Backing up or Syncing iPhone question

I can't re-write all I've written..... but, I don't understand why you have back up and sync, what is the difference between syncing and backing up in iTunes, and should I have backed up before I synced...? Hence all the games are not saved where you left off last time you played them, and does back up save texts, contacts, photos, etc. Or do you have to 'sync' in Itunes. I synced because that's basically what it told me to do when I plugged in the phone, shouldn't it say back-up? Or is it one and the same, and if it does back up, where is it located on the Mac out of interest?
The new software update, 4.3, should it really take 3 hours? That's what it's telling me

Thank you for your replies, If back up backs all that you say in '1', why would I need to tick all the contacts, etc in Sync.
When I synced Apps, it showed syncing, then deleted all of them, when I put them back on the phone, the games I'd got to say level 80+ in, when I put back on phone they were as if I'd just downloaded it for the first time and lost all the levels I'd got to. Basically, you have to start from scratch again...
If the iTunes has no old back ups or syncs, is that why it backed up the sync Apps from new
Re '7', it does show owners iPhone but how do I know it has any data in it, can you view exactly what it has backed up?
And will the new software update 4.3 delete everything on my phone?
After my experience of this synching iTunes I'd rather not do it, if it's going to delete everything it didn't when I synced this the first time?
How do I know it's kept, texts, contacts, apps in game play where left off etc, if I ever have to restore, how can you check, You hear so many people restoring and it wipes their phone clean
Thanks again

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Can't back up or sync iphone 3G

Starting from yesterday, can't sync my iphone 3G, my top button hasn't been working for a few months, can't restart my iphone, what else can I do? ERROR MESSAGE: The iPhone cannot be synced, an unknown error occurred (-39), it always stops at deleting pictures process. If I restore my iphone, what will I lose? I don't care about the pictures and songs, just the rest of my data. Thank!

Hi Lancole0,
If your devices aren't being recognized in iTunes, you may find the following article helpful:
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
Regards,
- Brenden

Sorry last question got knocked back my ipad and iPhone on two different levels and I am not able to play through Facebook so not able to progress or unlock next level through Apple store. Don't know how to resolve problem

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Thank you again for all of your help!! I really appreciate it!
I think I am following -- I was able to upload to my iPhoto and all photos and videos are there that is a plus! I tried to create an Event in my iPhoto and put all of my photos in that event but for some reason, now my iTunes it not recognizing that Event in my iPhoto. It is not allowing me to import just that event at the moment but I may be doing something wrong. At least all of my pics and vids are in iPhoto so that is a plus and I know they are at least saved somewhere. Just for some reason, my iTunes it not locating the event that I created with only those photos.
Thank you for letting me know about my contacts! How do I know if I have the contacts app?
Also, I had no clue that my iCloud could be backed up via cellular data! However, is this a new feature with the most updated iOS?? Unforutnatly I am like 2 iOS updates behind because I don't have enough storage on my phone. I still get the notification that my phone needs to be plugged in and connected to wifi in order to back up to the cloud :-(
How can I sync using USB? Right now when i click on the info tab for my iPhone in my iTunes this is the answer that I get -- I am a little unclear as to what it means.
Sync Contacts:
Your contacts are being synced with you iPhone over the air from iCloud. Over-the-air sync settings can be changed on you iPhone
Sync Calendars:
Your calendars are being synced with you iPhone over the air from iCloud. Over-the-air sync settings can be changed on you iPhone

Two iPhones, one MacBook - sync/backup question

Hi all, I've read through many posts, tech articles etc and still have this question...
My wife and I both got 3G(S)s about eight months ago. She backed up/synced her phone to her PC only once since then. We would like to be able to back up her phone to my MacBook now instead of her dying PC, and also load my HUGE legit iTunes library from our CD collection onto her phone. Also, she is not interested in having my contacts, bookmarks and whatnot synced to her phone.
My question is, will it be possible to use one computer/iTunes to share the same iTunes music library, while saving her contacts, calendars etc separately? Stated otherwise, will iTunes back up two separate iPhones and allow the syncing of a common music library?
Thanks and have a great day! MMM

