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New iPhone 14

I have bought a new iphone14 running ios16. My backup phone has been upgraded to ios17. Can I back up/transfer as normal without loading iOS 17 on to the new phone?

iMac (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Sep 25, 2023 1:32 AM

Top-ranking reply

FoxFifth

Level 10

473,157 points

Posted on Sep 25, 2023 8:35 AM

You can't use a backup made with a newer iOS version to restore to a device with an older version. You will need to upgrade the new iPhone 14 to iOS 17 and then use the backup.

After you have updated the new iPhone 14 to iOS 17 you will then need to erase it in order to set it up using the data from the old phone. See the following from Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

Turn on your device. You should see a Hello Screen. If you already set up your device, you need to erase all of its content before you can use these steps to restore from your backup.
Follow the onscreen setup steps until you reach the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen, then tap Restore from iCloud Backup.

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New iPhone 14

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