How to Backup Your Old iPhone and Restore to iPhone 7

How to Backup Your Old iPhone and Restore to iPhone 7



Here's the deal: If you make an encrypted backup of your old iPhone using iTunes, then restore it to your new iPhone, it'll bring most — if not all — your password information along with it. That'll save you a lot of time and effort getting set back up.



You do need a Lightning to USB cable (or 30-pin Dock to USB if you have an iPhone 4s or earlier), and you'll still have to re-download apps — the App Store gives you slightly different versions for each device, optimized to run best on that specific hardware — but overall I still find it to be much, much faster.



Make sure you're running the most recent version of iTunes.

Plug your old iPhone into your Mac or Windows PC.

Launch iTunes.

Click on the iPhone icon in the menu bar when it appears.

Click on Back Up Now.

Click on Encrypt Backup and add a password.

Skip Backup Apps, if asked. (They'll likely re-download anyway.)

Unplug your old iPhone when done.

Turn off your old iPhone.

Take your SIM card out of your old iPhone.



Wait for the backup to complete before proceeding.



Put your SIM card into your new iPhone.

Turn on your new iPhone.

Plug your new iPhone into your Mac or Windows PC.

Slide to set up on your iPhone.

Follow the directions to choose your language and set up your Wi-Fi network.

Select Restore from iTunes backup.