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Getting a new iPhone 11 on Friday? Here's how to ensure a smooth upgrade

Getting a new iPhone 11 this Friday? Here's what you need to do to make the switch as painless as possible, whether you use the iPhone for business or pleasure.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

Getting a new iPhone 11 this Friday? Here's what you need to do to make the switch as painless as possible, whether you use the iPhone for business or pleasure. Since Apple's entire company now partly relies on people upgrading their iPhones regularly, you can be sure that a lot of effort has been put into making upgrading as simple as possible.

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But with a little pre-planning, you can make the transition even simpler.

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Here's what I recommend your pre-Friday game plan should look like:

  • If you've not done so already, upgrade to the latest version of iOS. While not necessary, this should ensure the smoothest transition possible. However, if you like playing with betas, I suggest downgrading before making the switch, or at the very least not upgrading to the iOS 13.1 beta because at present that version doesn't seem to be available for the iPhone 11.
  • Update your apps. Again, not necessary but will make the transition as smooth as possible.
  • Back up, back up, back up! I recommend backing up to both iCloud (even if that means paying for more storage) and making a local iTunes backup. Remember, when it comes to backups, two is one and one is none, and if things go wrong, you'll be pleased you spread your eggs across multiple baskets.
  • Make a note of your Apple ID and password, because you'll need both of these.
  • If you have an Apple Watch, unpair it in advance. Doing this will force a backup of the Apple watch data, so you can restore it after pairing it with the new iPhone.
  • If your existing iPhone runs iOS 11 or later, the easiest way to make the switch is to use the QuickStart feature.
  • If you are moving from Android to the iPhone, Apple has you covered.
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