If you’ve had trouble with your iPhone or accidently whipped away all the settings that you spent hours setting up then you must have been grateful for Apple’s iPhone backup feature. You may have noticed that every time you sync your iPhone iTunes creates a backup copy and stores it on your Mac for the “Just in Case Something Bad Happens” situations.
Restore an iPhone Backup
While iTunes automatically backs up your iPhone each time it is synced, restoring the backup is just a few clicks away. To restore your iPhone to a backup version:
- Open iTunes with your iPhone connected to your Mac
- Right Click on your iPhone
- Select Restore From Backup
- Select your backup from the drop down and click restore
From here iTunes will restore your contacts, calendars, text messages, and settings.
Restoring old versions of your Backup
Restoring backups of your iPhone takes just a few clicks, but iTunes often only shows your most recent backup as an option to restore from. If you ever want to restore your Older backups then you’ll need the assistance of Time Machine and Time Capsule
If you’re not already backing up your system, you may want to utilize this incredible thin mini external hard drive. It has enough space to backup significant amounts of data and will work great in backing up your iPhone.
iTunes stores your backup files in a folder at this location: /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/MobileSynce/Backup. In this folder will be an additional folder or two. These folders contain all the data on your iPhone settings.
If you want to restore your iPhone to a backup you created 3 months ago, navigate to the location listed above, select the folder and open Time Machine. Navigate back 3 months and then click restore.
After Time Machine has finished restoring your Backup Folder, follow the steps listed above to Restore your iPhone Backup.
While Time Machine is a great feature in OS X Leopard and above, I’ve personally had two external hard drives fail while being used for backups. Luckily, I had previously backed up online my data to keep things safe. Online Backup works great for restoring data, like your iPhone Backups and allows you to have extra piece of mind while keeping your data safe. Best of all, with companies like Mozy, online backup is cheap. I’ve used it to restore data and its quick, easy, and the software on the PC and Mac runs in the background without getting in the way. Check it out, back up your data, and be ready for the next time you need to restore your iPhone backups, even if Time Machine isn’t.
149 Responses so far.
Chris Byrne
April 9, 2009 at 4:03 amThe ref to Time Machine presumably refers to a Mac. I have a PC with Windows Vista. I lost all my contacts and settings and restoring from the most recent did nothing. There was an old restore point in Sep 08 when I had to reset my iPhone 3G which has recovered some of the contacts but only about a third! Can you suggest where I can find the old backups?
hawaiibound1
February 18, 2011 at 8:37 pmHow do I get my Iphone to restore.Stuck on connect to itunes.
Eddy Fong
May 12, 2009 at 3:33 amI have a PC with vista too.
Lately, I backup my itune in DVD, then I formated and cleaned my computer hard drive and reinstalled the iphone software. afterward I restored my itune and i tried to restored the iphone, but i found that all the contacts are gone…..
so my question is the backup DVD for the itune, is it contain the contacts list for iphone or not?
I need a BIG BIG HELP………since i Lost all my iphone contacts..
Dan
May 12, 2009 at 11:56 amI may be mistaken, but I don't believe that the iPhone backups include contacts. The iPhone on the Mac syncs contacts with Address Book and I believe on Windows it syncs with Outlook contacts.
If you don't have contacts there, I'm not sure there is another place it would include it.
Michael
June 2, 2009 at 4:59 pmThanks so much Dan for sharing your expertise!
Just had my iPhone stolen…and your trick (right click to restore old back-up) worked. Huge save!
THANKS SO MUCH!!!
Dan
June 3, 2009 at 2:35 pmNo problem. Glad it was useful.
Jeff
December 8, 2010 at 12:19 amDamn to those people who steal.. hate that when it happens!
Dave
January 3, 2011 at 3:17 pmIf your iPhone was stolen, did you have the free Apple recovery/ location app on it? This shows it on a Google map next time the thief turns it on.
Another app, called "Undercover" ($5 in the App Store) does a similar thing but offers more features. It's a must on any iPhone/iPad/iTouch and also on your MacBooks and iMacs. A family license for $59 covers all Macs in your household, except handheld devices ($5 each). Cheap insurance, I say.
Vineet Lall
June 5, 2009 at 11:38 pmLost all contacts while sync of i phone – even the backup i restore doesnt get me the numbers back – Where are they ?
