Transfer app data to a new iPhone: what moves and how

TwinHop team · Updated October 7, 2026

App data moves to a new iPhone only inside a backup of the whole phone, and only into apps that are already installed when the backup is restored. So install the apps first, then restore the backup. Every app is really two things: the app itself, which can be downloaded again at any time, and its data: your progress, settings, history and files. The data follows its own rules.

Where app data lives

Each app keeps its data in its own container on the iPhone. iOS doesn’t let a computer or another app copy that container file by file. There is one official way in and out: a backup of the whole iPhone. When a backup is restored to a phone, iOS puts each app’s data back into its container.

This explains two things you will notice in any transfer:

• App data moves only through a restore. Whatever tool you use, the data travels from a backup to the phone in one restore. That is why the phone restarts afterwards.
• The app has to be there for its data. iOS writes data only into a container that exists. A transfer that respects this installs the apps first (or lets the phone download them) and then restores the data.

Not every app keeps much on the phone. Email, streaming services and many chat apps store your history on their own servers: on the new phone you sign in and everything is back. The data worth moving carefully is the kind that exists only on the phone: game progress without an account, offline notes, settings, downloaded files, documents saved inside apps.

What doesn’t move

An ordinary backup, the unencrypted kind, leaves out a few things on purpose. This is Apple’s rule, and no tool gets around it:

• Passwords from the Keychain, and with them many app sign-ins. You will sign in again in some apps, so make sure you know those passwords before you erase the old phone.
• Codes in authenticator apps. They often live in the Keychain too. Use the app’s own export or transfer feature while the old phone still works.
• Call history and Health data. Apple puts them only into encrypted backups (see Apple’s About encrypted backups).
• Music and books bought from Apple or synced from a computer. Download them again on the new phone.
• TestFlight, enterprise and developer builds. Only apps from the App Store can be installed again.

Choose the way that fits your situation

The new iPhone isn’t set up yet. You can move the whole phone: the new iPhone becomes a copy of the old one, with every app and its data. Over a cable, from a backup on your computer, this doesn’t depend on iCloud storage or on your internet speed.

The new iPhone is already in use. You don’t have to start over. You can add only the apps you need, with their data. This still uses a restore. After any restore, iOS may remove photos and messages that aren’t in iCloud, so TwinHop backs up that phone first. This is described in Transfer apps to a new iPhone after setup, with their data.

The old phone is gone. Without the old phone or a backup of it, app data can’t be recovered: there is nowhere to take it from. The apps themselves can still come back from your purchases, see Reinstall apps from your purchases.

How a full move works in TwinHop

1. Back up the old iPhone. Connect it with a cable, unlock it and tap “Trust”. TwinHop saves a full backup to your computer. iOS backs up only the whole phone, so you need about as much free space as the phone uses. Backing up needs no key.
2. Prepare the new iPhone. Turn off Find My on it: iOS won’t restore data while it is on. If Stolen Device Protection is on, turn that off first (Settings → Face ID & Passcode), then Find My (Settings → [your name] → Find My → Find My iPhone).
3. Apps first, then data. If you sign in to your Apple Account in TwinHop, it installs your apps over the cable from your purchases and then restores the backup in one go. Without signing in the move still works: afterwards the phone downloads the apps from the App Store itself (on iOS 26 they appear with a cloud icon and download when you tap them), and the data from the backup stays in place.
4. Let the phone restart. It restarts once and opens Setup Assistant. If it offers to transfer apps and data, choose “Don’t Transfer Anything”. Don’t choose “Set Up as New iPhone” and don’t restore from iCloud: either one erases what was just moved.
5. Sign in to the apps that ask. Their data is in place; only the saved sign-in from the Keychain didn’t come along.

The first backup usually takes 10 to 40 minutes, the restore 40 to 90 minutes. Most of that time goes to photos and videos. In our measured move, 374 of the 375 apps that had data in the backup got it back: how we measured.

Before you erase the old iPhone

• Open the apps that matter most on the new phone and check that your data is there.
• Keep the backup on your computer. If something is missing later, you can restore it again with “Restore from a backup”.
• Don’t restore a second time “just in case”: every restore erases the phone again, including photos taken since.