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!