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ghporter · Feb 12, 2011, 07:56 AM

As I'm about to move up from a 3GS to a 4, and I've read plenty of "where did App X go?" threads, I thought it would be useful to start collecting actual experiences with upgrading from one phone version to another and what did and didn't transfer via the "back up the old phone and restore the new one" process.

While we're at it, is the backup/restore process the best way to do this? Is there another method that works better? Any tricks for better results? Anything to avoid at all costs?

Thorzdad · Feb 12, 2011, 09:56 AM

When my wife moved from her freshly-laundered 3Gs to her iPhone 4, everything transferred perfectly fine from the backup we kept on the home iMac, and she keeps a pretty detailed calendar for work. It really comes down to how complete you have made the sync/backup in the settings.

We didn't notice anything not transferring.

Cold Warrior · Feb 12, 2011, 10:03 AM

When I moved from a 3GS to iPhone 4, I restored from the 3GS backup and everything was there. If you encrypt your backups, it will also restore passwords too, which is helpful because you won't have to reenter everything. IIRC.

imitchellg5 · Feb 12, 2011, 10:36 AM

With a 3GS to an iPhone 4 everything should transfer 100% since I imagine you have the latest iOS release on your 3GS.

ghporter · Feb 12, 2011, 11:53 AM

I've heard of certain apps not transferring, so I have been a bit concerned about what to look out for. Probably I'm overthinking this...

Thorzdad · Feb 12, 2011, 01:49 PM

The only instance I'm familiar with of anyone thinking an app didn't transfer, would be when someone was also upgrading the OS back when Apple introduced app folders. iOS has a habit of spontaneously creating a folder and moving apps into it. In those cases, apps aren't actually removed. They've just been moved to a folder without notice. At least that's been our experience. We've had "Where'd that app go?" moments with OS updates.

Atheist · Feb 12, 2011, 01:51 PM

I think you may be overthinking it a bit. I've restored several iPhones from backup and the process was seamless. Just last week my partners 2G iPhone was stolen. Luckily I was in the States and was able to pickup a new one and bring it home with me. I did a quick jailbreak/unlock, restored from backup and he was back in business. All apps and settings were there. Oddly enough, a hack I had done so it showed battery percentage (which isn't officially supported in the 2G) was present on his phone after the restore. I figured I was going to have to reinstall the hack.

ghporter · Feb 12, 2011, 06:23 PM

The one person I've spoken with in detail about this issue had not upgraded to iOS 4 before he upgraded to the iPhone 4-he had an iPhone 3G and was concerned that it would be way too slow if he did the upgrade... So it's likely that this person's experience was more related to changing OS versions than the upgrade process itself.

I assume that backup old/restore to new is still the best way to go?

imitchellg5 · Feb 12, 2011, 08:58 PM

Sync your iPhone before you ditch it. Get a new iPhone, plug it in, choose the option to restore from your backup. You'll be in business.

ghporter · Feb 20, 2011, 09:51 PM

Got my new iPhone 4, got it restored from my last backup, all's well. Thanks for the assistance.