Old iPhone won't charge during "quick" transfer to new phone!

I’m using phone-phone transfer as part of the process of upgrading to a new iPhone, but the old phone refuses to charge. It appears to be in some mode where it won’t take a charge, and now it’s a race against time! Setting aside the question of how that is even possible (is there a software mode that prevents charging; why would it go on, even as a bug, during such a critical process) what are my options to ensure that the process completes? What can I do to keep my old phone alive until the process is done?

Solution 1:

I faced this identical problem a few years ago. The only way I was able to upgrade was to restore from an iTunes backup.

Remember to set the backup to be encrypted so various sensitive items like account setups and passwords are transferred over, or you will have to recreate a host of logins.

You can also use iCloud backup, too, if you have no local Mac or PC to perform the backup. I have not tried this myself, but several of my clients have done so with 100% success.