The cloud, iPhones and backing up data

[Minoosh]

First of all, if I am not a complete idiot will I be able to transfer the data from my iPhone 5 to my iPhone 8? A brief check online recommended I start by backing everything from the iPhone to the cloud. Although the articles I found didn't really deal with the iPhone 5, I did find tutorials involving iPhones 6 and 7.

Secondly, do people here trust "the cloud" in general?

Thirdly, I wonder if all this could be done by transferring files to a MacBook, then squirting it back into the phone.

Last time I got a new phone was 5.5 years ago and the folks at Verizon did the transfer for me. They say they don't do that anymore and that I have to go to an Apple store ... which I'd really like to avoid. So I'm just wondering if there are decent tutorials that can walk me through the process.

 

[Darat]

Itunes on your PC - do a full backup of your old phone with iTunes. Then when setting the new one up and you get to how to set the phone up you'll have an option that says something like "From an Itunes backup" - select that, plug it in and if the OS doesn't need updating it will be about 15 minutes. If the OS needs updating iTunes will have to download the latest update (about 2.3 Gb) so it will take a little bit longer.

 

[arthwollipot]

Secondly, do people here trust "the cloud" in general?

Yes. Cloud storage providers' entire business model is providing a secure and available online storage medium for their customers. The ones that are bad at it quickly go out of business. Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud and a few others are owned and operated by large companies with a financial stake in ensuring proper operation. They're as trustworthy as anything on the internet can really be said to be.

 

[Yalius]

You can also transfer the whole shebang over bluetooth if your older one is running iOS 11.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201269

 

[Dr. Keith]

Itunes on your PC - do a full backup of your old phone with iTunes. Then when setting the new one up and you get to how to set the phone up you'll have an option that says something like "From an Itunes backup" - select that, plug it in and if the OS doesn't need updating it will be about 15 minutes. If the OS needs updating iTunes will have to download the latest update (about 2.3 Gb) so it will take a little bit longer.

This is my recommendation, too. Back up to your MacBook and then use that to set up the new phone. Easy peasy. If it isn't your MacBook then it could get complicated and I may opt for one of the other methods.

That way you know it is a full backup. Sometimes Apple is just backing up "critical data". How the hell does Apple know wha tis critical to me an what is not!

(Honestly, they probably know better than I do, but I just do the full backup to my laptop anyway.)