How to replace an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS
Summary
This article explains how to replace an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS using the same carrier, or how to replace an iPhone 3G with an iPhone 3GS. If you follow these steps to back up your previous iPhone first, and then restore the backup to your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, your saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes, and other personal settings will be present on your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS.
Note: Replacing an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G or 3GS requires an original iPhone used with AT&T in the US, O2 in the UK, O2 in Ireland, T-Mobile in Germany, T-Mobile in Austria, or Orange in France.
Products Affected
iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS
To replace an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G, follow these steps:
- Purchase iPhone 3G from Apple or from a carrier. For more info, choose your country then click on where to buy.
Note: In the United States, iPhone 3G includes a SIM, and your original iPhone's SIM is not needed. Your original iPhone account information will be transferred to the SIM included with iPhone 3G when you purchased it. Keep your original iPhone SIM with your original iPhone. - Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes and iPhone OS. Download the latest version of iTunes and remember to install it after you download it.
- Connect your original iPhone to iTunes and sync it. Verify that your original iPhone is backed up. For more information on how to do this, see iPhone: About backups.
- Connect iPhone 3G to iTunes (on the same computer you used to back up your original iPhone).
- iTunes will ask you if you want to restore from a backup or set up iPhone 3G as a new phone. When prompted, select the backup of your original iPhone. If iTunes does not prompt you to select a backup to restore when you connect iPhone 3G, use iTunes to restore iPhone OS on your iPhone 3G and try this step again.
Note: During the process of restoring your old backup to a new iPhone, you may see the iTunes progress bar pause. If this occurs, please allow for additional time for the upgrade to complete. - After iTunes finishes restoring the backup you selected to iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G will restart.
- When iPhone 3G appears again in the iTunes window, select it.
- Click the tabs (Music, Photos, and so on) and verify or change the items you want to sync.
- Click Apply to sync iPhone 3G with iTunes.
- Verify that your saved SMS messages, email accounts, passwords, photos, notes, and other personal settings are present on your iPhone 3G. Note that you will be required to enter your email account and voicemail passwords again. If you do not remember your voicemail password, you can reset it.
Note: If saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes, or other personal settings are not present on your new iPhone 3G, then restore-from-backup may not have been successful. In that case, verify your original iPhone is properly backed up (see step 3), then use iTunes to restore iPhone OS on iPhone 3G and continue following these instructions at step 4.
Additional Information
Learn how to set up your old iPhone so that someone else can use it (set up as a new device).
Learn how to set up your old iPhone like an iPod touch (without a carrier plan).
You can follow the steps above to replace an iPhone 3G with iPhone 3GS. Use your older iPhone 3G as the original iPhone in the steps above and iPhone 3GS as the new phone. The only difference is that, if your iPhone 3GS did not include a SIM when you purchased it, you can move the SIM from iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS.
You can also use the steps above if you are using original iPhone and want to upgrade to iPhone 3G using a different carrier. Before completing the steps, you should:
- Purchase an iPhone 3G from the new carrier which you intend to use.
- Contact your carrier for information on how to port your original iPhone's mobile phone number from your existing carrier to your new account with the new carrier.