In regards to iTunes content, an iPhone can be synced with an iTunes library on a single computer only and photos can be transferred from a single computer only. When transferring iTunes content and photos from another computer, all iTunes content and photos transferred from a different computer will be erased from the iPhone first.
There is no device limit for the number of iPods, iPads, and iPhones that can be synced with the same iTunes library and iTunes account on the same computer. Each device can have its own sync preferences with iTunes and iTunes creates and maintains a backup for each device.
When syncing two iPhones with the Address Book and iCal under the same computer login account, the contacts and calendar events will be the same in the Address Book and iCal and on both devices. There is an option to sync select Address Book Groups and select calendars only with each iPhone, but the contacts and calendar events with both devices will be available in the Address Book and iCal.
If you want to keep contacts and calendar events completely separate, you need to create a computer login account for your wife. You can enable Fast User Switching to make the process of switching between multiple computer login accounts a fast and easy process. An iTunes library can be shared between multiple computer login accounts. Your iPhone's backup will be updated and stored under your computer login account, and your wife's iPhone backup will be update and stored under her computer login account.

I upgraded from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 6. Everything converted fine until I deleted an app in error. When I downloaded it from iTunes, my account is no longer recognized by the app's host servers. Can I go back and re-sync one app from my old phone?

I upgraded from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 6. Everything converted fine. Yesterday I deleted an app in error. When I downloaded the software it from iTunes ( did this many times on the old 3GS), my account is no longer recognized by the app's host servers (Playtika), even though it did after the initial conversion. Can I go back and re-sync just one app from my old phone?

Try deleting what is called the iPod Photo Cache.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314

HT1766 4 voice memos in iTunes backup from iPhone had ! marks and would not play so I deleted them and although they are still on the iPhone, they will not sync back to iTunes from iPhone.

4 voice memos in iTunes backup from iPhone had ! marks and would not play so I deleted them and although they are still on the iPhone, they will not sync back to iTunes from iPhone.

You may have to try deleting all the music from your phone (by going to Settings>General>Usage>Music, swipping All Music and tapping Delete), then sync it all back on with iTunes in order to fix this.

Problems with Syncing iPhone 3G (4.2.1. iOS). What is appearing in the status bar is "Syncing "untiled playlist.." and its stuck at backing up. I noticed that my name has been replaced to "untitled playlist". Whats wrong

Problems with Syncing iPhone 3G (4.2.1. iOS). What is appearing in the status bar is "Syncing "untiled playlist.." and its stuck at backing up. I noticed that my name has been replaced to "untitled playlist". Whats wrong

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Maybe a long shot, but WD is not known for the quality of some of their enclosures, although I do like the drives themselves. It may be worth mounting this drive in a different enclosure, something like one of OWC's FireWire enclosures with the highly reliable Oxford chip sets. I wouldn't be inclined to trust a WD enclosure, especially if it already seemed to be acting in a flakey manner.
Here's an example of what I mean:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEP924FW8E2O/
I have 3 of these and I really like them.
From what I understand, if the drive spins up, it is often possible to recover data from it. To be absolutely certain to destroy the data, you just about have to take a hammer to the disk. Hopefully, there will be a way to get your data back.
Good luck!

How to sync iPhone contacts back to Address Book.

