How can I check if I backed up my iphone

Question

I have had to restore as new due to restrictions passcode being locked and not being able to delete any applications. The help info I received told me not to do a restore backup if I wanted to unlock the code.
I had backed up the phone earlier, but can't find all the apps etc that were on it. Does this mean that the backup didn't work?

Answer 1

Don't know how it behaves in the Windoze world as I refrain from sleeping with the Enemy as much as possible, but in the Mac world, when iTunes does a sync with an iPhone, a local backup of all the apps found on the phone is stored in the Mac. Note that there will be two different stores: one contains the apps and another contains the phone's configs and data.
In iTunes' sidebar you will find an Apps section under Library. That will lead you to a display of all the locally stored apps either extracted from the phone or downloaded explicitly thru the iTunes Store's Apps dept. Rights-to-use are derived from your AppleID's entitlements and are, AFAIK, device-independent. In other words, unless the app's provider states otherwise, that local copy can be installed on all your devices.
How do you go about getting apps from your local iTunes cache of goodies to your iGadget? In iTunes' sidebar, the gadget will show up in the Devices section when plugged in. Choose it, select the Apps tab in the main windowpane, and install/remove to your heart's content.