You need to know this before you upgrade to an iPhone 6

Did you pre-order an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? Did you camp out, or wait for hours in long lines to be one of the first to own a new iPhone on launch day? Whether you made a point of getting an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus today, or you plan to approach it more casually and get one in a few weeks, you need to backup your old iPhone the right way to make the transition as smooth as possible.

It’s not the end of the world if you don’t backup your existing iPhone first. You can tediously re-install every app you’ve ever downloaded, and group them into folders again. It may take days, but eventually you’ll get it all set up the way you like.

It’s a lot easier, though, if you backup your existing iPhone first, so you can restore it to your new iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus and be back in business in a few minutes with all of your apps right where you’re used to them being. Not all iOS backups are created equally, though. If you want to also restore all of your settings and passwords, you need to make sure you backup the device the right way in the first place.

Check out iCloud vs. iTunes backups: The crucial differences that affect your data on PCWorld to make sure you choose the right backup to make your iPhone 6 upgrade as painless as possible.