I usually look forward to visiting an Apple Store, but a recent experience turned into serious frustration - all because of an apparent flaw in the way users set up a new iPhone.

My lovely wife decided she needed to replace her iPhone 12 Pro Max; its battery wasn't holding a charge like it used to. It's also possible there was a little hardware envy at play regarding my 16 Pro Max. So off we went to the Highland Village store on a Saturday, where she picked out an iPhone 16 Pro Max in Desert Titanium, same as mine.

After the purchase was complete and her trade-in accepted, she began the in-store process of restoring from an iCloud backup. A staff member urged her not to wipe the old phone in case there was something on it that didn't come over on the backup. We were resigned to spending a little time in the store.

Turns out "little" was the wrong adjective.

Before I continue, let me outline a couple of the options that iPhone users have for moving their data, apps and settings from an old to a new handset.

When both the old and new devices are in hand, iPhone users have a choice. They can begin by having the two phones talk to each other, which transfers the most basic information, such as login and WiFi credentials. Then they can have the phones transfer the remaining data wirelessly from the old to new handset, or if the owner has backed up to iCloud -- Apple's online storage service -- the new phone can download the old phone's data from there.

There are other options, but Apple says downloading from an iCloud backup is the fastest, and although I prefer working from a Mac-based backup, I'll concede that Apple is correct.

But not this time.

My wife chose to do an iCloud restore. It began and the representative went off to help others. After about 30 minutes, the process appeared to be almost complete. Then a call came in on her phone and she answered it. When she finished, the restore process started over.

That attempt appeared to be about half complete when another call came in. She declined it, but the process again restarted from scratch.

A store lead, who said this happens "a lot," told us we could take the new phone home to complete the restore process. We have gigabit internet and a matching WiFi connection at home, so we hoped the restore process would be faster there.

Sure enough, at home the process was noticeably zippier - and no calls came in to interrupt it. But the whole thing left us disappointed - if it indeed is a common occurrence, why hasn't Apple fixed this flaw? It's not a great experience when you're trying to buy and set up the company's flagship product in one of their own stores.

Fortunately, there is something you can do to prevent incoming calls from scuttling the transfer: Delay transferring your phone number to the new phone.

In the setup process, you have the option to skip moving the eSIM, which contains your phone number and carrier information, to the new phone, depending on your carrier. If you choose to set it up later, you can do it at any time by going to Settings > Cellular, tap Set Up Cellular or Add eSIM, then tap Transfer From Nearby iPhone or choose a phone number. Restoration does not require that cell service is present so long as you're on WiFi and Bluetooth is on.

This column began as a post on Facebook, and a few days later I got a comment from Tammi Wallace, 53, who said it had happened to her while she attempted to use the iCloud process at home with a new iPhone. As with my wife's phone, an incoming call caused the iCloud restore to restart halfway through. She didn't answer the call, but still the process restarted from scratch -- and took even longer the second time.

"It was frustrating," Wallace said. "It really made me nervous because I was afraid I'd end up in an hourlong conversation on the phone with Apple."

She said she always uses the iCloud restore option with new iPhones, and that this has not happened in the past.

"I've never seen this before in past years," Wallace said, "and I think I would have. Because of what I do, I get a lot of phone calls."

As far as I'm concerned, this is a flaw in iOS. Online searches show Apple's support community and other online forums don't yet have reports of this, so it's either rare or a new phenomenon. But it should be one that can be fixed with an iOS update. Hopefully, that's coming soon, because this is not a very Apple-like experience.