How do I select a specific restore file??

inkogneetoe

Background: Jailbroke my iPhone 3G iOS 4.2 all fine.(Backed up before hand)
Then went to restore the phone and after the restore all my SMS/contacts/photos are gone. I just selected restore and not a specific file.

After some googling Ive tried to shift click the restore button to restore from the origional backup but its not in the list. However if i browse to the \Mobilesync\Backup folder there is a backup file there that is time and date stamped for the original backup with a contents of 1.8GB but it doesn't show in the backup file list in itunes.

So how can i select this file or extract the SMS/contacts/photos?

inkogneetoe

Right Ive had an idea and its in progress.

Ive created an XP virtual machine,installed iTunes and copied the backup file i want into the MobileSync\Backup directory.

Just doing an iphone restore and then will try a backup from there. Am I mad?

Wish me luck

inkogneetoe

NO sucess

When i shift click the restore and browse to the file location there is nothing showing in the folder.

In the file type bar it looks for a .ipsw extension.

Why wont it just restore from that 1.8GB file?

Can anyone help?

inkogneetoe

Ive made separate copies of the backups and have tried merging the 1.8GB backup into one of the newer backups that work.No joy.

Ive tried various combos,replace all,replace all bar the .mbdb and .mbdx files as there was none in the original 1.8GB backup.

Anyone got any ideas on merging the files? Any backup extractor app ive tried cant seem to read this file either.

IamMetaldave

Give this a go. I managed to get contacts, sms and notes out of the backup as well as some photos. I recommend you do not put the notes file back on to your iPhone as I had all sorts of issues after.

The above is a bit of a pain to get through, I can not find the article I followed unfortunately, but this is very close.

inkogneetoe

Thanks IMD.:D Im not a Mac user so it wont be so straight forward as this but Ill give it a go and get back to you. Im busy with work so it could take awhile. :rolleyes:

inkogneetoe

I dont know why i didnt think of trying it but at least I thought of it now. I opened the backup file in Ubuntu and it shows all the photos videos etc. No stupid encription etc etc.

I love you Linux!!! Apple...meh...Windows....double meh!!

inkogneetoe

So a last update before I close this off (for anyone interested)

Ive gotten my contacts back on the phone: Exported the contacts from the backup file to .csv and synced via google account.

Ive gotten the photos/videos out of the backup file too. Browsed the bacupfile in Ubuntu to get them. Strange thing is i cant sync them back via iTunes,it says there is nothing in the folder. More research needed.

I have all my old SMS too in an excel file. would like to get them all back on too but thats yet another project.

Jakmeehan

I think you're pressing the incorrect "Restore button".

It sounds like you're pressing the Restore button on the first page of your iPhone in iTunes. This is to restore the OS.

You want to restore from a backup of a previous sync, correct? If so, right click the iPhone in the list on the left hand side and click "Restore from Backup". That should work...

inkogneetoe

Hi

Ya I know how to select the backup that way but the issue was that the backup file i wanted wasnt showing. eventhough it was in the Mobilesync/Backup folder. Anyway,almost all recovered now anyway.

Thanks for the reply

PS Can you mark a thread as closed/solved?

Missy86

how did you jailbreak/unlock your 3g i'm havin trouble unlockin mine..jailbroke it fine but cant seem to get it unlocked.

inkogneetoe

Initially tried greenpoison and it didn't work so then followed the tutorial on www.clarified.com and jailbroke with redsnow. Didn't do the full unlock as I'm not to sure about the base band issue yet. :-/