Superguide: iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus Migration Tips

Yep, it's that time again. Migrating my extended family to iPhone 6. Eventually, all seven of them. One iPhone 6, 6 iPhone 6 Plus. See also Verizon iPhone 5 customer upgrading to iPhone 6 Plus on Sep 12 2014, here’s some useful tips.

Doing a bunch of things with a bunch of people's phones, you tend to learn some stuff too. Here's the minor gotchas that almost got me, these past couple of days of deploying these lovely 5.5" screen devices, all upgraded from iPhone 5 phones. I like to get it done, when I replace an esxtended family member's device. The devils in those numerous little details that are so easy to forget.

Why the Plus specifically, for me personally?

• It's partly all about the optical image stabilization in the camera, and the 1920x1080 resolution that sure works nicely with TeamViewer, seen below. I just love high pixel density. I can actually see what's going on, even before pinching to zoom. See for yourself, at the bottom of this article.
• And it's also about my holding off on getting a tablet. Yep, this is now (sort of) my tablet.
• Fits on my car's dashboard, without obstructing my view of the road, see details at:
  TinkerTry.com/sturdy-proclip-usa-dashboard-mount-for-iphone-6-plus-allows-one-handed-dock-and-go

Why a new iPhone for me?

• I sure do love Touch ID. It's a game changer. Given I had to type my corporate-lock-downed iPhone 5 password at least 50 times per day. That's right, 8 characters, numbers and letters. Argh!
• I sure want to not have to carry a wallet, someday. That future can't arrive fast enough for me.
• And it's also about my holding off on getting a tablet. Yep, this is now my tablet.
• I'm a bit of a speed freak, and it seems to have phenomenal LTE speeds, pictured above, and the 802.11ac speeds on my home's network ain't bad either, seen at above right. More important than all those specs: bringing up a web page is sooo much faster. Any web page. See Apple description here.

Tips, please!

1) If you have a lot of passwords you'd like to keep, then consider using the

Restore from iTunes restore method

• Yes, this means using that USB to Lightning cable, attached to your computer.
• This also means that your last backup of your older device needs to be done with encryption for the backup turned on.
• Overall, the process can be a little faster than restoring from iCloud, especially since all the apps will be moved right over and ready for you, with no lengthy (multi-hour) wait for all those greyed out icons to "re-hydrate" on your new device.

2) "Cart before the horse" (iOS 8.1 backups aren't compatible with iOS 8 backups)

If the device you're migrating from is already at iOS 8.1, then your iCloud backup is in that non-8.1 format. Why does this matter? Well, my Verizon iPhone 6 phones arrived at 8, not 8.1. Even though it was Oct 27th, 2014. So, that means when I went to restore from iCloud backup of my iPhone 5 that was at 8.1 already, I got a warning that my backups were done in iOS 8.1, and they were greyed out as restore candidates. Uh oh.

The workaround?

• Simply get through the setup wizard by answering no to everything, then do the update to iOS 8.1, on the new iPhone. Yes, this takes at least 1/2 hr.
• Next, head over to Settings / General / Reset / Erase All Content and Settings.
• When prompted after the reboot, choose the Restore from iCloud method, and you'll now be able to select your most recent backup.

3) Once you're ready to migrate your cellular service from old to new...

After activation from your cellular provider's web site or customer service phone number, you'll likely need to turn off your old iPhone. In my case, I had forgotten to do that, with both iPhones on. And luck would have it, I actually received a cell call, and both my iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 Plus ran, simultaneously. Simply turned both off, then the iPhone 6 Plus back on, issue solved. Only the iPhone 6 now showed the Verizon logo, and a popup came up saying it was activated.

After successfully testing whether my new phone received cell calls, I did the following right away:

• I found the default was for WiFi to stay on, but Cellular Data to be off. Be sure to tap Settings / Cellular / Cellular Data 'On'.
• I found WhatsApp usually (but not always) wanted to re-verify my phone number, so fire it up and test it, it'll either work, or prompt  you to re-verify the phone #.
• You're going to want to tackle this activation step with both phones right in front of you, otherwise, your family member won't be able to place or receive calls, and will see a bunch of scary emails like "Your Apple ID was used to sign in to FaceTime and iMessage on an iPhone 6 Plus."

4) Apple Wireless Keyboard, needs a divorce before it can re-marry

You may find your Apple Wireless Keyboard won't Bluetooth pair with your new iPhone. Good news, no annulment required.

