Backed up iphone 3GS, updated to ios5, restored from back up but lost all my content?

I backed up my iphone 3GS then updated my software to ios5 and when I tried to restore my iphone from the previous back up and it worked but I lost all my contacts, photos, calendar everything. It just looked like a fresh new iPhone with none of my previous data in the phone. How can I fix this?

You should be importing ALL pics/videos taken with your iphone regularly as you would with any digital camera. particularly before any restore/update.
If you have failed to do this, then they are likely gone.
You can redownload apps if you have failed to transfer them to your computer before restore/update.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

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Iphone io6 update, unable to restore from back-up

Help!
Updated my iphone tot he new operating system but unable to restore from latest back-up. Lost all my contacts - arghhh!
Any suggestions??

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I restored from time machine but lost all my preferences

I have a late 2008 Mac Pro 2 x 2.8GHz quad core running Mountain Lion.
I have been using the 500Gig HD as my Startup Volume that came with the computer. This drive got too full so I am upgrading to a 3TB drive that I partitioned into 1TB for my startup volume and the other 2TB for other stuff.
Using SuperDuper, I made an exact copy (at least I thought so) of my 500Gig startup volume onto the new 1TB partition. After doing so I swapped out the 500Gig for the 3TB and re-started the computer. Computer boots fine and all the files are there but here are the PROBLEMS:
-None of my settings and preferences are working. My desktop, dock and settings are default.
-Under my user, most of my folders said "The folder can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents. mac pro." I circumvented this by going to the "get info" and turning on my permissions, but it is still wierd.
-When I go to open my programs (eg Microsoft word) it welcomes me as if it is a new install and I am given a prompt to enter my serial number.
Sooooo, I tried another route, went to my backup drive, (I have another drive that has time machine of the 500 gig startup volume saved to it) and used time machine to "restore" a backup of my 500Gig startup volume onto the new 1TB partition. After doing so and restarting, guess what. No changes; all the same problems.
HELP!!!
Thanks.

This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
Step 1
If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.
Triple-click the following line on this page to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):
{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.
In the Terminal window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.

Hi, I've just tried to upgrade my iphone 3gs and it wont restore from itunes or connect to the server to activate. Sorry I started this ! Any ideas please

Hi, I've just tried to upgrade my iphone 3gs and it wont restore from itunes or connect to the server to activate. Sorry I started this ! Any ideas please it's driving me mad and Ive lost my phone

What is the exact message you're getting?

I just updated my iphone to ios7 and I keep getting stuck at the 'Set up your iPhone' screen. I click 'Restore from Itunes Backup', but it only ends up restarting after restoring and fails to get past the 'Set up your iPhone' screen. Any ideas?

I just updated my iphone to ios7 and I keep getting stuck at the 'Set up your iPhone' screen. I click 'Restore from Itunes Backup', but it only ends up restarting after restoring and fails to get past the 'Set up your iPhone' screen. Any ideas?

Normally, I would suggest restoring the iPad and uninstall and reinstall iTunes but you have done both of those things - more times than you ever imagined!
Have you thought about turning auto syncing off?
Without connecting your iPad to your laptop, start iTunes. Click on Edit. Click on Preferences. Click on Devices. Check the box next to "Prevent your iPod etc. from automatically syncing." Click OK.
If you do this you can backup the iPad right away before it syncs. You may want to go into all of the iTunes tabs and just make sure that all of the current content on the iPad is selected to sync before you actually do sync.
This doesn't solve the problem, but it would prevent the automatic sync and erasing content. Hopefully, in the next few days- when iOS 5 is released - you will also be relieved of this weird iPad behavior - since the iOS devices are supposed to become PC free.
BTW - and this is no excuse for what you are experiencing, but I have found that some of the game apps that I had on my iPad turned out to be quite troublesome and after I removed them, my problems went away. I know that is almost sacrilege with regard to the Angry Birds addiction .... But I'm just saying ...

I am having to restore my iphone 3gs following updates, now is restoring from back up but how long should this take?

My iphone froze this morning when trying to install updates, I had to restore it to factory settings and then chose to restore it from my back up information. It now shows "Restore in Progress" but nothing else - this has been going for about 80 minutes and I'm not sure if it has frozen again or if it is actually doing anything.
Can anyone please advise?

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Iphone 3GS Updated to IOS5, but Contacts from another phone / instance applied to the phone after update!!!

