HT1766 How can I select an older backup to restore my device from, rather than restoring from last backup performed?

Question

I did a backup after doing a sync with my iTunes only to find that I un-ticked the sync apps box, resulting in my apps to be deleted and most of them losing their data. I have all the data of these apps on backups I did previously to the most recent one but don't know how to select older backups.
Is their anyway to restore my device from an older backup, rather than the most recent one?

Answer 1

Knowing where backups are stored is one thing, interpreting them (and getting them back to your iOS device) is another!
If you did your sync, but no backup immeiately after it (for some reaon some people do) then you may have success. Without connecting your iPad to our computer, go to the screen I mentioned in my earlier post and put a tick in the box PREVENT IPOD .... FROM BACKING UP AUTOMATICALLY and click OK. Then connect your iPad and restore from the previous backp if it is there! You can then go back and change the PREVENT...... setting.
When you get this all sorted out you can consider iCloud for additional backups. If you do not use iCloud routinely then you can switch it on temporarily to do a manual backup, even multiple backups.
However, you can trick iTunes into doing additional backups by changing the device name. For instance, you can do a backup under the device name of, say, Liam's iPad, then change the iPad name to Liam's iPad 1, Liam's iPad 2, etc with a backup under each name! Whichever backup name you use in due course to restore your iPad is the name that will appear as your device name under Settings on the iPad.