"Looking for Nearby Devices"

Hello all, I'm going through an hours-long process of trying to move my apps and information from my old iPhone to my new iPhone.  Multiple issues but the current one is a spinning wheel on the new iPhone which reads "Looking for Nearby Devices".  The old iPhone also has the spinning wheel and reads "Finish on New iPhone (keep this iPhone near...while info is transferred)".  Does this mean the the 2 phones are actually transferring my information or does it mean they cannot connect to each other ?  Much thanks.

Edited by helpout, 08 May 2025 - 02:12 PM.

Looks like the connection has failed or stalled. What you can do is:
Firstly restart the phone and Make sure both phones are connected to Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth is turned on, and are unlocked and very close together (within a few inches). 

If you still can do so, then use a Lightning-to-Lightning or Lightning-to-USB-C cable and adapter, since wired transfer is faster and more reliable.

Thanks for the great suggestions, especially the wired/cable idea.  And yes, the persistent "Looking for New Devices" message meant the connection was repeatedly failing.  Took all afternoon to complete.  Once the connection was made the transfer happened reasonably fast.  The IOS update (could not find a way to skip this step) happened in slow motion.

Edited by helpout, 16 May 2025 - 07:48 AM.