Transfer apps from iDevices to iPhone 6 and 6+

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Transfer apps from iDevices to iPhone 6 and 6+

Just got phones for the family. First phones for kids,it's been a long road.

Phone 1 - - Going from iPhone 4 --> iPhone 6 (need to transfer apps, photos, contacts, vmail if possible, text message, etc) - not using iCloud.
Phone 2 - - Going from iPhone 4s --> iPhone 6+ (same as above - in this case, voicemail really special, lost loved one) - not using iCloud
Phone 3 - - Going from iPod 4th gen --> iPhone 6 (transfer apps, photos, contacts, messages nice but not needed) - not using iCloud
Phone 4 - - Going from iPad Air --> iPhone 6 (transfer apps, photos, messages and contacts) - not using iCloud

Phones 3 and 4 are for my kids. Their apps are a really big part of their 'down time' (games especially). It's really important to them to have the games transferred to the phones with their current achievements.

We only have one(1) Apple ID and Game Center login - so I don't think they can restore from there as I don't know how to pull up more than one account.

Any thoughts or insight into all of this would be incredibly appreciated. We don't have an Apple store where I live, so it's a bit harder to get help. This forum has always been a lifesaver.

I feel silly saying this, but I honestly thought it would be:

1. Plug into iTunes and do full backup.

2. Plug new phone into iTunes and do full restore

3. Finished.

Not working this way though, and I can't find the solution in my own searches thus far. In the past, with the iPhone 4s' it seemed much easier.

Thanks in advance for any and all help with this!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 24 inch Early 2009

Posted on Feb 28, 2015 1:41 AM

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Answer 1

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JimHdk

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Feb 28, 2015 1:55 AM in response to macgirl808

It should be as simple as you expected. What exactly is the problem that you are having?

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Answer 2

macgirl808 Author

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Feb 28, 2015 9:43 AM in response to JimHdk

Thank you for your response JimHdk. When I back up the devices to iTunes, and then restore to the new phones, all that is transferring appears to be contacts and texts. For the iPad, nothing seems to have transferred. Small notes on this issue: the call history reflects 'No Caller ID' on almost all numbers even though contacts transferred. And no visual voicemails transferred (not sure if this is normal on the VMs or not).

Honestly was just hoping to make a carbon copy of one device to the other.

One thing that I forgot to note, that may be affecting things, is that I am trying to use my MacBook Pro 2013 to do this with iTunes. My beloved iMac (2009) is having graphics card issues and I cannot get into my normal iTunes. This new version of iTunes (12.1.0.50) has been harder for me to navigate, so I may have the settings wrong? Meaning maybe I am not backing up all data, though I believe I am, and maybe that's why it's not syncing. Or could there be checkboxes that I have not checked to ensure to restore all data?

Thanks again for your response.

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Answer 3

JimHdk

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Feb 28, 2015 10:19 AM in response to macgirl808

You don't sync the data to your new iPhones you restore the new iPhone using the backup from the replaced device.

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Answer 4

macgirl808 Author

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Feb 28, 2015 10:30 AM in response to JimHdk

Understood. Sorry if I created some confusion. I have been backing up old devices and restoring to the new devices. It is only restoring select items. Thank you again for your response.

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Answer 5

macgirl808 Author

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Feb 28, 2015 1:51 PM in response to macgirl808

In case anyone else comes across this needing help.... I found this article here: http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/09/19/how-to-back-up-your-data-and-move-it-t o-your-new-iphone-6-or-iphone-6-plus

We don't use iCloud, so I went to the iTunes instructions.

The section that helped me was this:

Connect your iPhone to your computer with the Lightning cable, then open iTunes — you can either sync the device, or open File → Devices → Back up to bring up the backup menu. To start a backup, right-click your iPhone and select Backup Now.

The slight difference of going through 'File' helped to trigger the question about syncing Apps to iTunes that were only on the old device. This seems to have made a difference. I will know for sure if it works across all devices later tonight and will post again.

It seems as though our situation was unique because we had never backed up to this iTunes before, and for some reason, going through the back up button (vs going to File > Devices > Back Up) did not prompt for backing up apps that were not already in iTunes.

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