Restore Contacts, Messages conversations after reformat?

[Padcatt]

I recently reformatted by 2nd Gen 12.9” iPad Pro. Is there something I can do to get my iPhone to share or “instruct” the iPad what my Contacts are, and to restore all of my Messages conversations - maybe restore isn’t the right word..to make them appear in the iPad’s Messages app?

Thank you!

 

[twerppoet]

Contacts are easy. Just make sure you’ve set up the iPad with the same account that you use for you contacts on the iPhone, whether that be an Apple iCloud account, Google Account, or other. If you have never synced your contacts with an account, you can do so not on the iPhone. Just make sure that you choose to keep your contacts rather than delete/discard them when adding the account. You will find account setup under the Mail, Contacts, and Calendar options. You can use any of these to add and account, or turn on/off services for that account.

Message history is different. I don’t know of any way to sync old message history. You can add your iPad to Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone in its Message settings to make sure they are in sync for new messages.

 

[Jupiter7]

I recently reformatted by 2nd Gen 12.9” iPad Pro. Is there something I can do to get my iPhone to share or “instruct” the iPad what my Contacts are, and to restore all of my Messages conversations - maybe restore isn’t the right word..to make them appear in the iPad’s Messages app?

Thank you!

You could try turning on the Messages in iCloud setting, which should synch your iMessages across both devices.

 

[twerppoet]

You could try turning on the Messages in iCloud setting, which should synch your iMessages across both devices.

When I first turned on Messages in iCloud, long long ago, I don’t think it populated the history of my iPhone’s messages to the iPad. It just started keeping them synced from that point on. Maybe that has changed. Maybe my memory is incorrect. Both possible.