Holo
November 25, 2010 at 4:26 amhi im going through the same situation . any idears plz help im so frustrated that i could possible have lost all contacts
Dan
November 25, 2010 at 5:03 amContacts are synced through Address Book or Outlook, they're usually not included in the backup file. You'll need to restore them from those locations or try syncing them with Facebook or Google Contacts.
Julianne
July 13, 2009 at 5:21 pmI have the same issue as Chris and Eddy. I have a PC with Vista and can't seem to find old backups. Currently on my iTunes, only the last 2 syncs/backups show up when I hit restore. Is there a way I can go back a week or two? (More than last 2 syncs, anyway.) If anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!
Chelsey
August 1, 2009 at 7:47 pmI am in looooove with Maciverse! I thought I lost everything… Phew!
Dan
August 1, 2009 at 9:32 pmJulianne – If you don't have an automatic backup feature on Vista then I'm not sure if the data is backed up for a week or two ago.
Chelsey – Congrats on getting everything working again!
Lucy
August 11, 2009 at 9:35 amDan, please help.
I lost my 2g iphone about 2 weeks ago. I bought a new iphone 3g just recently, both jailbrokened. when I sync my phone with the computer I couldn't seem too restore my old files from the 2g. What do i do to get the old files from 2g to sync to my 3g phone??
I have window xp.
Dan
August 11, 2009 at 10:02 amLucy – I don't believe the backup restore works with phones that have been jail-broken.
Data Recovery on Apple Products
August 20, 2009 at 8:07 pm[...] Mac, your iPod and iPhone can often be recovered. We’ve discussed before ways that you can restore old back ups of your iPhone configuration, but there is also software that can help you pull off all of the files, pictures, and movies [...]
Charles
September 17, 2009 at 8:23 pmThanks for the awesome tip. Managed to get back all those lost photos. Phew!
iPhone MMS
September 26, 2009 at 5:06 am[...] you’ve had other problems and are restoring your iPhone Backups, be sure to enable the MMS feature again through iTunes or it will not be enabled on your [...]
iPhone MMS « BeginnerPC : Tips , Tricks & Tutorials
September 26, 2009 at 8:22 am[...] you’ve had other problems and are restoring your iPhone Backups, be sure to enable the MMS feature again through iTunes or it will not be enabled on your [...]
Indra Shrestha
October 28, 2009 at 5:38 pmI have upgrated itune in my iphone and chaged my iphone name too.Now i am not able to get my old contacts and notes pad.please tel me how i will get back old contacts and nates pad.
Ryan
December 1, 2009 at 11:07 pmHi dan. My friend lost her iphone. i checked her address book(mac) but her contacts arent there. she has an iphone back up in her itunes. was wondering if i can "restore from back up" my iphone using her back up and get all her contacts back?
NEED HELP PLEASE. THANKS!
Dan
December 2, 2009 at 6:10 amI don’t think so. I believe that you have to have selected the option to “sync contacts with address book” in the iTunes settings. I don’t believe that address book is part of the backup.
Go ahead and give it a try and see if it works though. Would love to find out.
derek
December 16, 2009 at 1:04 pmMy 3gs was acting up, I went into the att store & they did a "hard start" or "hard reset" after that it just stays on the apple logo. They said I needed to restore in itunes but the last time I backed up was 5 days ago is there any way I can fix it without losing the stuff from the last 5 days
Dan
December 19, 2009 at 1:33 amProbably not. Usually it will only restore to the last backup you have.
bill
December 31, 2009 at 1:07 pmAnyway to install blackra1n onto a usb drive and set it up to auto run upon insertion into a hub connected to the iphone?
Dan
January 1, 2010 at 1:02 pmNot that I know of… I think you're out of luck. Sorry.
Teabag
January 17, 2010 at 2:21 pmHi Guys I’m having a problem with my iphone 3gs 32gb can some one please help? my problem is I wanted to delete some videos from my phone to make more space and when I delete them my gbs don’t seem to go back up instead they stay down the same way they were before and it bothers me to see them that way because every time I add more media they keep going down. I manually sync up my media so I don’t know what the problem is. I also deleted the video straight from the phone then I see on my itunes its there and I deleted it from there but my gbs still stay can someone please help me with my problem? thanks for your time
Dan
January 17, 2010 at 3:24 pmTeabag – Try a hard re-start. Hold down the center button and the top button until you see the Apple logo. Hopefully then the space will be returned and register in iTunes.
john
January 31, 2010 at 3:43 ammy aibroken iphone, which ran out of charge, is showing usb and itunes on its display. when connected to my laptop, it is instructing me to restore and informing me that i will loose all my contacts and media. please tell me what i can do not to loose my contacts
Dan
January 31, 2010 at 8:02 amyou'll most likely loose your contacts. try charging it, and then turning it off and then back on and see if it requires iTunes and a refresh.
