Move To iOS app transfer error solutions

Hi, if you're like me and bought your not-so-tech-saavy parent an iPhone and want to transfer their data from their Android phone to their shiny new iPhone. Oh, look! Apple has a handy app to do that. BUT IT NEVER SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES THE TRANSFER.

Well, after hours of frustration, here's what I did to get the process to work.

Notes

• I am assuming you are following the official documentation on how to use the app
• I did the transfer from a Pixel 3a running Android 11. The new device is a Mini 13. I hope this post helps you but your mileage may vary.
• You might have to periodically start over many times. By starting over I mean resetting the iPhone by holding down the power button and tapping "Start Over". And reinstalling the Move To iOS app from the Android device.

On the new iPhone

• Just follow the aforementioned official docs until you get to the "Apps & Data" screen. Go ahead and skip whatever setup up til that section cause you might have to reset if the transfer fails. Just set that stuff up after the transfer finishes.
• Make sure to take note of the wifi network the phone is connected to.

On the old Android Phone

• Install the "Move to iOS" app
• Probably not necessary but it's one of my steps that got it working for me: Under Settings > Network and Internet >Wifi, just straight up forget all your saved wifi networks in your area.
• Connect to the same wifi network that the iPhone is connected to.
• IMPORTANT STEP: Under Settings > Network & internet > Advanced, disable "Adaptive Connectivity"
• IMPORTANT STEP: Under that wifi network's settings(cogwheel icon by the network name in the wifi network list) > Advanced, disable "Auto-Connect"
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Back to the iPhone

• Tap "Move Data from Android". Follow the prompts until you get a code.

Back to Android phone

• Open the "Move to iOS" app
• Follow prompts. Input code.
• You should now be prompted to connect to a temporary wifi network that is named something like "iOS b2d2dd". Connect to it.
  • If you don't see this prompt, STOP. DON'T PASS GO. You probably did everything right but something has still gone wrong. The transfer will not work without being on this temporary network. Try reinstalling the app and trying again. If that doesn't work, try starting over on the iPhone(hold power button) and trying again.
• After connecting you should now be on that "iOS xxxxxx" wifi network and be prompted to select what data you want to transfer.
• Select the data and proceed.
• The app should now be "Processing". This took almost an hour for me for just 500mb of text messages, so be patient.
  • If you are no longer connected to the "iOS xxxxxx" wifi network. STOP. DO NOT PASS GO. The transfer has already failed. You did nothing wrong and the app won't let you know. You'll have to start over.
• After it's done preparing, you should now be transmitting the data. There's a progress bar here. If you made it this far without many retries, I envy you.
  • Don't hold your breath though cause for whatever fickle reason you might get a Transfer Error here too. I think it might be because the iPhone is in standby. What worked for me was keeping the iPhone display from sleeping as the transfer was going on. This might take a while. I spent my time looking through Accessibility Settings (hold power button to access). Lots of cool features here and kudos to Apple for making the device so accessible.
• Transfer completes. Hopefully you have made it this far.

Apple, please re-build this experience. It's honestly one of the worst migration experiences ever.

Some feedback

• Preparing transmission on the Android side takes so long. Can you add a progress bar here, if possible?
  • Can you add a retry feature here if the transfer fails, so we don't have to go through preparation all over again?
• Some better error messaging please? If the Android phone disconnected from the temporary wifi network, how about you error here instead of later?
• Update your documentation to make note of wifi settings that need to be disabled on the Android phone. I believe the Android dynamically changing wifi networks is the main reason transfers error out.
• I appreciate the use of a temporary wifi network to do the data transmission over. Super secure and data never touches an Apple server. But can you please make sure the Android device is connected to the network? If the iPhone is the host, should it not be trivial to check for that?
• Is there a timeout on how long the temporary wifi network stays up without receiving data from the Android device? If so, bump that up. Again, preparing takes forever and often the Android device disconnects from the temporary network during this stage.