New iPhone announcement this week - and a warning if you are thinking of switching to a new device

This coming week will see announcement from Apple of the latest (and I'm sure greatest) iPhone range, as well as the launch of the new iOS 13, macOS Catalina and other news.

In the lead-up to these announcements on September 10th (or early morning September 11th Australian time), it would be an excellent time to bring all those Apple devices up to date - so that you have the most recent iOS 12 and macOS version.  This then allows you 'hold fire' for a little while on installing the latest operating systems.

We always suggest that it is a good idea to wait for a while so that others can find any teething problems. 

Here's an article that looks at the rumoured content of the upcoming announcement.

​If you are thinking of moving to one of the new iPhones that are announced - or even to a earlier model that (we hope) will be available for a reduced price - there are a few things that you must do in preparation.

Read on for some suggestions.

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Preparing to move to a new i-Device

Having recently experienced a lot of pain in moving from my original iPhone X to a replacement iPhone X (after the failure of the battery), here is a list of things to do and prepare before you move to another device.

Do an iCloud or iTunes backup of your device.

I choose iCloud for my device backups, as I don't have sufficient space on any of my Macs to back up a 265GB iPhone.  Here's a previous article about how to do a backup of your iPad or iPhone.

If you are able to do an iTunes backup of your i-Device, make sure it is an 'encrypted' backup - as this will mean that you will have less issues with passwords after the restore of this backup to the new device.

(If you are not sure about how to do an iTunes encrypted backup, you can make a time with iTandCoffee to get assistance with this.)

Make sure you know your passwords.

When you set your new device from a backup, you may find that you are asked to sign back in to all sorts of accounts - iCloud, GMAIL, other email accounts, etc. So make sure that you know all the password for the various accounts and apps that your device uses.

Authenticator apps

This is the one that really tripped me up when I had to unexpectedly switch to a new device and restore from my iCloud backup.

If you have two-factor authentication on any accounts that use an authenticator app, make sure that you have an alternative way of getting the second form of authentication. Or make sure you still have your old device and the authenticator apps available during the transition period.

I say this because the authenticator apps that are restored from the iCloud backup to the new device be missing all the accounts that you had set up on the old device. These connections will need to be established afresh for the new device, by signing in to the relevant account and (usually) turning off the previous authenticator and linking the new device's version.

Where I got tripped up with one of my online accounts (Mailchimp) was that it would not let me login to change the security setup because I needed the authenticator app on my old device - which I no longer had. Other online accounts were not quite as troublesome, as I had SMS or email as alternative authentication methods so could still get in to change the authentication setup.

Your best bet is to identify all the accounts that use Authenticator apps for security and turn off this form of authentication for the account BEFORE you set up your new iPhone/iPad. Then, when the backup to the new device is completed, you can then re-establish the authentication using these apps.
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I know that all sounds rather complex, but hope it makes sense to those who use these Authentication apps.  If not, you can arrange a time to discuss and sort out with iTandCoffee.

Plus, Online and Premium iTandCoffee Club members can use their 'free support' allocation to get assistance with this. Or why not come along to an iTandCoffee User Group to find out how to make the necessary changes.

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Find out more about this at an upcoming User Group

At iTandCoffee, we host regular User Groups on a number of topics, where you can come and get answers to your questions and learn all sorts of great tips and tricks. These 1-hour sessions are small, social, fun - and no question is too simple. 

Below are the upcoming User Group sessions at iTandCoffee. iTandCoffee Club members can attend these sessions for free using their free session allowance (3 for Basic and unlimited for Plus and Premium). (Not yet a member of the iTandCoffee Club? Find out about the benefits of membership of The iTandCoffee Club here).

Non-members are also welcome to attend one of these sessions each year for only $20. Subsequent sessions cost $40. Places at each session are limited, so bookings are essential. Book online below, or email bookings@itandcoffee.com.au.

And if you can't get to us in Camberwell, Victoria, you can still be involved by watching the videos of our user group sessions (and any other advertised 'Club' session). Simply join the iTandCoffee Club - take out Plus, Online or Premium membership to get access to all user group videos (and more!). You can even send your question/s to us before the session and we will include it in our list to address at the session.