Katie
February 8, 2010 at 12:10 pmThanks for the reminder about the restore feature! I got all of my deleted contacts back thanks to you!
Oliver
February 17, 2010 at 7:16 amHello, I recently wanted to upgrade the software of my iPhone (given option when I connected to iTunes), and I can’t restart the device (tells me that my SIM card is not compatible with the operator) for a phone who was working great before. How can I erase the latest software upgrade and have my iPhone back?
knat
February 17, 2010 at 4:28 pmI successfully retored my iPhone with a Time Machine Back up copy but when my iPhone syncs when plugged back into my computer, the contacts are deleted and only a few remain. How can I update my computer with the contacts on my iPhone?
Eroc
February 21, 2010 at 2:52 amI lost my 3G & have an old 2G for which I got a new sim card yesterday. 2G has to be registered on iTunes – so I hooked the 2G up & before I registered the thought hit me that if I do that, is there a chance that my old backup data for the 3G will be erased? Obviously, my goal is to get the data from my 3G backup onto the old 2G – will that be possible after I re-register the 2G with the new sim card through iTunes?
Dan
February 21, 2010 at 3:06 amNot sure, but you can get a copy of your 3G backup and place it in a different location on your hard drive in case it does remove your 3G backup.
Donna
March 1, 2010 at 5:44 pmYou just saved my butt!!! Got a new iphone, and i was stoked to see that my contacts were in… until i accidently erased EVERYTHING!!!
was in despair and then i read your article and it worked!
thanks!!!
David
March 12, 2010 at 8:06 pmHello Dan reading these posts you clearly understand how the iphone works, I don't I just use it! I have just received new 3GS & want to transfer all my text messages from my old 3G, can it be done? If it can please make it simple, thank you.
JennieC
March 16, 2010 at 11:30 pmI recently had to restore my phone to factory setting because the iPod section wouldn’t work. I went to the Genius Bar, and the guy told me to first sync, then restore and choose “set up as new phone.” He did *not* tell me I would lose all my photos on the photoroll! I decided to try restoring from backup, but the only backup in the folder is from after I reset the phone. I did backup my MacBook with the Time Capsule about two weeks ago. My question is this: If I restore to that backup, will I lose all the new applications I’ve bought since then, or will they resync back onto the phone from iTunes? I want my photos back, but I’m not keen on losing all my purchased apps from the last couple of weeks. Thanks for any tips you can provide!
Cierra
May 1, 2010 at 5:44 am.alot of time when i press the sync botton it backs up my itouch very slowly, it gets annoying, why does it take so long if i just wanted to add three songs?
Dan
May 1, 2010 at 10:38 pmHave you updated to the latest versions of iTunes and the iPod OS. The most recent versions should help with sync speed and backup.
Amanda
May 10, 2010 at 12:33 pmI was told to restore my iphone in order for the freezing to stop by the apple store. but i'm afraid if i do i will loose all my text message threads. is there a way to save those and get them back on my phone after i restore to factory settings?
Sia Pv
May 13, 2010 at 11:40 pmHello there!
I have a big problem! It would be great if you could help me!!! I synced my iPhone with my pc but a few days later I made a restore and I do not know how to get my pictures & other files back??? I am desperate about them because they are so important!!!
I would really appreciate it if you could help me!!!
dan
May 14, 2010 at 12:22 amDid you restore your PC or restore your iPhone?
If you're syncing your photos and contacts then they should be available on your computer. iPhone backups are for configuration settings but not data files. You need to sync for backing up that information.
Katrina
May 17, 2010 at 12:05 amHelp! I have an imac and on my iphone i just managed to delete every text my boyfriend ever text me, how do i recover my texts through my mac and onto my iphone..i’m a little technically challenged so any sort of broken down help will much be appreciated! I know where the backups are stored how do i put them back onto the phone…help!
dan
May 17, 2010 at 5:35 amThe instructions above in this article will allow yout o restore your backups. But, I don’t believe text messages are part of those backups.
