HT201269 itunes cannot see my iphone backup. I have a backup of the backup on an external HD, but even tech support cannot figure this one out. I copy and paste backups into the correct folder but itunes still does not see it. All I need are my contact

Question

Sorry for short novel I am writing.  I just wanted to cover as much backround as possible.
So, here it goes.  I backed up my iphone 4 after renting a movie.  The movie only played the starting credits before I was called on for daddy duty.  A few days later the movie would not play, so I restored my phone from my backup.  The movie would still would not play so itunes support refunded my purchase and ended my viewing privileges for that rental after verifying that I had not viewed the movie.  I then had a problem with my contacts showing up twice in the contacts list after the restore.  So I attempted another restore.  All was well at this point.  I then started having trouble with my pc and decided to copy the internal drive to an external source.  A week later I had a system failure and did a factory restore on my computer.  I re-installed itunes and tried to copy and paste the old backup into the new itunes.  Now itunes just flat out does not see the backup file (I failed to mention that I did a factory reset on the iphone after the last backup, hopping to start fresh).  Tech support had me uninstall and re-install itunes and then copy and paste the old backup into the newly installed itunes with no luck.  The files are all there, but itunes just doesn't see them (itunes says the device has not been backed up to the cloud or to the local machine).  We then tried backing up the factory restored iphone and replacing that restore file with one of my old backups on the external drive.  Ok, this is where it gets weird.  We replaced the guts of the folder but left the folder itself so itunes would continue to recognize the new backup folder with the old files.  Whoohoo, itunes now see's a backup folder full of old files, or so we thought.  The new files were deleted using shift delete so they would be gone for good and not mix with any files or folders.  When I restore my phone, it restores the files that were deleted from the restore file (pause here for a moment and imagine the stupid look on the face of tech support and I while we silently wonder how files that were permanently deleted were restored).  This left tech support and I both scratching our heads.  My service issue was escalated to the next level.  I waited for the phone call the next day that was scheduled at 10am to my wife's phone, but the call never came through.  As usual, apple disappoints again.  I just bought an iphone 5s and still have the iphone 4, and am looking for a solution to retrieve my contacts and restore to the 4 or 5s.  I am guessing that files in other folders must be associated with the iphone backup in order for itunes to retrieve the files.  Any ideas or support in retrieving my contacts would be greatly appreciated. 

Answer 1

Sorry for short novel I am writing.  I just wanted to cover as much backround as possible.
So, here it goes.  I backed up my iphone 4 after renting a movie.  The movie only played the starting credits before I was called on for daddy duty.  A few days later the movie would not play, so I restored my phone from my backup.  The movie would still would not play so itunes support refunded my purchase and ended my viewing privileges for that rental after verifying that I had not viewed the movie.  I then had a problem with my contacts showing up twice in the contacts list after the restore.  So I attempted another restore.  All was well at this point.  I then started having trouble with my pc and decided to copy the internal drive to an external source.  A week later I had a system failure and did a factory restore on my computer.  I re-installed itunes and tried to copy and paste the old backup into the new itunes.  Now itunes just flat out does not see the backup file (I failed to mention that I did a factory reset on the iphone after the last backup, hopping to start fresh).  Tech support had me uninstall and re-install itunes and then copy and paste the old backup into the newly installed itunes with no luck.  The files are all there, but itunes just doesn't see them (itunes says the device has not been backed up to the cloud or to the local machine).  We then tried backing up the factory restored iphone and replacing that restore file with one of my old backups on the external drive.  Ok, this is where it gets weird.  We replaced the guts of the folder but left the folder itself so itunes would continue to recognize the new backup folder with the old files.  Whoohoo, itunes now see's a backup folder full of old files, or so we thought.  The new files were deleted using shift delete so they would be gone for good and not mix with any files or folders.  When I restore my phone, it restores the files that were deleted from the restore file (pause here for a moment and imagine the stupid look on the face of tech support and I while we silently wonder how files that were permanently deleted were restored).  This left tech support and I both scratching our heads.  My service issue was escalated to the next level.  I waited for the phone call the next day that was scheduled at 10am to my wife's phone, but the call never came through.  As usual, apple disappoints again.  I just bought an iphone 5s and still have the iphone 4, and am looking for a solution to retrieve my contacts and restore to the 4 or 5s.  I am guessing that files in other folders must be associated with the iphone backup in order for itunes to retrieve the files.  Any ideas or support in retrieving my contacts would be greatly appreciated.