How to set up new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus - iPhoneHeat

How to set up new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus

Bought a new iPhone 6s or the iPhone 6s Plus? Here is how to set up your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus for the first time. You have to set up your new iPhone 6s before you start using it, regardless you bought it from Apple Store, any other retail store, or received it at your doorstep after pre-ordering it online. In this tutorial, we are going to show you exactly how to setup iPhone 6s or 6s Plus in a detailed step-by-step manner.

Set up as New or Restore from Backup?

When you set up your new iPhone for the first time, you are presented with three option during the setup process:

Start from scratch

Those who are new to iPhone, are the main beneficiaries of the set up as new iPhone option as they do not have any previous iOS backup to restore from, but a clean start is also helpful in many other cases.

The core benefit of starting from scratch is that you get a clean install of iOS on your shiny new device on which you want to install all the apps manually and adjust settings from the scratch as per your liking. One can also start from scratch if their device has gotten slow due to the excess of data.

Starting from scratch also comes in handy when you just cannot wait to try your new device despite having a backup of your previous device in your iTunes or on iCloud. If you really want to test out your new device as soon as possible, you can start from scratch. You can add your iCloud ID to get access to your contacts, messages, and the passwords. This skips the long wait of your device being restored from your iTunes or an iCloud backup. Once you are done playing with your device, you can factory reset it anytime by going into Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings, and then set it up again using the restore from backup option to get all your backed up data on your new iPhone 6s or the 6s Plus.

While even after starting from scratch you can get your vital information back on your new device by adding your iCloud ID, there are some exceptions:

  • Your Apple Watch data is kept in the iPhone backup.
  • Your Health data gets backed up only if you encrypt your iTunes or iCloud backup.

Restore from iCloud or iTunes Backup

If you have a backup of your data on iCloud or in your computer using iTunes and you want your new device to start where you left with the older one, restoring from backup options are for you.

You must have a previous backup of your device either using iTunes or on iCloud. If you still have your old device and have not taken a backup lately, check out our guides on how to do that:

set up iphone 6s

How to Setup iPhone 6s or 6s Plus

When you turn on your shiny new iPhone 6s for the first time or after erasing all it data and settings, you’ll be greeted with a screen saying “Hello” in different languages. Slide your finger across the bottom where it reads slide to set up. Then Choose your language and country or region.

iphone 6s setup

Now you need to connect your device to a WiFi network. Choose the Wi-Fi network, enter its security password (if required). If you do not have access to a Wi-Fi network, you can choose to use Cellular network instead.

Now the setup process will attempt to activate your iPhone. If the activation process throws an error, make sure you have inserted a valid SIM card.

iphone 6s setup

After successful activation, it’stime to decide whether to enable Location services or not. Make sure to read the description of Location services before making your choice. Also, keep in mind that the apps like Maps require location services enabled for its proper functioning.

Now it is time to set up your Touch ID fingerprint and a passcode for your iPhone 6s. You can skip this step and do it later.

iphone 6s setup

Now it is time to choose between the following three methods to set up your iPhone 6s:

iphone 6s setup

Set up as new iPhone

If you choose to set up your new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus as a new iPhone, it’s time to log in using your iCloud Apple ID credentials. If you do not have one, you can create it for free (How to create an iCloud ID). The screen also provides you with a link to use different Apple IDs fro iCloud and iTunes.

Agree to Apple’s Terms & Condition and then again tap on Agree to confirm. Then you will be asked to set up Apple Pay – Apple’s Touch ID based payment system, followed by the iCloud Keychain option –  which stores your passwords and keep them synced across all Apple devices.

iphone 6s setup

After that, you’ll be asked set up Siri, Apple’s digital voice assistant. The process will ask you if you want to activate Hey Siri feature, which activates Siri with the aforementioned catchphrase. If you choose to enable Hey Siri, it will walk your through the steps to calibrate Siri with your voice.

Finally, choose whether you want to automatically sending anonymous diagnostics to Apple server or not. Tap on Don’t Send if you do not want to. You can choose whether to turn on Display Zoom that makes the app icons bigger and the text larger.

iphone 6s setup

That’s it, you are done with the initial setup of your device. However, we advise you to go through Settings app and set things up according to your preference.

If you run into any problem while setting up your iPhone 6s as a new iPhone, let us know in the comments section below. We can try and troubleshoot the issue.

Restore from an iCloud backup

If you use Apple’s cloud-based iCloud service to backup your old device and want that data transferred to your iPhone 6s or the iPhone 6s Plus, this option is for you. Just make sure that you have the latest backup of you old iPhone on your iCloud account, to do that manually trigger a backup on the old device before transferring it to the new one. This ensures that your new device get everything as up-to-date as possible.

How to backup iPhone using iCloud

  1. First, follow the initial set up instruction to get to this screen. Choose Restore from iCloud backup and provide your iCloud account (Apple ID) credentials to log into your iCloud account. Tap Next.
    iphone 6s setup
  2. Agree to Apple’s Terms & Condition and then again tap on Agree to confirm.
  3. Choose your most recent backup from the provided list.
  4. Input your iCloud password if asked.

This should begin the iCoud backup restore process on your iPhone 6s. Depending on the size of backup and your internet speed, this may take a while to get all the data transferred from your iCloud account to the new iPhone 6s. During the process, your iPhone may become warm due to continuous use of network radios and the indexing for the Spotlight search. Make sure your device stays connected to the internet.

If you run into any problem while restoring your iPhone 6s from iCloud backup, let us know in the comments section below. We can try and troubleshoot the issue.

Restore from iTunes backup

If you have used iTunes to backup your old iPhone on your computer, you can easily transfer that backup to your new iPhone 6s by connecting it to your computer using the USB cable. If you have not taken a backup of your old iPhone for a while, it’s recommended to do it now to ensure that everything is as up-to-date as possible.

How to backup iPhone using iTunes

  1. First, follow the initial set up instruction to get to this screen. Select Restore from iTunes backup option and then connect your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s Plus to your computer and fire up iTunes on your Windows PC or Mac.
  2. Choose Restore from this backup and select your most recent backup from the drop-down list.
  3. Enter your backup password if it was encrypted. Backup encryption is required if you want the Health app data transferred.
    iphone 6s setup

This should begin restoring your iTunes backup onto your new iPhone. The backup restore process may take a while to get all the data transferred to iPhone 6s depending on the size of your backup. During the process, your iPhone may become warm due to continuous use of network radios and the indexing for the Spotlight search. Do not unplug your device from your computer until the iTunes backup restore process has been successfully completed.

If you run into any problem while restoring your iPhone 6s from and iTunes backup, let us know in the comments section below. We can try and troubleshoot the issue.

2 comments… add one
Sandeep October 28, 2015, 7:29 am

I did restore from iCloud but it has not restored whatsapp and photos
How to restore them?

iPhoneHeat October 28, 2015, 8:53 am

To restore Whatsapp messages, you must have them backed up on iCloud. Make sure you had turned ON the iCloud backup option from within the whatsapp.
read more: http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/iphone/20888066#backup

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