First time upgrading iPhone. Need some advice

By Blindcat, 16 April, 2014

Forum

Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

I have had my iPhone 4 since it was still the newest model and it is the first smart phone I've ever used. This means that I have never dealt with upgrading to a new phone, nor had to deal with transferring content and activating a new phone. This is about to change and I could use some advice on it. Sometime tomorrow, Verizon should be delivering my new iPhone 5s and then the fun begins. First, I would like to know how exactly to transfer all of my data from the old phone. If I do this, will it copy over all of my data? Not just songs, but contacts, documents, all of the BARD library books I have on my current phone, and so on. Also, would getting all of my contents cause any glitches or other issues my current phone might have developed in the operating system? I just wonder if it might be worth the hasle of manually transferring my media and such and if that is the best way to go, can I manually transfer contacts, favorites and other settings and preferrences? I am a complete newb as all of this is concerned and I want to do it right. Second, does anyone know how difficult the activation is when one is doing it at home? I could always go to the local store, but it isn't in walking distance and I would have to scramble about looking for a ride and then deal with all of the hassle that entails plus dodging attempts to sell me accessories I could get elsewhere at half the price. I think that covers the basic setup questions, except to request anyone who has any tips or hints on setup that might make things easier or that might improve my experience with the phone please feel free to share. I'll post any other questions about other issues in another thread or threads. Thanks, Chris

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Comments

New phone fun

Hi! I upgraded from a 4 to a 5S back in September and the transition was flawless. As long as you're set up with iCloud, the new phone will walk you through doing everything. I did a backup of my 4 in iTunes and when I got the 5S I plugged it in and iTunes did the rest for me. Everything synced right from iCloud, my contacts, settings, everything. It was actually a little bittersweet when it was all done becasue it went so smoothly there was nothing for me to do haha! I'm sure others will have input as well so just know you've got plenty of support tomorrow when the happy time arrives. There is no need to deal with getting to the store. If you do run into snags, the AppleVis community will be right there with you. :)

hi,

I know that you don't want to, but the best way in terms of activating your phone is to actually go to the Verizon store. When I went in, they were very willing to assist me out in terms of phone activation. I went in with an iPhone 4s and came out with the 5S on upgrade day. In terms of contact transference, when I got the phone from Verizon, they had the contacts from my old phone on it. All I had to do was go into iTunes and restore the last backup and it took care of sinking all my apps. HTH and take care.

RE: First time upgrading iPhone. Need some advice

In regards to your concerns about the BARD app... I don't believe that your books themselves will be transferred but I could be wrong as I haven't had to do that yet. Of course the app will be transferred but I'm not sure that the contents of BARD will transfer, too. In my case this would be a big issue as I have almost 200 books on the app, obsessed, I know. What I would suggest is that, if you are like me and have a large list of reading material, you might want to make a list of all books currently on the device. At least this way, if I'm correct and your books do not transfer, you will have something to refer to when you begin using BARD on your new toy. Hope this helps.

RE: First time upgrading iPhone. Need some advice

Hi, I could be wrong here,

Hi, I could be wrong here, but I thought I heard something about transferring the books with iTunes. don't know how it's done though. Have fun with your new iPhone!

Transferring books with iTunes

It is possible to transfer your BARD downloaded books with iTunes you have to select the BARD app in the file transferring apps table and then go into your books and then select the books you want to transfer is fairly straightforward

good tip for phone activation

Hi. I was recently at a friends house and helped her set up her new iPhone 5s. It was early enough in the day and we were able to just call her local Verizon store, and they were able to activate her phone over the phone. What they'll do is send an activation signal to it, and then you just reboot your phone and you're all set. So, if you can't get to a store that's another good way to do it. As for the BARD app, it doesn't transfer your books through iCloud so you'll need to do that manually, i'm sorry to say! Hope this was somewhat helpful.

First time upgrading iPhone

Hi Blindcat, it's easy if you follow many stepts personally for my experiense that I have. Verizon use a CDMA band it means they use the ESN number to activate the device under the network that I suggest is just take your new iPhone to the local Verizon store just to get the sexesful activation remember this is your first time may for someone with more experiense don't need to do this, many times require repit the activation process remember you are jumping from iPhone 4 to 5 the iPhone 5 include a new SIM card that include a code, this code many times you need to read out to the Verizon advicer and some times doesn't, who knows. remember the iPhone 5 works using 2 antenas to Verizon Wireless CDNA and GSM so soundds kind of confuse. so regarding to all your data, include settings, contacts, apps, music, tones, pictures books and more. if you use iTunes backUp not mutter for Windows or Mac, this is easy process and works as a charn and just take a couple hours and all your data mention above will be sync between 1 to 2 hours just you will see one small change on your new device after the sync. the iPhone 4 has a small screen just have roon to 16 apps on each page or screen page.how ever the iPhone 5 has a larger screen size who has room to 20 apps and each page just one small detail if you use iCloud back up the process will be longer some times many hours to sync all your data and unfortunally is not the best way to sync media as music pictures tones movies you need to re download again regarding to books specially bard mobile there not way to sync or transfer all your books to the new device.