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I have been using the same cumulative backup over the years whenever I switch to a new phone, and most of my setting carry over. For some settings I do not even remember why they were setup that way. I also accumulated 100s of apps that I do not use. I know deleting what I don't use is one way to clean up things, but I also would like to reset all custom settings. At the end of the day, I would like to do a clean install of iOS to return everything to factory settings, but also retain the following:

  • Call/Facetime History
  • Contacts
  • Calendars
  • Reminders
  • Notes
  • Wallet
  • Messages/SMS
  • WhatsApp Message History

If I restore the phone as a "new phone" through iTunes, is there a way to piecemeal sync the above listed data later on? If I login to iCloud, would it try to sync all my settings in the backup (which I do not want), and also all other apps that are in the backup? Should I uncheck all apps that I do not want to have before I take a backup? Is there a specific order to do things to only sync the data listed above, but not sync any of the settings?

Apple tried to make this backup system as seamless as possible, but finetuning your backup installation is hard to achieve (or I could not understand the process well). Any input is welcome, thank you!

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1 Answer 1

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If you set it up as new, and have all the iCloud stuff enabled on the old phone, THEN

I am pretty sure all of these will come back without a restore:

  • Contacts
  • Calendars
  • Reminders
  • Notes

Not normally the case with

  • Messages/SMS
  • Call/Facetime History

You will want to use something such as iMazing to restore them piecemeal.

As for

  • WhatsApp Message History

It will come back once you reinstall the app and login again, PROVIDED you've enabled Backups.

https://faq.whatsapp.com/iphone/chats/how-to-restore-your-chat-history/?lang=en details this:

How to restore your chat history

Restore your chat history from an iCloud backup

  1. Verify that an iCloud backup exists in WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
  2. If you can see when the last backup was performed, delete and reinstall WhatsApp.
  3. After verifying your phone number, follow the prompts to restore your chat history.

Note:

  • You must be signed in with the Apple ID you use to access iCloud and iCloud Drive must be turned on.
  • There must be enough free space on both your iCloud and iPhone. You need to have at least 2.05 times the space available in your iCloud account and on your phone than the actual size of your backup.
  • The phone number used for backing up and restoring must be the same. You can't restore the chat history from another WhatsApp account.
  • Because backups are tied to individual phone numbers, it is possible to have backups for multiple WhatsApp accounts stored in the same iCloud account

As for

  • Wallet

Even with a comprehensive restore, IIRC, any credit cards in your wallet will need re-authorization.

You could confirm all of this except for the WhatsApp part with a virtual iDevice in the iPhone Simulator in Xcode.

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