Hi
I updated my Iphone 4 to the latest IOS5 software and selected to backup to the cloud. This worked a treat. I did the same on my IPAD and this worked to,
I then updated my wifes Iphone 3GS to the same IOS5 software. It said it was backing up the phone and it proceeded to continue with the download. Once the loading of the software was complete, I then went through the process of setting up the iCloud settings on the 3GS phone and selected to merge the data and used my Apple Account, as we share this account.
Now complete the contacts are incorrect, as they phone now has all my contacts on it and my wife's are missing / have been overwritten. This is a major issue as I cannot seem to recover these.
I can plug the phone back into ITunes and run a restore but its telling me to restore to factory settings. Where is the backup iTunes did as part of the software update and or how can I recover the contacts that are relevant to my wifes phone and not mine as she cannot use her phone with my contacts.
I have since turned the contacts off on her phone and removed these so they do not appear and sync with the cloud, but I depserately need to get these back as they are required for her work.
Many thanks
Stuart

Having the exact same problem. Just got an iPhone 3G S for christmas, and i can't use it.
Maybe try down-grading it so you can at least add contacts and change settings? i havent done it but you could try.

Iphone 3gs rebooting indefinitely after restoring from security copy

I sent my iphone 3gs for reparing and the system was restored.
When I sync it with the last security copy made it begins rebooting indefinitely in the end of the process. I tried with an older security copy and it works fine, but it's just too old and I'm loosing lots of stuff. So it seems that my last security copy is broken.
Does anyone know how can I handle this?
Many thanks

Jailbreaking gets no help here you are on your own

Can anyone help? I've just got my new iphone 6. I'm restoring from the icloud but it's saying there's not enough storage for my photos....and I'm unable to access any images. Help appreciated

Hi,
I've just moved on from an iphone 5 to an iphone 6.
I'm now on my second attempt at restoring it through the icloud.
My photos and videos are unavailable and it keeps saying I'm low on storage. At this stage it just keeps saying it's updating but it's been saying that for 8 hours and I still don;t have any photos available....any advice appreciated. It's getting a little frustating
Thanks,
Emma

The backup cannot be restored to the iPhone if there is not enough storage space available.

IMessage won't work/isn't up-to-date on iPhone 6 after restore from back-up

So I have been trying to set up my new iPhone 6 since Tuesday and I am at my wit's end. I have been an Apple user for years and am usually good at fixing issues myself.
BACKGROUND: With my iPhone 5, I was having an issue with bookmarks not syncing "Bookmarks could not by synced because the iPhone cancelled the sync" starting shortly after I updated to iOS 7. I had incorrectly assumed the issue would be corrected with a subsequent update, but that never happened.
iPhone 6:
When I first set it up, I did from the last back-up from my iPhone 5, however it somehow did not complete. I initially thought I'd lost my 2700 pictures that were on the 5 as only 500 showed in the 'Recently Added', however iPhoto (on MacBook Pro) detected all 2700 on the phone even though they weren't showing, so I successfully imported them from the 6. When I went to sync the 6, it gave me the same bookmark error. I tried turning off hard sync and syncing through iCloud but nothing happened (I have never synced from iCloud as when I first tried to set it up after it was created, it created duplicates of ALL of my information and I just never had the time to mess with it. I figure if the hard back-up works, that's all I need.
That being said, I did NOT intend on having a brand new phone with the same error, so I did a FULL RESTORE and set it up as a NEW IPHONE. Everything worked seemlessly including my iMessage, however it did not have any of my old messages or recent calls which I thought was strange if that information is associated to my Mac/iTunes account. I thought the Game Center would have saved most of my info from my games, but when I saw I didn't have any of my info from my Lists app, games, and other settings and passwords, I decided I would try a different way.
So I removed unnecessary apps with no info, photos, and music from my 5, synced and backed it up, updated to iOS 8, backed THAT up, and then did a RESTORE FROM BACK-UP on the new iPhone 6 from that latest back-up. Despite that, I have discovered that the messages and recent call list that DO appear on the phone only go through MARCH of this year... I am so confused as to how the most recent back-up would have only backed up info from March... My games data is up-to-date.
I THOUGHT everything was working with the exception of STILL having the same BOOKMARK SYNC ERROR, but I just discovered that my testing/iMessage does not work at all. I go to send a message, and it just shows the blue bar loaded 3/4 of the way, and never delivers the message. My boyfriend confirmed that he cannot send me messages either, which makes no sense because the phone was set up under the same phone number and emails as my iPhone 5 was. I really don't have the time and/or patience to go into Apple, but after spending ALL day yesterday trying to re-set up the phone thinking everything worked, I am quite exasperated. I have been using Apple products all my life, and I have NEVER had this much trouble.
I never had any significant software issues until iOS 7, and the fact that they are still ongoing is quite ridiculous. It's getting harder and harder to defend Apple and their quality products if they don't kick it into high gear and fix these glitches!
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
P.S. I did some reading on how iBackUpBot is supposed to fix the bookmark syncing issue, but it seems a bit technical. Perhaps clearer instructions would be helpful.

