Restoring from backup or new phone?

When doing a restore what is the difference between restoring from a backup or new phone? Is there an advantage one way or the other?

The backup for your iPhone that is created and maintained by iTunes, stores all your iPhone settings, SMS messages, recent calls, call favorites, notes created with the Notes application, alarms, cities tracked with the weather widget, stocks tracked with the stocks widget, Maps bookmarks, youtube bookmarks, etc., and photos captured by your iPhone - but I wouldn't depend on this one. Photos captured by your iPhone should be imported to your computer as with any other digital camera. Basically the backup stores all data not included with the iTunes sync process.
If you Restore as a new iPhone, or not from your iPhone's backup, you lose all settings, and all other data stored with the backup.
Your iPhone's backup is updated if needed as part of the sync process - the very first step during the sync process. If you want or need to restore your iPhone, and you want to do this from your iPhone's backup, you should sync immediately before restoring to update your iPhone's backup if needed.

Similar Messages

Music not restoring from backup during new iPhone 5 setup

Quick question. Recently puchased iPhone5 and need to transfer everything from old iPhone4. I've performed a manual backup in iTunes. When connecting the new phone and selecting restore from backup, it restores everything but the music and the playlists. I have no idea why. This process worked with my phone, but when it comes to my wifes the music never restores. The only difference between the 2 devices is that she likes to manully manage her music, so the sync only checked items and the sync music boxes are unchecked. I don't see why this would prevent the music from being backed up though. Any suggestions?

rockmyplimsoul wrote:
Instead of manually managing the music on your iPhone, manually manage the contents of a playlist and auto-sync to that playlist. You're doing the same thing, just managing a playlist instead of your phone. The beauty of this is that you never lose track of what you manually chose to sync to your iPhone.
Oh that's what I do now, lol. I just (naively) assumed that my phone was doing that for me, so to speak. When I first put music on my phone (manually) I assumed that if I manually synced my music, the information relating thereto would be included in my backup data. If I had known it wasn't, I would have dumped all my songs into an "iPhone" playlist and then copied that playlist to my phone. Problem solved. I just didn't know that at the time.
iTunes, and Apple in general, does so many good things that this clearly isn't a huge complaint. But it strikes me that most people who manually selected their "iPhone" music probably don't want to "lose" that carefully selected music when they upgrade their phone. And maybe I'm an idiot but it took me a little digging to wind up here to find out why my music hadn't transferred, and how to go about "rectifying" it (ie you bloody can't, really, you just start anew).
Maybe I'm asking too much, but I find it strange that there isn't an import feature on the iPhone - provided the corresponding file is found on the iTunes being used. Especially since it's the same computer the phone is synced to, to begin with. A) I'm giving music to myself, B) I'm not even giving myself music, because I already have the corresponding music in iTunes, so there's clearly no threat of file-sharing. Barring that, maybe a warning when you choose to manually sync music to your phone. (Apologies to Apple if I'm wrong, but I don't remember seeing one.)
Again, this clearly didn't ruin my life, but everything on my phone synced seamlessly except my music. It only took me 15 minutes or so to recreate my iPhone playlist, but it took me a good hour to figure out why I had to (and how to avoid having to in the future). It was a strange hiccup from a company that pretty much always makes my life easier (unless I need to run Flash).
In the end I got to read a bunch of Allan's posts, which did provide some entertainment

Can I restore from backup to new device without SIM

I have a 4s and should be receiving my new iPhone 6 tomorrow. I plan to hand down my 4s to my son who currently has a 3gs.
Can I backup my 4s, then setup my new iPhone 6 by using that 4s backup BEFORE I call in to AT&T and have them transfer my line over to the new phone?
Also, if after I do that, I reset my 4s (to factory settings), then can I set it up with iTunes to restore from my son's 3gs backup, then call AT&T to migrate his number over to the 4s?
I know this sounds confusing, it does to me. Basically what I'm asking is do I need to first put in the new SIM and tell AT&T, THEN restore from the backup, or can I do all that first, then set it up with AT&T.
Thanks!

