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User profile for user: eludlow9876
eludlow9876 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Backup iPhone to iTunes for the first time?

Hi there.


My mother in law has a new iPhone (6), and wants to upgrade her old 4S to this. She has it backed up to iCloud, but not iTunes - she doesn't have a PC / laptop. The new phone has been restoring from the cloud backup now for nearly 12 hours (despite the "timing remaining" having never been above 55 minutes...it's increased slowly from 1 minute all day!) and the progress bar has slowed to a standstill. However the spinning thing in the top status bar is still going, making me think it is slowly getting somewhere...


I have my MBP here, with my own library on it (25k song library, several hundred apps, movies etc) and obviously my own iCloud photo library etc. Can I connect her phone, back it up and then restore from the backup to the new phone from that? Is that possible given that the iTunes library has nothing to do with the phone I'll have backed up? If it's going to want to transfer purchases etc that's no good...


Thanks.

Ed Ludlow

iPhone 6, iOS 9.2

Posted on Dec 29, 2015 10:12 AM

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User profile for user: Briansyddall
Briansyddall
User level: Level 7
25,521 points

Posted on Dec 29, 2015 10:27 AM

Hi

Its stuck in a loop go to settings iCloud backup stop backup

Download apps over WiFi .

We have 3 iPhones / 4 ipads haven't used our PC

For over 2 years for iPhone / iPad

All done over WiFi .

Cheers

Brian

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User profile for user: Ingo2711
Ingo2711
User level: Level 9
70,257 points

Dec 29, 2015 10:28 AM in response to eludlow9876

Create a new user account on your MacBookPro for your mother in law, log into it and start iTunes, set up iTunes with her Apple iD to authorize your Mac for the use with her Apple ID.

Make sure that under iTunes/Preferences/Devices, the option to disable auto syncing is active. Otherwise the phone will be wiped when you connect it for the first time.

After that, connect the old phone, wait until it is recognized and choose to back up manually from the File/Devices menu.

Since your mother in law has her own user account, you can transfer her purchases to the iTunes library, they will not mix with your iTunes library and on your user account side.

If you want to keep her passwords for her accounts and network settings as part of the backup, you'll have to choose the encrypted backup option. Make sure that the password for that can't be forgotten, without knowing it when restoring the phone, you will have to start without any backup data.

Restore your device from an iCloud or iTunes backup - Apple Support

About encrypted backups in iTunes - Apple Support

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User profile for user: Ingo2711
Ingo2711
User level: Level 9
70,257 points

Dec 29, 2015 12:45 PM in response to eludlow9876

You're welcome🙂

I had to do that for a family member who's MBP is still running Snow Leopard and can't run iTunes 12, which is essential to run 9.2 on your iPhone.

You can set up your user account to start up first whenever you start the MacBookPro, that way you don't have to type in your password to log in at the startup screen, and you won't notice your mother in law's account too often😉

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Backup iPhone to iTunes for the first time?

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