How to upgrade a new iPhone 15 to iOS 17.0.2 before setup?

Good question:

Caveat: I’m not a 15 owner so am not speaking from personal experiences, but the following is excerpted from another well-respected community member’s post re: setting up a brand new iPhone 15:

Note that they started w/ the quick transfer … it asked if they “wanted” to update … to which the user HAD to reply in the affirmative.

It then updated … and then the user had to initiate a quick transfer a 2nd time.

Note too that this was an “early adopter, pre-ordered, first day of delivery” user experience back on or about 9/22 … prior to the release of 17.0.3 … so Apple might have “tuned-up” this process a bit. (i.e. Today it might not even give you the opportunity to NOT update)

Also, your newer phone might actually ship w/ a newer iOS already installed.

Excerpt of 9/22 post:

• Powered on new iPhone
• Choose language
• Hovered new phone over old phone with the transfer “blob”
• Phone asked if I wanted to move data over
• Then phone prompt then announced that an update was available and asked if wanted to update
• Manually Chose “Update”
• Once update was complete, started the process again; hovering new phone over old phone to read the “blob”
• Then the transfer started

You’re very welcome.

You are correct that getting this process right is particularly important.

Again … Carefully read … Re-read … THINK … and only then … “click.”

The device migration process is NOT the time to get into a rush or to allow yourself to become distracted.

Enjoy your new phone. 👋

Turn on the new phone normally.

Read the on-screen prompts carefully.

If / when prompted to update … accept.