A new iPhone is a joyous thing – a slice of beautiful technical design that feels amazing in the hand and should last for a good number of years as your most crucial possession.
If you’ve got a new iPhone waiting in the box, or you’re just about to pull the trigger on a purchase, though, you might be feeling like you’re not actually sure how to get started with it. Here’s our quick guide to setting up your iPhone.
How to set up an iPhone
Setting up a new iPhone can be quite quick, but it’ll go faster if you have some things ready to use – namely, your old phone and the SIM card you’ll be using.
Once you have everything, follow the steps below!
- Turn on the new iPhone by holding the power button
- Once turned on, swipe up to start your setup, and choose between Quick Start (from an existing iPhone if you have one) or a manual setup if you don’t
- Connect your iPhone to your Wi-Fi network
- Open the SIM card tray on the iPhone’s side using the included tool, then insert your SIM card and close it again (ignore this if you’re on an eSIM contract)
- Set up FaceID and choose a passcode (or skip if you prefer) by following the on-screen steps
- Choose whether to restore data from a backup (there are a few ways to do this)
- Sign in with your Apple ID
- Choose whether to allow automatic updates and whether to setup Siri and Apple Pay
- Choose your ScreenTime parameters and choose display settings
Once you finish those steps, your new iPhone should welcome you to its home screen and be ready to use fully and as you choose.
While there might be quite a few steps above, and plenty of hoops to jump through, from quite an early point in the process you’ll be able to skip past any parts you either don’t care about or don’t really understand the need for.
There’s nothing wrong with doing so – anything you skip past can be set up later if you decide that you are interested after all.
Meanwhile, once you’re set up, there are plenty more things to do. Our list of tips and tricks for iPhone 14 users is well worth a read to get some inspiration, as is our round-up of the best apps you should think about trying out.
