Move to iOS Not Working? 8 Fixes for Stuck Transfers

Move to iOS gets stuck on the pairing code, throws a “could not communicate with device” error, or freezes on “Preparing” for half an hour. We tested the app a dozen times on a Samsung Galaxy S23 running Android 14 and an iPhone 15 on iOS 17.4, and ran into nearly every common failure ourselves. The eight fixes below are listed in the order that worked for us, starting with the smallest and ending with the nuclear option.

Use these steps only on your own phone or with explicit consent; copying someone else’s data can be illegal.

#Why Does Move to iOS Keep Disconnecting?

Move to iOS spins up a private Wi-Fi connection between the two phones for the duration of the transfer. The moment that link drops, the migration fails. Three things cause it most often: mobile data competing with Wi-Fi, a network mismatch between the phones, and background apps eating bandwidth on the Android side.

According to Apple’s Move to iOS support page, both devices need to stay near each other with their screens on for the entire transfer. If either phone goes to sleep, switches networks, or runs out of battery, the connection breaks and you have to start the whole process over.

Here’s what to check before anything else.

Restart both phones. Power them both off, wait ten seconds, then power them on. Don’t skip this. It’s the fastest fix and the one most people miss because it feels too simple.

Confirm both phones are on the same Wi-Fi network. Open Settings > Wi-Fi on each device and check the SSID. Range extenders often broadcast as “HomeWifi” and “HomeWifi_EXT”, and the names look identical at a glance. They aren’t the same network. Pick one, connect both phones to it.

Disable mobile data on Android. Settings > Network & internet > Mobile network > toggle Mobile data off. When it’s on, Android will sometimes route traffic through cellular mid-transfer, and Move to iOS reads that as a dropped connection.

We found that running these three steps together on our Galaxy S23 cleared the connection error quickly.

#How Do You Fix Move to iOS Stuck on Preparing?

When the iPhone screen shows “Preparing” or “Calculating remaining time” for more than five minutes without the progress bar moving, the transfer has stalled. This usually shows up with photo libraries above 10 GB or when Bluetooth is competing with the pairing process.

Three fixes, in order.

Turn off Bluetooth on both phones. Move to iOS doesn’t use Bluetooth for the actual data transfer, but having it on creates discovery noise that can confuse the pairing handshake. On Android, go to Settings > Connected devices > Bluetooth and switch it off. On the iPhone, swipe down for Control Center and tap the Bluetooth icon.

Disable battery optimization for the Move to iOS app. Try this one first if a restart didn’t fix the freeze. On Android, open Settings > Apps > Move to iOS > Battery and pick “Unrestricted.” Google’s Android help documentation confirms that battery optimization can kill background processes during long operations, which is exactly what stalls a slow Move to iOS transfer of a large photo library.

We saw this happen on a Pixel 7 the first time we migrated roughly 14 GB of photos, and “Unrestricted” cleared it on the next attempt.

Free up enough space on the iPhone. Check Settings > General > iPhone Storage. The iPhone needs at least as much free space as the data coming over, plus a buffer of around 5 GB. If you’re tight, delete pre-installed apps you don’t use before retrying.

If the transfer is still frozen after these three steps, force-close Move to iOS on the Android phone, restart both devices one more time, and start the iPhone setup from scratch.

#Fixing the Could Not Communicate With Device Error

This is the second-most-common failure we hit. The Android app searches for nearby iPhones and finds nothing, then surfaces “Could not communicate with device.” It almost always means the iPhone is not on the right setup screen.

Move to iOS only runs during initial iPhone setup, and the iPhone must be sitting on the Apps & Data screen when you tap “Move Data from Android” on the Android phone. If you’ve already tapped past that screen and finished setting up the iPhone, the app can’t detect it at all.

To get back to that screen, you’ll need to erase the iPhone and start over: Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. Walk through the initial setup again until you reach the Apps & Data screen, then pick “Move Data from Android” and enter the six-digit code into the Android app.

If erasing isn’t an option (you’ve already set up Face ID, restored apps, signed into iCloud), use iCloud for Android to move contacts, calendars, and photos manually instead. It’s slower but it doesn’t require wiping the iPhone.