You are working with 3 different SIM card sizes. All three take a different size SIM. Once you stop service on your 4S, that SIM is disabled. You would need a new SIM for the 4S. While you could backup and the 3GS and restore that to the 4S, and you could activate it with the disabled SIM, you couldn't transfer his service to that SIM, he would need a new one from AT&T. You can backup the 4s and restore the 6 to that one. The time you call is not important, except that you may not be able to complete the activation of the new device after restoring the backup until you call and activate the SIM that came in the iPhone 6. Check with AT&T and they can help. If you have a corporate store in your area, you will be able to get all of that done in-house.

HT201269 how do i restore from iCloud on new phone?

I have a new 4s that I got from the AT&T store.
They got me up and running by getting my contacts downloaded.
Now I've hooked up to iPhone to restore from iCloud.
Do I want to restore or do I want to back up?
I can't figure out how to get my music to migrate to my new phone.
I have backed up my old phone to the cloud.
I don't seem to be getting the automatic prompts all the articles talk about and I think it's because at the store they only did contacts.

If you backup with iTunes and you restored from the backup and the data are gone, then there is no where to retrieve them from unless you have another backup that contains those data.
Launch iTunes on the computer and go to iTunes>Preferences>Devices. You will see a window with all of your backups listed in it.
If you see a recent backup that you are certain contains the data that you need, recover deleted data from iPhone backup.
If your note is gone from iCloud.com there is only a few ways to possibly recover it.
The first things I would check is a iCloud Backup, a iTunes Backup, or a 3rd party email that may have contained the note. To restore from a iCloud or iTunes backup follow this link. This article explains how to restore a device from either back up.
Note if you have backed up since the note went missing, you will not have the note on the backup. Make sure you do not back up if trying to restore from a back up as this will back up the content without the note.
To get to the "Set up assistant" on an iOS device, you must go to Settings>General>Reset>Erase All Content and Settings. Once the phone restarts, you will be at the "Set up Assistant"

Restoring from backup to new iPhone 4G

Here's an interesting scenario.
I had my iPhone 3G stolen a month ago. I have a fairly recent backup on my PC in iTunes. I am waiting patiently for the new iPhone 4G and when I do get it, can I restore my data from backup onto the new phone? Are there any gotcha's or different steps and what are the steps to restore?
Thanks in advance!

Nope should work fine. You can even carry out a restore of an iPhone backup to an iPad =0)

HT1414 iPad restore from backup or new????

Hi ... While on holidays and adding a new application to my iPad ... I forgot my new password and had to reset my iPad up as new iPad!
I am now home and would like to add apps/files from my home computer! When I had plugged it in ... it asks me if I want to set up as 'new iPad' or restore from previous back up ... I am not sure what to do as I don't want to lose what I now have on the iPad since setting it up while on holidays!
What should I do????
HELP!!!!
Thanks
J

There's a chance you can recover the backup using Windows System restore (restoring to an earlier restore point) or mac Time Machine. If it's there you will find it at one of the following locations:
Mac OS: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
Windows XP: %AppData%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
Windows Vista: %AppData%\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
Windows 7: %AppData%\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
If you find it, put it on a flash drive then revert your system back to its current status (by undoing System Restore or ending Time Machine), then copy this backup from the flash drive to it's original location.

