How Long Does It Take To Transfer Data From One iPhone To Another?

You bought your new iPhone and now want to transfer your data from your old iPhone to another. But, you don’t know how long will it take for the data transfer to complete.

Some people claim that it took them just a few minutes to transfer the data while others claim that it took them over half a day for the transfer to happen.

So, what is the actual reality? How long does it take to transfer data from one iPhone to another? How long to transfer data to the new iPhone? Why does transferring data to new iPhone take so long? Let us see everything..

How Long does it take to Transfer Data from one iPhone to Another?

In general, it takes around a few minutes to several hours for transferring data from one iPhone to another.

Although the time taken to transfer data from one iPhone to another may depend on the size of files (and other various factors), however having a rough estimate of duration is always good.

But before knowing the rough estimate, you need to first understand that there are 3 broad methods you can transfer data from one iPhone to another.

1. Quick start method: The transfer method that popups during the automatic setup of any new iphone with ios 11+
2. iCloud Transfer method: The method where you backup all the old iphone’s data to icloud and then download them to the new iphone.
3. iTunes Transfer method: The method where you transfer data to the new iphone using the backup made on iTunes from your old phone.

How Long does it take to Transfer Data from one iPhone to Another via Quick Start Method?

Out of all the three methods, the Quick start method seems to be the one that takes the longest time to complete the transfer of data.

See what people across forums are saying..

There are a few people who claim that their transfer was completed in a few minutes.

“My original phone has 64 GB, the new one 128GB. Regardless, the over-the-air activation, setup, and data transfer process took approximately 30-45 minutes overall” -minicreo.com

And there are many people who claim that their transfer took them more than 3 hours..

“I’m trying to transfer my data on old iPhone 6s to new iPhone 11 Pro. Used instructions on new phone….WiFi. Called Apple after an hour yesterday of “still transferring”. He said don’t worry, sometimes it take 6 hours. Well, it’s the next day now and it’s almost been 17 hours.” – Apple forums

“I have a ton of music. I’m over 4 hours with the Activating message. I see the phone is getting a cellular signal, but no indication it is doing anything.” Apple forums

As you can also see, one person in the forums claimed that an Apple representative told him that it sometimes takes 6 hours for the transfer to get completed.

So, besides all the other factors, the average time to transfer data from an old iPhone to another is 10-30 minutes, if the amount of data is small. On the other hand, it is 3-6 hours if the amount of transfer data is huge.

How Long does it take to Transfer Data from one iPhone to another via iCloud Transfer Method?

The amount of time necessary to transfer data via iCloud transfer method mostly depends upon your Wifi speed and amount of data.

The total time required for the transfer = Time for uploading the data onto iCloud + later downloading the data from iCloud to the new device.

On average, it takes around 30 minutes (with hi-speed wifi) to 2 hours (with mobile data) to entirely backup your data onto iCloud. Thereafter you may need further 30 minutes to download the backup from iCloud onto the new device.

How Long does it take to Transfer data from one iPhone to another via iTunes Transfer Method?

As per Apple’s official statement, backing up an iPhone to iTunes can take around 15-20 minutes mostly dependent on the model of iPhone you are backing up. At times it can even take 45 minutes for a complete backup to happen if the backup data is huge.

Now once the backup is stored to iTunes, you now need to restore this backup file onto the new iPhone. This can again take 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on the amount of data that needs to be restored.

Why does Transferring data to new iPhone take so Long? Factors that Affect the Transfer Time:

As you can see, the transfer time can take from a few minutes to sometimes even hours. Several factors affect the duration time for data transfer to your new mobile. Some of the common factors include

1. Internet Speed: Whatever transfer method you are using, the speed of your internet strongly affects the total time required for the data transfer.
2. Model of your iPhone: This is especially a strong affecting factor, if you are using iTunes to transfer data to your new phone. Obviously, newer iPhone models support faster data transfer compared to older models.
3. The Amount of data: As you can guess, the amount of data that needs to be transferred strongly affects the transfer time required for data transfer. So if you have huge Gigabytes of data, expect a longer time for the data to be transferred to your new iphone.
4. The specifications of your PC (iTunes method): The disk space, writing speed, USB speed etc all other pc specifications determine the speed of transfer of data.

Conclusion:

My suggestion would be to start out with the quick start method, which is the easiest way to transfer data from one iPhone to another. However, if you feel like it is taking too much time, you can then try one of the other two methods (by using iCloud or iTunes) to transfer data to your new iPhone more quickly.