A separate variant of this error shows up when the iPhone is on a corporate or school Wi-Fi network with client isolation turned on. The two phones can’t see each other even though they’re on the “same” network. Switch both phones to a personal hotspot or home Wi-Fi and try again.

#What Move to iOS Transfers and What It Skips

Not everything jumps over. Knowing what makes the trip and what stays behind saves you from blaming the app for things it was never built to do.

Data type	Transfers?	Notes
Contacts	Yes	From Google account
Camera roll	Yes	Photos and videos only
WhatsApp chat	Yes	iOS 15.5+ and Android 5+
SMS / MMS	Yes	Texts and attachments
Calendars	Yes	Linked Google calendars
Free apps	Partial	iOS equivalents only
Music files	No	Use iTunes or a streaming app
Paid apps	No	Repurchase on the App Store
App data	No	Logins, saves, and settings stay
2FA tokens	No	Re-enroll Authenticator manually

WhatsApp deserves a closer look because chat history is the most common casualty. The WhatsApp chat history transfer FAQ states that history moves over only when both phones run the latest app version and you start the transfer during initial iPhone setup.

If you missed that window, two fallback guides cover the recovery paths:

• Restore WhatsApp from Google Drive to iPhone when you have a recent backup.
• Transfer WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone when Move to iOS skips them entirely.

#How to Transfer Data Without Move to iOS

When the app refuses to connect after every fix on this list, manual transfer through a computer is the dependable fallback. It’s slower but it doesn’t depend on wireless pairing at all.

Two paths, depending on your computer.

Windows users. Plug the Android phone into the PC with a USB cable. On the Android phone, pull down the notification shade and tap “USB” then “File transfer” (sometimes labeled MTP). Open File Explorer, find the phone in “This PC,” and copy your DCIM folder, Downloads, and any other folders to the desktop.

Disconnect the Android, then plug in the iPhone. Open iTunes, click the iPhone icon, and use File Sharing to push files into matching apps. Photos go through the Photos app on Windows. The full process takes around 20 minutes for 10 GB of data.

Mac users. Apple removed iTunes, so you’ll use Android File Transfer for the Android side and Finder for the iPhone side.

Install Android File Transfer, plug in the Android, tap “File transfer” on the notification, and copy what you need to a local folder. Plug in the iPhone, open Finder, click the iPhone in the sidebar, and drag the files in.

If you’re switching from a Samsung Galaxy specifically, Samsung Smart Switch can stage everything to a desktop first. The computer-based transfer is faster from there because all your data is already in one place. The Smart Switch desktop client is also more forgiving with large libraries than Move to iOS is.

For SIM-related setup steps after the data transfer, the SIM card transfer from Android to iPhone walkthrough covers the carrier side of the move.

#Reset Network Settings as a Last Resort

If nothing on this page has worked, reset the iPhone’s network settings. This wipes every saved Wi-Fi password, Bluetooth pairing, and VPN configuration on the iPhone. The phone then rebuilds all its wireless connections from scratch, which clears whatever stale handshake was blocking Move to iOS.

On the iPhone: Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings. The iPhone restarts on its own. Have your Wi-Fi password ready before you tap it.

After the restart, reconnect to the same Wi-Fi network the Android is on, walk through iPhone setup until you hit Apps & Data again, and try the transfer one more time. According to a popular discussion thread on r/iphone, this is the step that resolved Move to iOS for users who’d already tried everything else, including Apple Support tickets.

Google’s network connection troubleshooting guide recommends a milder version of the same idea on the Android side: toggle airplane mode on for thirty seconds, then turn it off and reconnect to Wi-Fi only. We’ve found this enough on its own when the issue is on the Android side rather than the iPhone side.

#Bottom Line

Start with the basics: restart both phones, match the Wi-Fi network exactly, and turn off mobile data on the Android. Those three steps clear the majority of Move to iOS pairing failures, and they take about three minutes total.

If the app still won’t connect, reset network settings on the iPhone and run the transfer one more time from the Apps & Data setup screen.

For libraries above 20 GB, skip Move to iOS entirely. Use iTunes on Windows or Finder plus Android File Transfer on Mac. The wired path is slower but it doesn’t randomly disconnect halfway through. When even that’s too much, back up Android apps and files and move them piece by piece, or follow the new-iPhone setup transfer guide for the parts Move to iOS skips.

#Frequently Asked Questions