Duplicate iPhone

[Furbo]

It occurred to me that this may be a good idea, after I forgot to zip my motorbike jacket pocket and nearly lost my phone on a dual carriageway.

Does anyone have an exact clone of their phone / iPhone for the eventuality of loss or damage? Or do most people just rely upon backups and buy a new phone only after the first is no longer available?

[MrBen.911]

As long as you are regularly backing up to iCloud, then you should be able to switch on a replacement iPhone and it pick up all of the same data in a matter of minutes.

Trying to keep a second phone synchronised all the time sounds much more hassle.

[AB]

I have my old phone in a drawer which I never reset so if I turn it on then it's up to date with messages and emails etc.

There's a couple of banking apps that won't let me have them on 2 devices but other than that it's pretty much an exact replica. But as has been said if you have it set to backup each night then it's easy enough enough to switch over. You'd be just as well keeping a spare iphone in a box ready to set up if you're that likely to lose it.

[carguy45]

I don't think there's really a need to have a 'clone' of your phone nowadays. My team in work look after all the IT and mobile management, so across hundreds of staff we regularly have to replace iPhones for newer models, or occasionally replace a lost/damaged phone. Ensuring your phone is syncing to iCloud (and regularly backed up to iCloud) is by far the simplest option these days, and I always recommend it to staff over manual backups to iTunes or any other third party backup software they may have. Just go into your iCloud settings on the phone and make sure that all checkboxes are ticked that need to be ticked - many people assume it covers all your content, but sometimes people haven't toggled on the likes of notes, passwords, etc. If you have to switch to a new phone, as soon as you sign in with your apple ID to iCloud, it should pull all that content down again. You can also access iCloud on the web to browse your content.

Just remember, iCloud backups do not include Whatsapp chats as it's a third party encrypted chat app, so Apple's software can't interrogate it in that way. If you use Whatsapp a lot, you'll need to manually backup your chats regularly in the Whatsapp settings.

[Furbo]

Perhaps I should have added, immediacy is part of my thinking. I don’t want to have to procure a replacement AFTER I’ve parted company with it.

Also I plan to do some motorcycle tours later in the year and a second phone in my pannier would be quicker to access than a phone shop in rural Calabria.

[NDA]

I quite fancy an iPhone Air - maybe as a back up. I would have no idea what my AppleID is without access to my laptop, so a replacement phone from a store wouldn't be a quick up and running thing.

[davek_964]

Furbo said:

Perhaps I should have added, immediacy is part of my thinking. I don t want to have to procure a replacement AFTER I ve parted company with it.

Also I plan to do some motorcycle tours later in the year and a second phone in my pannier would be quicker to access than a phone shop in rural Calabria.

If you're using a physical SIM your duplicate phone isn't going to be much use in rural Calabria if you've lost your main phone.
(I suppose Wifi would work though)

[shirt]

I have done exactly as you described. Phone in open jacket pocket on the bike. Only realised when I reached my destination, opened findmy on laptop and it was pinging from the motorway carriageway and then stopped as it likely run over.

I lost a lot of photos which was annoying and taught me the lesson which is a 2TB iCloud plan and daily automatic updates.

[Furbo]

I use a physical sim. Any reason not to switch to
E?

[shirt]

Furbo said:

Perhaps I should have added, immediacy is part of my thinking. I don t want to have to procure a replacement AFTER I ve parted company with it.

Also I plan to do some motorcycle tours later in the year and a second phone in my pannier would be quicker to access than a phone shop in rural Calabria.

Contingency planning for a problem that shouldn’t exist.

Old phone as a backup solves your problem. Wanting a complete fully redundant ready to go phone with you at all times is a bit extra.

[RGG]

iCloud advice is sound

It's also good to have a second physical phone available syncing

Or just a phone ready to insert new sim and sync to 1st phone backup whilst waiting for the new sim.

Or - best solution - have 1) replacement phone already syncing and 2) an unactivated sim ready to go straight in - belt and braces

[carguy45]

Furbo said:

Perhaps I should have added, immediacy is part of my thinking. I don t want to have to procure a replacement AFTER I ve parted company with it.

It's really a matter of outlay then. There's no technical reason you can't keep a second iPhone in a secure and accessible location that you can quickly access if your first phone is lost/broken/eaten by the dog, but you'll need to maintain updates, icloud sync, etc on it and when your first phone inevitably ages out and you want a replacement, are you going to buy a replacement for the spare too? It's entirely up to yourself but it seems an expensive mitigation for a problem that may never occur. Most towns and cities have numerous suppliers of new iPhones, are you likely to be in rural areas for large periods of time?

[AB]

It's quite easy online (well it is with my EE account) to swap over an e-sim too.

Makes me think having an old small iPhone for holidays might be a cool thing, quick swap and off without having to carry a huge thing around in the pocket of my shorts.

[the-norseman]

I'm an Android user, but with backups its easy to switch phones in minutes.

I have a work supplied iPhone, last year my XR broke suddenly, they gave me a new 3rd gen SE and within about 20 minutes it was set up and restored.

[Furbo]

carguy45 said:

Furbo said:

Perhaps I should have added, immediacy is part of my thinking. I don t want to have to procure a replacement AFTER I ve parted company with it.

It's really a matter of outlay then. There's no technical reason you can't keep a second iPhone in a secure and accessible location that you can quickly access if your first phone is lost/broken/eaten by the dog, but you'll need to maintain updates, icloud sync, etc on it and when your first phone inevitably ages out and you want a replacement, are you going to buy a replacement for the spare too? It's entirely up to yourself but it seems an expensive mitigation for a problem that may never occur. Most towns and cities have numerous suppliers of new iPhones, are you likely to be in rural areas for large periods of time?

Potentially, yes. Foreign ones.