I came across this problem and found a work-around on the forums, but some guys there–including myself–felt that iTunes should sync our contacts bi-directionally from iPhone to Address Book on our Macs, and vice versa.
As it turns out, that's really the default behavior in iTunes when syncing between iPhone/Address Book on the Mac. However, if you've been using iCloud to sync everything lateley, this will not be the default behavior, because your iTunes won't sync anything back to your Address Book on the Mac unless you completly disconnect from iCloud services.
So..... if you want to sync your contacts from your iPhone back to your Address Book on your Mac, I'm providing this simple, yet tedious, solution:
Step 1: Open Address Book on your Mac, select all of your contacts, and press delete. You'll be asked if you really want to delete the contacts. Hit ok and continue.
Step 2: Navigate to: Macintosh HD/Users/(YourUserName)/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
Note* On OS X Lion, your Library folder will not be shown. You'll have to navigate there a different way. The way I did it was:
Click the "Go" option up in the Finder menu bar.
Toward the bottom of the pull-down menu, click on the "Go to Folder..." option.
Type "~(YourUserName)/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
Once there, I searched through all the folders included and deleted anything that ended in ".plist" or ".log". This way, Address Book is completely reset when next open it.
Step 3: Open Address Book, add at least one contact if none are automatically created for you, and make sure iCloud is Disabled (if an account is there) in your Address Book Preferences pane, which you find by clicking "Address Book" in the top menu bar. Then, quit Address Book.
Step 4: On your iPhone, open your Settings app, go to the iCloud option, and turn all services off. After turning each one off, it will ask you if you want to keep the data on you phone. Always select "Yes", otherwise you may lose your data.
Step 5: Connect your iPhone to your computer, open iTunes, select your iPhone in the left column, select the "Info" tab, and check the box to "Sync Contacts"–further down on the page, in the Advanced section, make sure the Contacts checkbox is unchecked. If it's checked when you sync, iTunes will overwrite the contacts on your phone with the contacts from Address Book on your Mac.
Step 6: Sync your iPhone–This will sync the contacts from your phone to the Address Book app on your Mac.
Step 7: Open up Address Book, and add an iCloud account, or re-enable the one you disabled in step 3–This will sync all of those contacts to your iCloud account again. Then, you can also go back to the iCloud settings on your phone and turn all the services back on.
After all this, you should have been able to first sync your contacts from you iPhone back to your Address Book app on your Mac, then have them both synced up through iCloud with the same contacts being pushed everywhere.
Hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for all this, unfortunately it's still not helping me. Last week I turned on iCloud for contacts and not only did the iCloud sync fail, but now with iCloud off I haven't been able to sync iphone-to-mac thru iTunes.
I've checked that iCloud contact sync'ing is off, on both my Mac and iPhone. I've even turned off all other iCloud services on both devices. I followed your instructions precisely and even deleted more than you suggested from the App Support | Address Book folder. Step 6 just doesn't work. iTunes whips thru the Address Book sync progress when it should pause a bit to do the transfer—my Address Book archive is 44 Mb.
I have no desire to waste more time with iCloud, just want it to work the old fashioned way. I'd gladly do a clean system re-install but not sure even that would do it…hard to tell where the problem lies.
Appreciate any light you could shed!

My phone wont back up or sync to itunes 10.6. i have a windows 7 32 bit laptop. i have tried updating the ios and receive the message saying it cannot connect to the iphone update server please check network connection. any help

have a iphone 4. i have downloaded the latest version of itunes to update the ios. I am having problems with the back up and sync and also the update. the update error message is coming up saying it cannot connect to the iphone update server. I am useing a windows 7 32 bit laptop. I have also reset my phone to factory settings. Would taking it to one of the stores and they would do it for me??
any help will be great thank you

All I can tell you is that I am having the exact same problem with an iPod Touch and that I was running iTunes 9.2.1.5 at the time it happened. Upgraded to 10.0.0.68 hoping that it might help, but no joy.
I don't want to do a restore just now since the Touch seems to be working fine. Restore will have to wait until I have plenty of free time in case something goes wrong.

I need to back up and sync multiple iPhones to a single iMac. Each iPhone has a separate Apple ID and the data from each iPhone needs to be backed up separately from the others. How can I do this without getting all of the contacts, etc. mixed? Tnx

I need to back up and sync multiple iPhones to a single iMac. Each iPhone has a separate Apple ID and the data from each iPhone needs to be backed up separately from the others. How can I do this without getting all of the contacts, etc. mixed? Tnx

This might help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1495.

Can I use Google Sync to transfer only my contacts from my IPhone 4 to my gmail acct? I don't want to sync info from Gmail to the IPhone. Can the sync work only one-way? I have 0 contacts on my gmail as I'll only use it as a back-up 4 my IPhone contacts.

Can I use Google Sync to transfer only my contacts from my IPhone 4 to my gmail account? I do not want to sync info from Gmail to the IPhone. Can the sync work only one-way? I have 0 contacts & 0 calendar events on my gmail account. I opened the Gmail account specifically to for the Google Sync and wil only be using this account as a back-up for my IPhone contacts. Please Help!!

You do realize that the SIM only contains account information for your wireless account.
Moving the SIM from phone to phone does not cause any of your iTunes content, contacts, email, etc to magically appear on the device.