Well, right now, Apple is getting loads of people who are trying to download the new update. My iPod is doing the same thing, so, just wait an hour or two and then try again. It may take a while to veryify the update, and even longer to actually download it. Some people at my school updated their OS in study hall, while others were having the same problem you were. It should be fixed soon, just relax...

Iphone 3gs- updated to the ios 5.0.1... since then i plugged it into itunes, an now my phone restarts itself every 3-4 minutes! Restored 4 times and still not working help please!!!!!

iphone 3gs- updated to the ios 5.0.1... since then i plugged it into itunes, an now my phone restarts itself every 3-4 minutes!!! it so annoying! its useless, i cant do anything with it. restored it 4 times and its still doing it!!! please help!!!
i contacted o2 and they said id have to pay to get it fixed after sending it away for ten days if their was a fault, when im still under warranty!! contacted apple who will get back to me!

I am assuming you updated to version 5.1.1, not 5.0.1 since no legitimate version of 5.0.1 is available.
Where is this iPhone from and what means did you use to unlock it?

HT4623 After updating to IOS 6, my iPhone won't restore from back up.

I updated my iPhone 3GS to the new IOS 6 and i backed it up before i done anything. and it starts to restore from back up but it gets 3/4 way done and the green bar stops moving and the time remaining goes up instead of down. what do i do to restore from my back up?

I Just found it on the apple site, it arrived on a cd a few days later and worked just fine again.
i would recommend backing everything up just in case. Better safe than sorry, trust me. I've lost so much when i didnt back up once when re-installing the system.
IT shoulldnt erase everything, bt it might, so back up just in case
should you loose everything, then i have some tips on moving stuff fromyour iphone/ipod to the computer

My 3gs wont restore after ios 5 update. I have tried firmware restore and restore from backup, neither works. All I get is "iphone restore failed because backup session failed" Any ideas on how to make a successful restore with this ios 5 update?

My 3gs wont restore after ios 5 update. I have tried firmware restore and restore from backup, neither works. All I get is "iphone restore failed because backup session failed" Any ideas on how to make a successful restore with this ios 5 update?

I was having the same problem, I backed up my phone and then updated to iOS 5 and then it kept telling me it could not restore from my backup as it had failed. After reading a bunch of forums and posts and trying everything, I did manage to get it to work. I had tried the Time zone, creating a new computer user account, disabling anti-virus, etc.
It took a combination of things, one of which was disabling the anti-virus completely and copying the contents of the backup folder to my desktop and then deleting everything in the backup folder. Then I rebooted the PC, entirely disabled the anti-virus, copied the one backup I wanted to restore from the desktop to the backup folder and then trying to restore. Low and behold the phone said restoring from backup and I am back in business, so when in doubt, trying combining some of the fixes together.

HT201269 i bought my iphone 4 about a year ago and just decided to upgrade it to ios5 just recently. My phone restored to to its factory settings and when I clicked continue restore from back up it is now asking a backup password which i dont remember set

i bought my iphone 4 about a year ago and just decided to upgrade it to ios5 just recently. My phone restored to to its factory settings and when I clicked continue restore from back up it is now asking a backup password which i dont remember setting up one. I am currently using a windows vista PC. How can I retrieve the password or restore all my old data into the new OS. I have been reading blogs about the same situation and is it true that it is one of apple's bugs?

It is NOT a bug. You provided a password. If you can't remember it, you can't restore your phone from backup. Very simple.

IPhone will not restore from back up after updating to iOS 6.1.3

I tried to update to iOS 6.1.3 last night and my iPhone crashed, putting it into recovery mode. Then when I tried to restore from my last back up I got this
I have tried to restore from three different back ups I have and keep getting the same error. Why will it not restore from back up? I've had the phone two years, so had alot of stuff on it that I need to get back.
I will be very greatful of any help.
Thanks

There is some troubleshooting for that error message on this page : http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2529

Backed up iphone 3GS, updated to ios5, restored from back up but lost all my content?

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