Elzza
May 20, 2010 at 3:52 amI bought some music on iTunes on my iPhone & since then all my other music seems to have dissapeared. But when I plug it into the computer it looks like it's all still there. How can I get my music back? Do I have to reset the phone? If I do will I lose all my apps?
Willard
May 21, 2010 at 9:42 amcan i have a restore point anyone
Asif
May 27, 2010 at 1:43 amThanks a lot you saved my time………………
Kim Hansen
May 31, 2010 at 8:39 amHi Dan!
I've been googling for hours to find help for my iPhone, I thougt maybe you might be able to help me.
I can't resore my backups. I get this message everytime "iTunes could not restore the iPhone because an unknown error occurred (-32)"
Is there any help for my iphone?
Thanks
Brittany
June 3, 2010 at 1:51 pmdownload the idrive lite app. back up your contacts it will save your life i promisee
bradical
June 6, 2010 at 12:03 pmomgomgomg thank you so much! i recently had to restore and the backup didnt restore properly so i lost all my contacts and settings, and a backup wrote over my old one so i thought i had to get them all again, but with this guide it helped me get all the stuff back, im working on finishing now! yay thank you so much
Dan
June 6, 2010 at 12:07 pmGlad you got it working. We've got lots of other mac help tips and tutorials and new ones coming every week. Subscribe to our RSS to keep up to date.
Dan
June 6, 2010 at 7:07 pmGlad you got it working. We’ve got lots of other mac help tips and tutorials and new ones coming every week. Subscribe to our RSS to keep up to date.
Tim
June 19, 2010 at 7:25 pmHi Dan, my iphone 3G got stolen 3 days ago. I was wondering if I could get my contacts back? I checked the backup folder and it was last changed the same day just before it got stolen but I'm not sure if contact are automatically being saved as well? Thanks!
Dan
June 19, 2010 at 9:10 pmFor contacts to be backed up you need to have them synced with Address Book or Google, or if you're on a PC with Microsoft Outlook or Google.
If you use Facebook, you may also have a lot of your contact information on that platform and can sync that to your iPhone.
Abdibi
September 22, 2010 at 11:31 pmHi,
Thanks for the aboev atricle, however, is tehre any hope for those of us who do not have time machine.capsule.
Basically I accidently upgraded an unlocked/jb iphone 3g to iOS4.1. I was able to downgrade to 3.1.2 but need to restore the back up from i-tunes made when i was upgrading.
I tried to restore with that back up but it said i need to set up as a new iphone and when i did that it made a new back up and now when try to restore it only shows the most recent back up.
i am on windows xp and need a way to restore from that first back up which i can see in teh back up folder going by the date.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Dan
September 23, 2010 at 1:39 pmremove the other backup files from the directory and try the process again. Not sure if it will work, but worth a try.
Granger
October 10, 2010 at 10:08 amHi.
I have an unlocked Iphone 3gs. I have synced it up on my PC via Itunes but when I click on Apps to enter info on the computer (to be updated on my Iphone) there is a haze over the page. That is I cannot click on any apps to update info on my pc. Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
G
Dan
October 10, 2010 at 10:35 amI'm not sure granger what would be the problem. It could be something caused by the unlock.
Max
October 13, 2010 at 8:38 amThank you. Had to swap out my iPhone today and had to go the route of setting up a new phone because it had an older system than the old phone. The resulting sync omitted the camera pics, text messages, and more. Going to my time machine the way you said above corrected the error. Thanks again for the advice.
Steve
November 2, 2010 at 4:56 pmI had some pictures on some apps and when i updated them they were all gone foes restoring to old restore points bring them back???
Dan
November 2, 2010 at 11:46 pmit might, but it depends on how the apps were storing the pictures.
Steve
November 3, 2010 at 6:32 amOne of them was the album viewer pro i moved pics in there from my camera album and deleted some cuz thought they were safe in that app and i done an update on that app and it lost all
Dan
November 3, 2010 at 8:34 amSteve, you'll have to check with the App developer. I'm not sure how they have their settings configured.
Georgia
November 9, 2010 at 9:11 pmOMG I PRAISE YOU!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!! xxxxxx
Michael
November 26, 2010 at 1:20 amMidnight and I'm leaving tomorrow morning, so I synced the d—ed phone so I'd have a backup of my contacts at home in case anything happened on my trip. Well, thank heavens somehow it did a backup of the phone — because the sync deleted all my contacts from the phone and from Outlook.
