New phone stuck on software update during data transfer with old phone.

Hold on the power button during setup and click “start over”. The phone will factory reset to start from the beginning.

Don’t connect the old device right away.

Until Apple fixes it hopefully with iOS 18.1, the workaround is to push through setup and skip everything without transferring anything. Once you get to the Home Screen, go to settings > general > software update. Update to iOS 18, then factory reset the device and transfer as you normally would.

I hope this helped!

I should have included the fix! Sorry..

I tried to do the same as the OP, but I still got stuck when it attempted to load IOS 18.0. I got around the issue by setting up phone as new WITHOUT using my old phone. Then I was able to update to IOS, and FINALLY downloaded my Backup from iCloud and that fixed the issue. what a Hassle…I was On-Call for work and missed an important message. Everything turned out okay in the end, but was not easy or fun. Hope that helps someone!

Chiming in to say thanks to ScottE45, the suggestion worked. Was waiting for 3 hours for the 'software update', figured something was wrong transferring from old to new phone and found this thread.

Cancelled the transfer, reset new phone, set up with no transfer, updated to 18.1, then did an Erase, then finally chose the transfer option. Took about 10 minutes. Not impressed Apple haven't addressed this.

I mentioned in a previous post what a nightmare I had. It took hours because I was trying to switch over dual SIMS and when it got stuck I was fearful I'd lose he email and have more of a nightmare. Finally updated both phones first and then all was well. Was at Apple over the weekend because the new phone had a few dead pixels and when I mentioned the issue they all knew about it and pretty much shrugged their shoulders and said it was "probematic"

Last night was ready to switch over --yet again --and I updated both phones first then did the transfer. It still was not 100% error free but I got it.

Finally got it to work by using a workaround. Restarted phone and cancelled the migration. Setup new phone without copying anything from old phone. Installed new version of IOS on new phone. Then erased new phone and went through setup again to transfer data.

I've had exactly the same problem with my new iphone 13 that I bought today. Had to indeed cancel transfer from the old iphone AND downloading from icloud (where I keep everything backed up). Then erased the phone, started up without connecting to my old phone, when through basic set up without transferring any data from icloud, and am now installing ios updates (starting with 17.1!).

Frustrating that Apple can't tell us this when trying to pair with another device that we should wait with that until we've updated to the most recent ios. I lost 5-6 hours today because of this.

But grateful for this thread. Thanks to everyone who's posted iterations of how to do this properly!

Freaking worked!

Spent 8+ hours on trying to do it normally and all i had to do was set it up as new phone, then once both 17 and 18.0.1 updates were done, ERASE NOT FACTORY RESET. My stuff transferred within 20 minutes. Granted I have 12,500+ photos and 780 videos.

Faced the same issue. Started over and did an icloud restore. Asked for the update again, and this time it did not get stuck and installed it successfully.

Wasted 4 hours of my life transferring data from an 11 to 13 and being prevented by a software upgrade. In the end installed Apple devices to a PC, downloaded the latest updates to the new phone and then continued the transfer process in the normal way. Worked for me.

Do wonder which world these tech developers exist in ; it sure isn't the real one.......

My thanks to ScottE45. In addition, I had to reactivate the eSIM through the Verizon app. Both old and new phones were showing SOS.

Ok. Restarted new phone by clicking the top volume button and the power button and then sliding power off. Restarted and it said “reconnecting”. Now both phones say “Transferring Data from…(name of old phone)” but now seem stuck on estimating the time. No progress made on bar in 10 minutes.

Hi-

Go to Settings > General

Scroll down to bottom

Choose Transfer or Reset Phone

Two choices- Reset or Erase All Content and Settings.

If you choose Reset, you can choose what to Reset (eg. all settings, network settings etc)

If you choose Erase, you will get told that you're going to wipe your phone back to box fresh (ready to be sold etc). This is what people mean by a 'factory reset' usually

It's not super clear but I believe 'Reset All Settings' restores your iPhone settings to factory default settings, just like a new iPhone, but without deleting any other data or contents on your iPhone. So, your personal data, including photos, videos, apps, and documents, remains untouched.

Hope this helps

Wow! What an amazing pile of horse manure. Smells like Orc mischief to me! I experienced this anomaly. Scott, here, figured out the issue. Apple, you need to do better.

The best possible scenario is manual setup. It was up and running in about a minute. Refrain from using your old phone to setup the new.

I have exactly the same problem, brand new IPhone15, sim transferred over to new phone and it’s stuck with the circle of death trying to install ios18. Now I have no working phone with a sim, screwed. I’ve tried starting again from scratch several times but there is no possible way to avoid installing it whilst setting up the new phone.

I have the same problem as Skipladyy. Got a new iPhone 15 pro, am transferring info from my iPhone 13, and get stuck on the software update to ios18. Tried three times, waiting over an hour each time. My old phone is not usable.

Frustrating!