I have purchased an iPhone 15. I am trying to set it, copying from my old phone. My new phone keeps getting stuck when trying to update the software to IOS 18. Can you please advise how I can resolve this as currently my phone has been stuck on the software update screen since 930 this morning (it is now nearly 530pm)
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iPhone 15 Pro
An update after 24 hours: This may save time for others. I waited overnight to see what else iCloud would sync over to the new phone. Nothing. And all backup/sync settings are on. A check of my new phone revealed that while that clock was spinning away for hours, things were getting moved. But transferring tens of thousands of gigs via Bluetooth is like draining a swimming pool through a funnel. Had I known then what I know now, I would have let the phones keep syncing, even though it would have probably taken 10-20 hours. Lesson learned. So I looked into rerunning Quick Start and it can only be done when resetting the phone! Oh well. But before I reset the new phone I upgraded it to ios 18 to eliminate that complication during migration. That took about 45 minutes. I then reset the new iPhone and selected the option to KEEP the eSIM configuration. I also did the phone sync with a cable rather than via Bluetooth. Let me tell you, this is the only way to go! It took 5 minutes to migrate all data and apps to the new phone. WiFi would have been great too, but Quick Start does not let you configure WiFi before it starts migrating data.
It’s an unfortunate coincidence that iOS 18 came out just at this point in time, so that any new phone migration also involves an upgrade along with moving apps/data, which just takes a really long time. I should mention that I’m not any type of iPhone geek, but I am a retired IT professional. It was a pain for me, so I don’t know how regular people deal with this stuff.
I had this problem with my iphone 14. it got so bad the screen was black and wouldn't respond. I bought a new iphone 15 to replace it.
Then two days later I tried to use itunes on my PC to update the ios and it happened to that phone too.
The FIX - I plugged the phone into my wife's Mac. It restored BOTH phones. I've since deleted itunes.
Do exactly what “po_victory” explained .*set up the phone without the old one * install ios18* erase the phone and configure it with the old one * It worked ! Thank you !
Hello! I would love to help you, but in order to do so, I need more information.
Can you possibly send an error code (if one appears) and if not, a screenshot.
If you cannot do that, try this:
If you need additional help, let me know!
You are a life saver! 🛟 I’ve been trying to install iOS 18 to my new phone for over 5 hrs until I read po_victory tips. You are correct in saying that you MUST select Erase all content and settings to proceed to transfer data from old to new iPhone! Thanks so much!
update the new device with ios18 first, reset it next, then transfer information from the old device. Make sure to have Internet connection in the process.
Instead of using reset, use erase all content and settings
I have the same issue on my new iPhone 15 128GB. And it takes a very long time to prepare the update in the first place. There is no option to not update the phone. I was transfering data from an iPhone that is not at iOS18 yet. Feeling frustrated …
some more info: i am transfering data from iPhone 12 mini (i think it has the latest iOS 17 update). It hangs when i click "Install now" after download and preparing update. The blue button just spins forever (more than one hour and still going)
I'm having the same problem - have spent hours trying to get my new phone working today. I have an iphone 15 pro being updated from an iphone se which is running ios 17.6.1. The new phone is trying to install/update ios 18 and it keeps glitching in the way dore38 explains very clearly above. I've done all of the things in your list but it's still not working.
Please help! Not having a working phone is a huge problem!!
I’m hitting the exact issue trying to set up an iPhone 15 and transferring fr an iPhone SE. It seems to have downloaded the updated and is apparently installing it now. I gave it over an hour and a half in this state, before I gave up and restarted the new phone. On powering it back on, the only option I got was to reset and start over. It’s stuck again with a spinning progress circle for almost an hour again. This is really frustrating.
I am getting exactly the same. Left my phone on all over night (8pm until 6am this morning).... nothing has happened. No idea what to do. I even put the sim in from my other phone as suggested by someone above but nothing
I am getting exactly the same. Left my phone on all over night (8pm until 6am this morning).... nothing has happened. No idea what to do. I even put the sim in from my other phone as suggested by someone above but nothing
Any other ideas? My new iphone 15 took an hour to download the ios 18 upgrade and has been ‘processing’ for 3 hours now. Same status as the Lunytoon member’s photo. There is no way to get to Settings to check anything, because the phone is still doing the initial setup. I doubt it can access my wifi since I have set nothing up yet, and don’t know if those settings were moved over before it started this darn ios 18 upgrade.
Hello, I got to this stage when setting up a new iPhone 15. Messages photos present but nothing else initially. Can you tell me if your apps and other data downloaded onto your new phone eventually?
thanks
Thank you so much for this. Same here and I see also from today. Spoke to Apple Care earlier and they told me to go into the shop (connecting to MacBook Pro didn’t enable the iOS18 update).
Followed your steps, updated empty new phone (while connected to iCloud account..), then reset, keep eSIM, restart, quick starts, have cable plugged in USB-C to lightning (my old iPhone is a 12 Pro Max in Europe so lightning).
It says it is “Setting up your account…” now for the last 10 minutes. Not sure if it’s using the cable or not, as I did sign into WiFi.
Do you think this is working now, or should it say something else than “Setting up your account…”
I am facing the same issue. Transferring from iPhone 11 to newly purchased iPhone 15 forced me to upgrade to iOS 18 in my new iPhone. ios upgrade got stuck for 5 hours. Repeated factory reset and retry the same process resulted in same issue. iOS 18 update is not complete in all retries. Any help will be highly appreciated.
New iPhone 15 stuck on iOS 18 Update