And thank heavens you were here with the right instructions because nothing in iTunes ever explained how to restore the contacts.
Nvouge1
November 28, 2010 at 2:50 pmFor people like me who have Windows Vista, how can we access older backed up files since we don't have "Time Machine"? I need to restore my contacts from 2 weeks ago, but iTunes only shows 3 days of backups (which is incomplete for me).
PLEASE HELP! Thanks!
Dan
November 28, 2010 at 3:26 pmUnless you have another backup service there isn't anything you can do. You can only restore from backups you have, so if you don't have any besides the three iTunes stores then you're probably out of luck.
You can import contacts from gmail, yahoo, facebook and other platforms easily though. Check some of those articles on this site.
Nvouge1
November 28, 2010 at 8:07 pmBummer! Ok will try doing that. Thanks Dan!
Richard
November 28, 2010 at 3:13 pmI have just updated my iPhone 3g to get the new 4.2 update and when I turned it back on it had reverted to data and files from a year ago (probably the last time I backed it up!). I have tried to look for a newer back up but have had no joy. Is there anyway I can retrieve the info? (unlikely as it may be….?) Thank you
Dan
November 28, 2010 at 3:25 pmYou can only restore from backups that you have.. Always let the backup process finish before updating. Next time at least!
Lisa
December 4, 2010 at 11:26 pmSomeone please help! I have been through three or four Iphones and never had this problem before….
Last night I lost my 3GS. I had no choice but to get a new Iphone today because I have ALL my info on my Iphone (even though I have not synched in about a month) I still need hundreds of contacts for work, plus all my calander events, notes, etc…
I got the 4G, plugged it into Itunes and I don't know what happened but there are NO backups there to restore from. They are GONE. I'm flipping out. I have really important phone numbers, etc. I need my data back.
Someone please help
Shivani St George
December 13, 2010 at 7:37 pmThank you!!!!!!!!!!
krystal
December 15, 2010 at 2:51 pmhi i was syncing my iphone it quit so the guy had me restore it then back it up but all of my stuff is gone now is there a way to get my music back. im really pissed about this because the guy didnt give me proper instructions and thats why everything is gone. ;(
Dan
December 15, 2010 at 3:18 pmjust sync it with iTunes.. If your music isn't in iTunes then you won't be able to restore your music.
Stacey
December 16, 2010 at 11:11 amI have an iphone 3G. I tried to update my phone to the new system this morning and I lost everything and it restored it back to it's original version. I am most concerned that I have lost all my contacts and most importantly 700 pictures. Is there a way to get these back?
Dan
December 16, 2010 at 11:15 amIf you didn't sync them with your computer then the pictures are probably gone. They're not part of the backup, they're just data on the phone. The backup does not include options that can be synced with PC or Mac.
Stacey
December 16, 2010 at 1:03 pmAre the pictures not stored anywhere on the hard drive memory of the iphone?
Dan
December 16, 2010 at 1:14 pmThey are stored on the iPhone, but when you lost everything all items on the phone are lost also. Your restore restoration of the iPhone restores settings and configurations and the version of the iOS, but it does not include data, like Pictures. You'll need to set the iPhone to sync photos and import them to your computer to keep backups of them.
horqua
January 12, 2011 at 11:18 amThank you for this. You saved my backside! I have put a reminder on my MBP that "Jesus saves….OFTEN!"
Kelsi
January 13, 2011 at 9:16 pmToday, I was playing on my Iphone. I was going to call someone, and all my contacts were just gone! I have no idea what happened! So I synced my Iphone and they still didn't come back. Then I backed up, but still no luck! Now I'm trying to restore it. Please help!
rex
January 15, 2011 at 8:16 pm1. Can ITune more user-friendly: whenever i plug in iphone, it hangs quite a while to detect. why not having a progress bar? why not allow running other tasks at the same time?
2. I encounter a problem very frequently: itune cannot detect iphone but when i run the device connection test in itune menu "help", the report shows that an iphone is connected. which looks like it did not show the device correctly. very odd!!!
