Can I set up an iPhone 15 using an iPod touch backup?

suefromvictoria wrote:

I'm not sure if my old iPod touch 12.5.7 can be used to set up a new iPhone 15. I do have a backup of the iPod in the cloud and also one on my computer - MacBook Pro Sequoia 15.5. Is this possible?

You cannot use the ipod to set up an iPhone. However, you might be able to use what you have on your computer.

As far as I'm aware (although I'm not an expert) a backup of any iPod only backups up your information held within apps. It does not backup music or videos. That backup then enables you to copy that information (notes, game scores etc.) to another device, i.e your iPhone, or back to the iPod after a Restore (which deletes everything on the iPod).

Music (as well as videos and Podcasts) on your iPod basically falls into two categories:

1. 1. purchases from the iTunes Store
   2. any other music:
      1. purchases from other online stores (e.g. Amazon or Bandcamp)
      2. copies from CDs, that you copied into your iTunes Library (from the CD)
      3. audio obtained from other sources, such as artist websites

Anything in first category (iTunes Store purchases) can be downloaded directly to your new phone by signing into your Apple account on the phone and downloading from the store to the phone.

Anything in the second category would be downloaded to your computer and then copied over to your phone by using Finder on your Macbook (or iTunes on Macs using OS Mojave {10:14} or earlier, or on a Windows PC). iTunes Store purchases can also be downloaded into an iTunes Library on your computer and then copied to your phone.

Backing up your music is not a feature of Finder/iTunes as such. Effectively, your computer is the backup for your iPod (or phone) so that you can recover it if your device is lost, stolen or damaged. The best advice is to backup whatever is on your computer as well. iTunes (and I'm guessing your Macbook) does not have a facility to recover music from a portable Apple device (iPod/iPhone etc.). Instead, one needs to use a third party app, which often incurs additional cost and involves a considerable amount of work.