Restoring from backup to new location + not wanting files renamed

Hi there - I am a newbie to this forum.
I have a Win XP machine that recently needed to have the hard drive wiped and the OS re-installed. Fortunately I had a recent backup of all my data so I'm in a good starting position for a restore. However I have some questions as the re-install of the OS has had a change in profile name.
Before my machine was wiped, I had a "Daniel" profile and so my "iTunes Media folder location" was set to C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\My Documents\My Music.
After my PC was rebuilt, a new profile was created called "dnl". iTunes has been re-installed (version 10.1.2.17). The first time I launched iTunes the "iTunes Media folder location" was set to C:\Documents and Settings\dnl\My Documents\My Music. I did NOT choose to have iTunes browse/load my files and so currently iTunes shows no files or playlists.
I have recreated the C:\Documents and Settings\Daniel\My Documents\My Music folder from my backup so all the music files and the previous libraries are presently in this location. However even if I change the "iTunes Media folder location" within iTunes to point to the "old" location, it doesn’t find the files or libraries.
I have tried deleting the following files from C:\Documents and Settings\dnl\My Documents\My Music\iTunes:
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Music Library.xml
I did this assuming that the next time iTunes was launched, it would refer to the old location (as specified as my "iTunes Media folder location"), find the old library files there and use them. However it seems to ignore them and simply re-creates the files above in the location I deleted them from.
So…I am unclear as to the best strategy to have iTunes point back to the old location to find the music files and retain all the playlists I had.
I found this thread: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364. It mentions a method that will find all the files in the old location and move them to the new location, retaining playlists, artwork etc. Once the data has been copied, it advises to delete the files from the original location.
However I see that it mentions checking the ‘Keep iTunes Media folder organized’ option. From reading other threads I know this to be a source of one very irritating problem – it renames all the file names. I have specifically ripped my music using software other than iTunes for the express purpose of being able to tag the filenames with more specific info than iTunes would. I like the files to named <artist>-<album>-<track no>-<track title>.<file extension> and am not a fan of the very basic filenames that iTunes assigns.
So…I want to have iTunes simply point back to the old location and not do any file renaming. I am happy enough to have iTunes simply point to a location that isn’t technically part of my current profile. I don’t have a desperate need for the files to be moved to the dnl profile.
So…I am guessing there has to be some other file (or registry setting?) that knows where best to point to? Can this modified?
I would be appreciative of any assistance.
Thanks!

Hi Daniel, welcome to Apple Discussions.
The default location for the iTunes library folder is <Profile><Music>iTunes with the media folder at *<Profile>\<Music>\iTunes\iTunes Media*. For XP the <Music> folder is My Documents\My Music.
When iTunes starts up it looks for a set of library files in the last location it used. If that location is also the default location and it can't find the library files it assumes it has just been installed and creates a new set.
Changing the location of the *iTunes Media* folder in preferences does not change which set of library files it opens, nor will it automatically detect all the media in that location.
Ideally you should restore the folder iTunes and all its subfolders from your backup into *C:\Documents and Settings\dnl\My Documents\My Music* and start iTunes. All should work perfectly and, as far as iTunes is concerned, you will be using the same library as you used to. Any iDevices should sync without problems.
If you media was not is the usual locations or you are unable to restore the entire iTunes folder then things become more complicated. Post back if you still have trouble and I will try to go into more detail.
tt2

Restoring from backup to a "new" phone

Hey guys, I just got in my "new" old phone to replace my old iPhone 4. I am trying to restore from backup and the phone keeps restarting as a new phone and doesnt restore. I keep clicking restore from backup and it doesnt seem to do anything.

Check to be sure the the "new" phone isn't running an older version of iOS than the old phone was when you made the backup. If it is, you will need to update the iOS first (you can't restore a backup that was made from a device running a newer version of iOS than the device you are restoring to).

IPhone restores from backup but continues to think it's a new phone?

I had to get my iPhone 4s replaced today because of a speaker problem and I just plugged it into my computer to restore from backup. I get the 'Welcome to your new iPhone' page in iTunes, choose my most recent backup, it seems to go through the entire restore process, but the only thing coming back onto my phone is my camera roll, and I can't sync anything else to it because when I try to access the sync info for the phone, iTunes continues to redirect me to 'Welcome to your new iPhone' and asks me if I want to restore a backup. I've tried restarting iTunes, restarting the computer (2009 Macbook Pro w/Mountain Lion), unplugging and plugging the phone, etc. Still won't let me get past the new phone setup screen.
Help?

