Buying New iPhone 15 Part 2: set up your new iPhone and explore some new features.

Be sure to complete steps in Buying a new iPhone 15 part 1 before starting. Budget two to three hours to get the phone setup. You will need your old phone for some settings. 

Opening the box

First you get the cheery hello screen. Enter your Apple ID. Then you get to run software updates. Good idea to plug in the phone for the updates.

After updates finish,  you choose your country and make some basic appearance settings. Then you have to choose between Quickstart using your old phone as a template or using ibackup from the cloud. If you’re using an authenticator app or other specialty software it’s best to use the iCloud backup. This will take hours depending on much data you have (pictures, videos, text messages, etc.). 

Eventually the phone boots up, you set a passcode, answer some privacy questions (just say no). Say no to ESIM (we will use actual SIM cards in Canada) and the home screen appears. That doesn’t mean the phone is ready. You’ll see various apps updating in the background.

SIM card

You need to transfer the SIM card from your old phone to your new phone. The SIM card is what will transfer your cell service to the new device.

All you need is a paper clip. Take the case of your old iPhone and use a paper clip to gently slide the SIM tray out. Then open the SIM tray on the new phone and insert the SIM card. They only go one way. See picture below for finding the SIM tray.

On newer iPhones, Apple has the tray on the left hand side. Older phones the tray on is right hand side. 

Authenticator App recovery

If you use the Microsoft Authenticator and have restored it using iCloud, you have some more steps. First you need to log into the app with the user name and password for that Microsoft account. You will see some accounts are restored immediately. However Microsoft 365 accounts come up and demand a QR code to setup. Using your old phone to authenticate on those accounts you have to add the new authenticator phone to each Microsoft identity you had stored. Once logged in you can add the new phone/authenticator and get a QR code. 

It’s tricky and you might need a Microsoft 365 admin like myself to help you with this. 

Dynamic Island

Dynamic Island is a new feature that apps can use to display information. Dynamic Island replaces the old notch at the top. 

Besides Audible other apps that can display data here include Apple Pay, timer, Apple Watch unlocking, etc.

Apple Watch

Apple claims it’s simple to switch the Apple Watch over to the new phone. Once you unpair the watch from the old phone you should be able to magically connect it to the phone in seconds.

It doesn’t work well. The phone doesn’t find the watch or refuses to pair with it. I even put the watch on top of the new phone and it still said it couldn’t find the watch. 

I recommend you ignore the cute so easy setup and just use Add Watch in the app.

Contact Poster

With iOS17 Apple added a new feature in contacts called the Contact Poster. 

For a business owner this is a great way to pass over your business details to contacts only or anyone who calls you.

In Contacts, click on My Card at the top and click Edit. 

You can add a real photo, customize colours and fonts, plus details about your business.

iTunes problems

Trust Apple to screw up iTunes music transfer. 

Even though the iCloud backup setup says it’s copying everything over, it does not copy over music you added computer iTunes. It transfers the playlists but not the actual music. 

You will get an error message that says “This song is not currently available in your country or region”. Like that tells you that you need to resync. And why take over the playlists and not the music? 

You have to resync your phone with your computer for the music actually show up.

Buying a new iPhone 15 part 2: make sure you check all your apps before you bundle off the old phone for recycling.