Zach Faust
January 22, 2011 at 12:48 amOk I transferred an old back up from my external hard drive to my desktop. It has a bunch of files with just random characters as names. How can I turn that file into a usable file to backup my iPhone?
lamitta
February 2, 2011 at 5:54 amDANNNNNN plz i need ur help
i lost my 3g iphone.. i went to my comp i found that i synch 1 month ago the question i need an importnat message i deleted it can i find it on my pc? even if i don't have my iphone ?
jeff
February 2, 2011 at 12:05 pmI was composing a text today and my phone went dead. When I restarted it, the battery had plenty of charge and everything seemed fine, except EVERY SMS conversation that I had was gone. I am certain that I did not delete them but they are definitely not there. I tried to restore from a backup but the phone went through the sync process and I am afraid all is lost. I very much need to recover these texts. Can anyone help?
Aadil
February 6, 2011 at 2:53 pmHi,
I tried to sync my contacts with my gmail and realized that all the contacts on my iphone are gone. My motto was to backup all my contacts on my gmail, but the reverse happened. itunes backed up before it synchronized but I cant find the backup when I go to "chose backup"
However, there is around 1GB folder in the : Apple computer / mobilesync / backup folder, and the files inside are all modified today, so I am sure these are the backup files.
I am using Windows Vista.
PLEASE HELP
Thanks Aadil
Dan
February 10, 2011 at 2:07 pmYou can try and restore it and see what is pulled back. Usually contacts are managed through Outlook or Address Book. You should have them there, or you can importan them from Google, Facebook, and other locations by following instructions on this site.
The current iOS release has a jailbreak available. But a new version of iOS is coming shortly.
hawaiibound1
February 18, 2011 at 8:56 pmhow do u get an iphone to restore when you've tried the above suggestions and start getting error codes like 1002,13 and so one.now wont restore.
Dan
February 18, 2011 at 9:57 pmI believe if you hold down the iPhone button, or maybe the power button when you plug it in to your computer you'll force it to restore system default settings. That should correct your errors.
hawaiibound1
February 19, 2011 at 5:31 pmno that didnt work.even took it to att store today and the salesman there said my hardware chip (forget exact name of it) was shot.needed new one.he's gonna try to do t for me out of spare parts.Hope it works!!!Have tried everything else
musab
February 22, 2011 at 2:51 pmi lost my messages and notes from after restoring my iphone 3gs..!
is there any way to get it back
jodieeee
February 26, 2011 at 3:02 pmthank you so much, worked great
marie
March 7, 2011 at 9:46 pmhad my iphone 3 fixed today..my iphone was locked and it was my fault, i forgot to give them the pin number.so someone was tryna guess the pin number so he kept bunched in wrong numbers ddn work, but i dont knw how da idiot got in. went to pik it up and the guy z i hav to go on itunes and restore it and then everything will b fine..now here i am browsing itunes around for almost 2hrs jst tryna find out how to get my iphone bak on track…emergency calls only!thats wot it says wen i slide it to open..
please help
Vince
March 9, 2011 at 11:48 pmSaved my life…… I deleted all my wife's contacts. Lucky I had been backing up with Time Machine. Would never had worked out how to make it work without your advice. Thanks so much.
Jackie
March 19, 2011 at 11:11 amMy computer broke, cant turn it on but best buy can get info off hard drive for me .. i accidentally restored my iphone so now i have nothing on it. If i have best buy take my hard drive out will i then be able to restore my iphone from backup or will that not come off the computer? Also, if it works will i get everything back including contacts photos music etc?
Dan
March 19, 2011 at 12:17 pmDo you have a Mac or PC? and did you copy your contacts into Outlook or Address Book?
If the backup is on the Hard Drive it will restore, but it may not contain all the information you're hoping for unless you were syncing with Outlook and Address Book.
Jackie
March 19, 2011 at 2:50 pmits a PC and honestly, im not sure if it has been backed up through outlook or address book .. its actually my boyfriends computer.. what information will he get back if it has only been backed up by syncing on itunes? He is not sure if its worth the 100$ that best buy charges to even get the little bit of info he may get back
Thank you so much for the help!
Neil
March 21, 2011 at 12:53 pmHave lost my jailbroke iphone 3g
If i buy another 3g or 3gs and restore it using my backed up settings on itunes, will I get all my info back contacts, notes ect????
Plus would this iphone have to be jailbroken to restore any cracked apps of unknown gendre?
