Is it faster to transfer data from a mobile phone to a rice cooker liner? Apple customer service responds.

On the 28th, artist William Chan complained that "it takes a whole day to transfer data between old and new iPhones". The relevant remarks sparked a heated discussion on social platforms. Many netizens said they could relate deeply, with one saying, "It took me three days to change to an iPhone, and data transfer alone took two and a half days."

Some netizens also mentioned a "folk remedy" to speed up data transfer: putting two phones inside a rice cooker liner can significantly improve the data transfer speed.

Jingwei, a media outlet, found through inquiries that many bloggers on social platforms have posted videos recommending the above method. One blogger said that under normal circumstances, routers, Bluetooth devices, and operator base stations in the environment can interfere with Wi-Fi connections. Putting two phones inside a rice cooker liner is like making a simple "shielding box", which can effectively isolate external signal interference. The arc-shaped liner can also make the Wi-Fi signal reflection more concentrated.

Jingwei consulted Apple's official customer service on the 28th. A customer service representative said, "It's really unnecessary to use a rice cooker liner for data transfer between iPhones."

The above - mentioned customer service representative said that to understand whether the transfer can be accelerated, one must first understand the transfer principles of different phones. For iPhones, the data transfer between two phones uses a virtual network and does not involve Wi - Fi and Bluetooth transmission. "It can be understood as the old iPhone creating a hotspot and connecting to the new one for data transfer. It's a point - to - point transfer without the process of sending a signal to the server and then getting it back. This data migration is not affected by any other interference, so there's no need to limit it to a liner or other enclosed environments."

Regarding the netizens' claim that using the liner did improve the transfer speed, the customer service representative said that for iPhones, the speed increase is most likely a coincidence. Another possibility is that the phones inside the liner are in an "idle" state, with no one operating them or interrupting the transfer process, allowing them to "concentrate" on data transfer.

Many netizens also mentioned that most of the time, the "bulk" of data transfer between old and new phones comes from WeChat. "Some chat records can take up dozens of gigabytes of memory. Although WeChat has its own dedicated method for importing chat records, the transfer can still take several hours." So, does the above - mentioned rice cooker liner method have an accelerating effect on WeChat, which uses Wi - Fi for data transfer?

Tencent's customer service told Jingwei on the 28th that when transferring WeChat data between two phones, there's no need to keep them close together or use a liner or other completely enclosed environment. As long as both phones have sufficient power and are connected to the same stable Wi - Fi network, with the network remaining unobstructed and no network switching or app closing, the message synchronization speed won't be affected. If users want to speed up the transfer, they can try clearing the phone cache, updating the WeChat version, and keeping both devices active, which will make the transfer smoother.

If users want to speed up the data transfer, the above - mentioned Apple customer service representative said that for apps like WeChat and the photo album that take up a lot of memory, users can choose some third - party software that is compatible with both iOS and Android systems for data transfer. "Some third - party software can transfer pictures, chat records, and contacts separately via Bluetooth, which is much faster than using Apple's built - in transfer function."

If users are reluctant to use third - party software and only use Apple's built - in transfer function, the above - mentioned customer service representative suggested conducting the data transfer at night while sleeping. "In this way, the two phones won't be disturbed or interrupted, and the transfer can be stable. You can start using the new phone the next day."

The sources of the in - text and cover images are screenshots from social platforms.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Jingwei” (ID: jwview), written by Li Xiaoxuan, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.