Losing all the stuff on your phone was no big deal before the smartphone age. These days, it's practically a Netflix horror movie plot. Wondering how to switch iPhones or iPads successfully, without losing anything in the process? If you're looking to upgrade (these are the best iPhones to buy right now), it is possible to do so painlessly. Your photos, contacts, videos, message history, music, calendars, mail accounts, and many of your apps can all be transferred from your previous device to the new one. We've outlined the steps below.

Updated February 2025: We updated the instructions for the latest iPhones and added some new images.

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Back Up Your Old iPhone or iPad

Before you switch iPhones, you need to back up your old device, which you can do via iCloud or your computer. We've broken down these steps below.

Using iCloud

Make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi. Then go into your iPhone or iPad’s settings and scroll down to select iCloud, choose iCloud Backup, toggle it on, click on Back Up Now, and let your device back up while it’s still on Wi-Fi. It might be worth setting your new device to automatically back up daily, but be aware that Apple only lets you store 5 GB for free. Even if you are out of iCloud storage, ever since iOS 15 Apple has allowed you to back up your da...