Yes, if you have been backing up on a regular basis.
If this is your first time backing up, then no.
you can check edit - preference - backup - see what is listed

I recently moved to Australia and received a new iphone with a local AUS number. I have a backup of my US iphone in the icloud. Question: when I activate my new AUS iphone which option should I choose - new phone or restore from backup?

I recently moved to Australia and received a new iphone with a local AUS number. I have a backup of my US iphone in the icloud. Question: when I activate my new AUS iphone which option should I choose - new phone or restore from backup? I would like to have all my contacts, email, etc. however wasn't sure that option was appropriate since it is a different/new number and a new phone.

Yes, as new iPhone then restore from backup.

Every time I connect my iphone 4 to itunes it wants to either restore from backup or set up as a new phone.

every time I connect my iphone 4 to itunes it wants to either restore from backup or set up as a new phone. I've restored it 5 times already, i don't want to lose any of my data. Any ideas?

I had the same issue. Tried unplugging whilst it was restoring about 5 times - didnt work. I ended up clicking "set up as new iphone" and TADA it worked. I can now edit on itunes. I do however have every single app I've EVER downloaded on my phone. Apple should really make it so they go back on exactly how they were before!

Play a song from itunes? it will show the art work then skip three or four songs and start playing! How can I get it to play the songs I touch? This is a new phone but has been restored from backup. Not even all my icloud music is showing

play a song from itunes? it will show the art work then skip three or four songs and start playing! How can I get it to play the songs I touch? This is a new phone but has been restored from backup. Not even all my icloud music is showing

Hi amorg1876,
If your iPhone is skipping over certain songs, you may want to check out this article:
Troubleshooting songs that skip
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3217
Cheers!
- Ari

I lost my iphone4 and replaced it with a 4s. It's been a year since my last sync. Do I set up my phone as "new" or "restore from backup?" Im hoping game center will automatically have a current record of game data...please help or advise.thx

I lost my iphone4 and replaced it with a 4s. It's been a year since my last sync. Do I set up my phone as "new" or "restore from backup?" Im hoping game center will automatically have a current record of game data...please help or advise.thx

Restore from backup.

HT1766 After restoring my iphone 4 to factory settings, then restoring from a recent backup, my phone will reboot but keeps coming back to the "new setup or restore from backup screen". How can I by-pass this screen to go directly to the sync apps/music s

After restoring my iphone 4 to factory settings, then restoring from a recent backup, my phone will reboot but keeps coming back to the "new setup or restore from backup screen". How can I by-pass this screen to go directly to the sync apps/music screen?

Well, it's certainly behaving as though the phone that was backed up was synced to a different iTunes library.
I'm going to throw one more thing out there... Yes, you backed it up to this computer... Was the phone previously set up to sync with this computer? Or was it syncing with a different computer and you just backed it up to this one?
You may have to end up setting it up as a new device and rebuilding the phone by manually re-syncing your data, apps, music, etc. to the phone.
Trying to keep your library on a different drive can be tricky. If iTunes starts up and the library isn't available, it may end up generating a new library ID, meaning that you could easily find yourself in exactly the position you're in now...
I'm curious why there was a need to restore your phone to begin with... It may not have any bearing on this at all, but it could.

HT201269 Hello in trying to restore from backup to my new phone I'm receiving a 'restore failed' message which I can't get rid off to start again. Any ideas please?

Hello in trying to restore from backup to my new phone I'm receiving a 'restore failed' message which I can't get rid off to start again. Any ideas please?

Hi there HotFerrari,
It sounds like you are unable to restore your device from a backup you have in iTunes. I recommend the troubleshooting from the article named:
iOS: If you can't back up or restore from a backup in iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2529
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

Restoring from backup or new phone?

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