How to Move Everything From Your Old iPhone to a New Phone

There's nothing like the excitement of getting a shiny new smartphone. But how do you get all your contacts, photos and other documents off your old smartphone and on to your new one? If you're moving from an iPhone onto any shinynew phone, here's what to do, whatever the operating system...

1. All backed up? If your new phone is another iPhone, all your content should be backed up to your iCloud account and available as soon as you log in to your new handset with your Apple ID.

Check everything is backed up on your existing iPhone before you start by heading to Settings, iCloud and then make sure the relevant options are turned on. Press Backup and then tap Backup now to make a copy of your content online. Then when you set up your new iPhone, select Restore from iCloud and choose the backup your just made. It's worth noting, this only works if your iPhones and running the same version of iOS. If they're not (perhaps because your iPhone doesn't support the latest version or you never installed the latest version) you'll need iTunes and a computer. Connect your current iPhone to your computer and open iTunes. Select the iPhone icon in the top left-hand corner, and under the section marked Back Up, click Back Up Now. This will make a backup of your iPhone on your computer. 

Follow the instructions on screen to set up your new iPhone, and when it comes to the section marked Restore from Backup, select Backup from iTunes. You'll need to connect your new iPhone to your computer and follow the steps to restore it from the backup you made.

2. Moving to an Google Android device? On a PC or Mac visit iCloud.com and sign in. Select Contacts and then click on those that you want to transfer. Press the Cog in the bottom left-hand corner and choose export to VCF. Email this VCF file to yourself on your new Android phone and then open it to add them to the contacts list. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix for apps – any that you already use, you'll need to write down and then re-download from the Google Play store. For photos, back them up to Google+ on your Android tablet, and then install the Google+ app on your new tablet.

3. Moving to a Windows Phone? Download Contacts to Excel from the iTunes app store onto you current iPhone. Open the app and follow the instruction on screen to create an Excel document of your contacts. Email yourself the file and open  it on a computer and save as a CSV file. Visit Outlook.com and from Add People to your contact list, select Import from File. For photos, download OneDrive and save you pictures to it, then open OneDrive on your new handset.

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