Set Up the New iPhone Light

A new iPhone is empty exactly once, on the morning it comes out of the box. The usual next step is to spend the afternoon undoing that, restoring everything from a device that had been filling up for four years.

Cleanor makes the restore worth something. Reviewing the old library first means what lands on the new phone is a camera roll that was chosen, not one that was simply inherited.

The quiet days between Christmas and New Year are when the gift phone gets set up. Nobody is in a rush, which is unusual and useful, because the default path is quick and thoughtless: restore from backup, wait, and watch a brand-new device fill with years of duplicates, blurred attempts, and videos that have not been opened since the day they were recorded.

Doing better does not take long. A review of the old library before the restore, looking at duplicates, near-identical shots, and the heaviest videos, means the transfer carries photographs rather than sediment. Nothing goes without being seen first, which is the only sensible way to do this when the photos being sorted are of your own family. It is an afternoon at most, and it only happens once.

There is a small window worth mentioning. Christmas photos and videos start landing on the new phone within hours of it being unwrapped, and they land more comfortably on a device that is not already carrying the last four years. The phone was very likely a gift, and none of this is a reproach about how the old one filled up. It is just a good morning to start it well.