The workaround?

Turns out you need to unpair it from your old iPhone first, by performing the following actions:

• Tap a key on your Apple Wireless Keyboard to be sure it's away, caps lock is a good choice.
• Settings / Bluetooth, and under 'MY DEVICES' you'll see the 'Apple Wireless Keyboard', tap the blue 'i' then tap 'Forget This Device'.
• Now the keyboard goes right into pairing mode automatically (blinking LED green at top-right).
• On the new iPhone:
  Settings / Bluetooth, and under 'MY DEVICES' you'll see the 'Apple Wireless Keyboard', tap on it, it'll prompt you to enter 4 digits on the keyboard.

5) Don't forget Bluetooth!

It's likely you'll need to repair all your iPhone owner's gadgets,such as Bluetooth Speakers

6) If you're planning to sell the old device, perform the following actions:

• Settings / iCloud / Find My iPhone / Off  (as recommended by Gazelle), the phone's account holder will now get an email from Apple, saying something like "Find My iPhone has been disabled on (person's name)'s iPhone."
• Settings / General / Reset / Erase All Content and Settings
• Probably a good time to also activate Find My iPhone on the new iPhone,
  Settings / iCloud / Find My iPhone / On
  then test it using icloud.com/#find on a computer
• While you're in there, be sure to clean up (delete) any old iPhone devices, including the one you're about to sell, details at http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2702

7) If you're using iCloud Keychain, read Apple's

Frequently asked questions about iCloud Keychain

• You'll note the gotcha here is that if the old device isn't with you, the user will get prompted for permissions, and may be confused. So you'll know what to expect, you'll want to read the section of the FAQ entitled:
  How do I set up iCloud Keychain on a new device if I don't have one of my other devices to approve from?

8) Test all those logons!

If you used the restore from iTunes method of migrating to the new iPhone, you should have fewer password prompts. But be sure, check everything, all the important stuff, like:

• receive email
• send email (actually send a test email, be sure no password prompt comes up, if it does, key it in so the new owner doesn't get hassled later on)
• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
• etc...test what apps are most important to the new iPhone owner, and delete the uneeded ones.

9) If 2 factor authentication is in use

• You'll want to test out all those logins, from your new mobile. You may have to re-add to your Google Authenticator, such as LogMeIn 2 Factor, for example.

10) If you restored from iCloud and use Google 2-step verification, Gmail may bite you

Your gmail.com email account(s) will likely prompt you for a password on your new iPhone

The workaround?

• Set up app passwords for Gmail accounts at google.com/settings/security and create an email App password, selecting 'Mail on my iPhone'.
• On your iPhone, got to Settings / Mail, Contacts, Calendars / Accounts / (Gmail account) / Password.
• Type in Email App password and tap 'Done'.

11) If you like Touch ID

• Have the new iPhone owner train their fingerprints, in front of you, helping them if needed.
• Suggest they not do that training right after washing their hands. Yes, fingerprints are altered by water a bit. My family has found that if you train Touch ID soon after a handwashing, there may be recognition issues once those fingers are very dry.

12) App Store Purchases

• If the new iPhone owner wants to use their finger for future App Store purchases, be sure to change this setting:
  Settings / Touch ID & Passcode / USE TOUCH ID FOR: / slide 'Apple Pay' to ON
• If the new iPhone owner hasn't bought anything in a while, it's possible they're credit card has expired, and they'll be prompted to confirm who they are when they go to make a purchase. Why not help them when it's easier, when you're together, and have them buy something in the App Store.

13) Backup to iCloud

• There can be issues with folks figuring how to clean away old iPhone backups from previous devices, and figuring out how to upgrade to bigger iCloud storage plans. Best if you help them out, all the details are found at Apple here:
  support.apple.com/en-us/HT4847

14) Turn on LTE voice & data

• New iPhone 6 users will soon be able to place high-definition voice calls, even between Verizon and AT&T in the US, for example. This is something that isn't turned on in iOS 8 by default, for some reason. Here's how:
• Settings / Cellular / Enable LTE / select 'Voice & Data'

15) If you'd like a super quick screen-brightness toggle

• Does the ability to simply triple tap on your home button to toggle low light reading (dim) mode sound appealing to you? Thought so, read this:
  thinkerbit.com/articles/ios-8-dim

See also

25 hidden features from iOS 8, Apple’s new operating system

At theguardian on Nov 07 2014