Hi, today I upgraded my iphone 4 to an iphone 5. I backed up and synced my data on itunes and icloud. My new iphone however reverted to my 2011 phone settings. how do i get yesterday's settings back and get my contacts and photos from icloud onto new phon

Just to give you a bit more detail. I upgraded my iphone 4 to an iphone 5 today. Last night I backed up and synced all my messages, photos and contacts on itunes and icloud. When I connected the new iphone 5 to itunes today, it somehow reverted back to my old phone settings from 2011 :S So now, I have apps, particularly games, that are incomplete. My contacts have numbers that are out of date and I have none of the photos that were taken in the past year. My 2012 messages are gone and old messages from 2011 are there. Now, all my phone data had been regularly stored and synced with itunes and icloud. So why did it revert back to 2011 phone settings and how can I get it to change to the settings that existed last night? Also all my information on icloud, how do I get that onto my new iphone? If I go on www.icloud.com and sign in, all my photos, contacts, mail and messages are there, but I have no idea how to transfer that to my new iphone 5. Any help on all of these issues would be appreciated, thanks.

In Regards to this, You possibly wont be able to get the contacts from the iPhone 4 unless there is a back up file on your computer.
The original phone would be disabled due to alot of attempts of the wrong passcode. If all your contacts are on the cloud at the moment, you would be able to just set the iPhone 4S up with iCloud on it then Turn On "Contacts".
This would be bring all the contacts down from your iCloud onto your 4S.
But you will only be able to merge your contacts with the cloud when your original iPhone either has been enabled or the passcode was entered.
If you have previously already had iCloud on that device and have contacts Turned on, you will be able to just enter the same Apple ID you used for iCLoud on your original phone and use it on your new one.
Your able to check what content your iCloud holds via www.icloud.com
If you are unable to get past the disabled screen, then unfortunately the device will have to be put into recovery mode and then restored via iTunes NOTE: This will delete all data.

Sync performed on new iphone 4, and all my new info (contacts, pics, etc.) GONE! It went back to my old iphone info.... how do I get my iphone 4 info back!!??

sync performed on new iPhone 4, and ALL my new info (contacts, pics, etc) GONE!! It went back to my old iPhone info... how do I get my iPhone 4 info back?? The look and everything about the phone is like I have the older version!!! I'm sure the data was backed up... but where, and how do I retrieve!!???

If you don't have the prior computer backup files, you may want to look at this to get your information from the phone:
http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php

I damaged my iPhone 4. I have ordered a new 4s. I never backed up or synced my contacts onto my sim card. Do you have to do that manually or will my contacts be on my phone when I put my sim card in the new iPhone 4s?

I damaged my iPhone 4. I have ordered a new 4s. I never backed up or synced my contacts onto my sim card. Do you have to do that manually or will my contacts be on my phone when I put my sim card in the new iPhone 4s? (Will I be able to put my 4 sim card in my 4s?

The iPhone under normal circumstances does not store contacts on the SIM Card. It can read them, but again under normal circumstances does not write them to the SIM Card.
When you sync your new iPhone to iTunes on your usual computer you can restore from a Back-Up of your old iPhone to get Contacts and other data and files installed on your new iPhone.

My Iphone 4s automatically synced when I started ITunes. When it did this it saved all of my pictures on my computer to my phone. How do I reverse this and take the pictures back off of my iPhone?

My Iphone 4s automatically synced when I started ITunes. When it did this it saved all of my pictures on my computer to my phone. How do I reverse this and take the pictures back off of my iPhone?

Yeah, my iPhone 4S sometimes manages to connect to wifi for about 10 minutes now. I think there is a problem related with the antenna because when the phone heats up, the WIFI stops working. I had a similar experience with my older iPhone 4S which I bought from the U.S.A. (unlocked version) but after a couple of days, WIFI icon grayed out and I wasn't able to switch it on and off. Now the phone I'm using was bought in Turkey from a local carrier, (it's not locked I suppose) I'm planning on upgrading to an iPhone 6 and I will try to get my 4S repaired. I hope it is something related with software rather than hardware. Because a friend of mine sent his phone to the local Apple store to be fixed, they sent the phone back claiming that they had repaired it. But in about 2 days, the phone shut itself down and never turned off back again lol. I don't want to experience the same thing. But anyway, thanks for your answer. At least now I know that I'm not the only one that has this problem .

Backing up or Syncing iPhone question

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