Updated (for anyone who cares or might run into this in the future):
I finally just gave up on a full backup, and used the limited iCloud backup I had done successfully (mostly just contacts and messages - under 5gb) to restore from to my new phone. I already had my music on my computer (and backed up) and I made sure I had all my photos off onto the computer (at home + backup, and also a copy at work). I’ve gone through and re-logged in to all of my important apps after the restore, and switched over my SIM, and I’ll reload photos/videos/music onto my phone from my laptop this evening. I don’t have much app-specific data that was only stored on the phone that would be an issue to lose, thankfully. Still no clue what the actual issue was, but I’m guessing it just came down to 140gb of data taking a looong time to move, regardless of how you do it, and I just kept hitting timeout limits or something. Sure would be nice if Apple would just tell you this before you even attempt it, instead of letting you try over and over again in various ways (while banging your head against a wall).
Now I get the additional joy of getting my son set up on my old phone (and getting his sister set up on his old one). At least my brother took care of getting my dad set up with his new one! LOL
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I’ve had a fairly maddening time over the past few days trying to get set up on my new phone, related to failures backing up/transferring data from my old phone.
I have a Xs 256gb that I bought as a refurb early this year with about 140gb of data now on it (mostly photos & video). I’ve bought a new phone and I’m trying to get data transferred so I can start using it and set my old phone up for my son.
I first attempted to transfer wirelessly. Seemed like it was working fine, but failed. Tried a couple more times, and failed. After clearing some space on my laptop (‘14 Macbook Pro), I tried making a backup to my hard drive. Failed. I then bought a Lightning to USB Camera Adaptor to attempt a wired phone-to-phone transfer. Failed. Computer and phone are both up to date, fwiw. The fact that I can’t back it up to my computer is the most confusing to me (purgeable space issue, perhaps - anyone dealt with this?).
Finally, after a combined 10 attempts in various way, I called the helpdesk. I was on the line with him for a while, and we realized that my iCloud backups weren’t on (I’d run out of free space). So, I did some cleanup and ran an iCloud backup (just Contacts & Messages), and then attempted the wired transfer again last night, thinking that was the issue. Well... it failed.
It just works, amirite?
Anyone have any ideas (short of just giving up and switching to Googlephone)?
Apple stores are closed, of course, and I’d really rather not have to go to AT&T to try to get this sorted out. Is it just too much data (timing out)? I removed my music collection from my phone (it’s all on my laptop and backed up), but I’d rather not risk deleting all my photos & video from my phone, even though they’re all backed up to Google Photos (and for the most part backed up to my computer).