Unexpected upgrade to iPhone 5s

We didn’t plan on upgrading my white iPhone 4S 64 GB because it wasn’t a priority. Then, Amy dropped her phone and most of the front screen was cracked. Wah wah.

I’ve been out of contract for awhile, so I was eligible for an upgrade.

I chose the silver iPhone 5s 64 GB, we finally merged our Verizon Wireless accounts, and switched to a less expensive plan — at the cost of my grandfathered unlimited data add–on.

Reviewing my billing statements from 2012-07-08 through 2013-12-27, I barely reach 1 GB of monthly usage.

• Average: 428.9 MB
• Max: 974.4 MB
• Min: 206.635 MB

I installed DataMan Pro for real–time monitoring and alerts, and I’ll make sure I keep it under 1 GB per month.

For reference, here’s how we switched things over.

Note: I forgot my restore password and didn’t save it into my password manager, so I couldn’t just restore the data onto my new phone.

Old iPhone 4S

1. Transfer all media in Photos onto my laptop. (I use Lightroom for my photos.)
2. Ensure I have backup codes for all online services with two–factor authentication.
3. Follow these steps from Apple: What to do before selling or giving away your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

New iPhone 5s

1. Setup new phone — including Touch ID — and log into my Apple account for the various services.
2. Reinstall apps, starting with the ones required for two–factor authentication. Sign into the App Store, then go to Updates > Purchased.
3. Setup apps used for two–factor authentication.
4. Setup other apps. Test.
5. Reconfigure (read: silence) apps from Notification Center in Settings.
6. In Settings > Control Center, turn off “Access on Lock Screen”. (Ignore if you’re cool with someone disabling your alarms.)
7. Other configuration tweaks.