Transfer apps to a new iPhone after setup, with their data

TwinHop team · Updated October 10, 2026

Yes, you can add apps with their data to an iPhone that is already set up, without starting over. TwinHop backs up the old phone, you pick the apps, and they go to the new phone with their data in one restore. A restore can affect photos and messages that aren’t in iCloud, so TwinHop backs up the new phone first.

How it works

TwinHop has a mode for this: “Add apps with their data to the new iPhone”. It runs in three steps, shown at the top of the window: backup, library, transfer.

1. Backup. TwinHop backs up the old iPhone. iOS makes backups only of the whole phone, so this step needs free space on the computer of about as much as the old phone uses, and some time depending on how many photos there are. If a backup of that phone is already on the computer, you can use it and don’t need the old phone at all.
2. Library. You tick the apps you need: a bank, a game with your progress, a messenger. TwinHop takes them and their data from the backup and puts them in its library, ready to go to the new iPhone.
3. Transfer. You connect the new iPhone. Unless there is a full backup of it from the last 24 hours, TwinHop backs it up first, so it needs free space on the computer too. Then the apps are installed with their data from the library. On the right you can choose what else to take from the backup, or nothing at all.

This is still a restore: iOS has no other way to write app data. Read the section about photos below before you start.

Get the new iPhone ready

• Sign in to the same Apple Account on the new phone that the apps were downloaded with, and sign in to it in TwinHop too. TwinHop installs the apps from your purchases.
• Turn off Stolen Device Protection, then Find My on the new iPhone (Settings → Face ID & Passcode, then Settings → [your name] → Find My). iOS won’t write app data while Find My is on. Turn both back on afterwards. Apple explains the first one in About Stolen Device Protection.
• Optionally, install the apps yourself first from the App Store on the new phone. TwinHop handles installation too, but an app that is already there is one less thing that can go wrong.

The one restart

At the end the new iPhone restarts once and opens Setup Assistant. This is expected: iOS writes app data only through a restore, and a restore always ends with a restart. It can’t be skipped.

If Setup Assistant 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: that would erase what was just moved. Then open the apps you moved, and check your photos and messages.

Photos and messages: read this first

Adding apps to a phone that’s already set up 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 happens even if you don’t tick “Photos and videos”.

• Before you start, make sure the photos you care about are in iCloud Photos or copied to your computer. Photos in iCloud come back on their own.
• TwinHop backs up the new phone first. It keeps that backup on your computer. If something is missing after the transfer, write to support before you make a new backup of that phone: a new backup replaces this one.
• “Photos and videos” ticked: the camera roll of the new phone is replaced by the one from the backup of the old phone. TwinHop warns you about this before you start.

Apple describes what a restore does in Restore your iPhone from a backup.

What doesn’t come along

• App sign-ins. Passwords live in the Keychain, which stays with the old phone. Most apps will ask you to sign in once; the data inside is in place.
• TestFlight, enterprise and developer builds. They aren’t in the App Store and can’t be installed by TwinHop.
• Apps from someone else’s Apple Account. Apple gives an app only to the account that obtained it. Sign in with that account, or install the app from the App Store with yours.

When you only need the apps, not the data

If you don’t need what is inside the apps, there is a quicker way: “Reinstall apps from purchases”. It needs no backup, no free space for one and no restart, but you sign in to each app again. See Reinstall apps from your purchases.