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Moving to a New iPhone

How your accounts reach a new iPhone depends on the answer you gave to the sync question on the old one. Check it under Info → Settings → Sync if you're not sure.

If your accounts sync via iCloud Keychain

  1. Set up the new iPhone with the same Apple ID, and make sure iCloud Keychain is on (Settings → your name → iCloud → Passwords & Keychain).
  2. Install Private Authenticator and open it. If your accounts have already arrived, they're simply there. If the app asks the sync question, choose Sync via iCloud Keychain; the accounts follow shortly.
  3. Make your tags list tidy if you like (the tag names on your accounts come across; the list rebuilds itself from them) and set the Settings page the way you had it, because settings don't sync.

Don't delete on the old phone

With syncing on, Delete All Data removes the accounts from every iPhone, including the new one. When you're done with the old phone, erase the whole phone instead (Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase All Content and Settings). That removes the copies on that phone only.

If your accounts are kept on this device only

Accounts kept on one device are deliberately left out of iPhone-to-iPhone transfers and of iCloud and computer backups of the phone. A Private Authenticator backup is the only way across:

  1. On the old iPhone, make a backup and save its recovery key somewhere you can reach from the new phone.
  2. Put the backup images where the new phone can get them: iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, AirDrop, or a computer.
  3. On the new iPhone, install Private Authenticator, answer the sync question, and tap Restore a backup on the welcome screen (or Import → Recovery Backup later). Restoring a Backup takes it from there.
  4. Check a few codes against their websites, then delete or erase the old phone's copy.

Either way

  • Apple Watch: after pairing the Watch with the new iPhone, turn Use Device Sync on again in Settings. The old pairing's copy is erased when the Watch is unpaired.
  • Links: choose PrivAuth again under the new iPhone's Settings → General → AutoFill & Passwords → Verification Codes → Set Up Codes In, if you use add to authenticator links.
  • Settings (the launch lock, Close After, Idle Timeout) start at their defaults on the new phone.

Continue to the Privacy and Security book: How Your Codes Are Protected.