 12.

I can't remember what I did specifically but I think I restarted the phone several times and tried the different options of transferring data (phone to phone vs iCloud to phone) and it worked after a while and a few tries with different options.

Hope this helped