Michael
March 25, 2011 at 10:23 amI just lost my notes and calendar info when I let my pc do an update for my ipod touch, the prompt said it would backup and restore …NOTES & CALENDARS yet once I did it, all of this was lost. I didnt get a separate app to back these items up didnt even know I should have. Since the Prompt did say it would restore AND BACKUP all my notes and calendars is there any way i can retreive it on my pc? It was not syned with Microsoft Outlook or anything if there is no other way for me to retreive my info then THE PROMT AND (APPLE and ITUNES) LIED about backing up and restoring these files!
Salena
March 26, 2011 at 1:55 amBut the funny thing is when I bought my new iPhone 4 in October 2010 I had to start it using my iTunes on my laptop so I don't understand why it didn't back up to then ,
Thanks for your help tho
salena
March 26, 2011 at 7:36 ami was using mu laptop windows vista to transfer music from i tunes to my iphone and when it connected it deleted all my new photos and backdate to when i last sync my phone which was aug 2010 when i had a 3gs iphone deleting all my photos , numbers and texts messages and then it downloaded the newest firmware 4.3 … is there anyway of getting back my photos as i dont know why it didnt save these items to my laptop it just deleted everything …..
would appricate some help
maciverse
March 26, 2011 at 8:06 amSounds like you didn't let the phone complete a backup before you restored it to 4.3. Your photos are probably gone. Always make sure that iTunes successfully completes a backup of your phone before upgrading or restoring a Firmware.
When iTunes updates the iPhone to a new firmware it restores from the last backup it has to pull in all your files. In your case, it sounds like it restored your last backup which was in August 2010.
Sorry for the bad luck.. you can check to see if you had a more recent backup and try and restore from that but that's really all you can do.
fatemeh
March 27, 2011 at 4:09 amif you have backup in address of that itune backup , you can change name and then restore
Melanie_Rios
March 29, 2011 at 10:00 pmHello! Hoping you can help… I was updating the software on my 3GS iPhone on my hp/ windows computer tonight. After it was finished the USB and iTunes logo came up on my phone. I did not diconnect it. A prompt came up saying an error had occured and it detected an iPhone in recovery mode. I had no other options that to restore it back to factory settings. Luckily I was able to use my back up and all of my photos, contacts, texts, etc was there. However none of my music or downloaded apps are.
I can't seem to find any options in iTunes to add them back! 
Fed up iphone 4 user
March 30, 2011 at 6:17 pmHi,
I have possibly experienced a similar problem to melanie tonight? When updating to the new latest version of the iphone software. Everything ran smoothly during the update to begin with, then it appeared to slow right down near the end…my phone screen then went to black, with the white apple logo then appearing (apparently this happens during a forced reset?) . A pop up then appeared on comp screen saying that an error had occured. Another pop up then appeared saying that it could not detect the usb device cable! I tried connecting and reconnecting the cable and in diff ports and after many attempts it now accepts the cable is not faulty, but now i have to restore my phone to factory settings as it doesnt recognise it now!, it wont let me do via backup either:( or so it seems as the option isnt there! Posting this to see wether anyone else has experienced similar problems after installing apples new update? If anyone can help? that would also be appreciated, worried i'm going to loose all my apps since it wont let me back up!
Dan
March 30, 2011 at 6:20 pmYou can usually restore from backup after you restore factory settings.
Fed up iphone 4 user
March 30, 2011 at 6:49 pmThanks Dan
i'm trying the restore as we speak, just hope it works and will do the restore! Fingers crossed! 
iphone 4 user
March 30, 2011 at 8:30 pmHi,
But it looks like all my old apps have gone! Their showing up (in picture form) but my itunes account isnt acknowledging that their on the account, as its trying to tell me i have to buy them all again!..dont know why this is, as it was all backed up. I'm not going to be happy with apple if they expect me to buy all my apps back, just from downloading their most recent update! (which is 4.3.1 at the moment if anyone else is having problems like this). The only apps appearing on my phone are the new ones i downloaded at the same time as new update. The rest of my apps wont appear when i sync when they should do. If anyone has ideas on a possible fix..? *sigh* much appreciated! thanks 
well my phone is up and running again thanks
iphone 4 user
March 30, 2011 at 8:52 pmMy itunes account has finally acknowledged my old apps are there hurray!
problem solved! Hope noone else has all this hassle from the newer update! Good luck! 
Thanks.