Restore - what do you lose?

chewed

I have an iPhone 3GS which is jailbroken. I want to restore the device and put the iOS 4 onto it.

From what I can see the only way to do this is to restore the device using iTunes. What I want to know is:

a) is this a good idea?
b) is it worth getting iOS 4 on a 3GS?
c) what do I lose if I restore the device? (I have all my music, photos and videos backed up). Do I lose all my SMS messages, phone numbers, apps I've already purchased? App history (e.g. will it remember what levels I've completed in Angry Birds?)

DubDJ

By doing this it looks like the only thing you'll lose is your jailbreak. I don't know if your talking about upgrading to iOS 4 or iOS 5 but if it is iOS 5 then you will lose the jailbreak and have to wait until a new one comes out for iOS 5. iOS 4 can still be jailbroken (Up to 4.3.3 i think)

All app's, data, contacts, sms should be fine. But their are cases where people lose certain data after upgrades. But it's not supposed to happen.

chewed

Thanks! I was just worried I would have to reinstall everything again.

Sad Professor

As long as you have backed up and synced all your music etc, then you shouldn't lose anything. After wiping the phone and installing the new OS, iTunes will restore everything.

DubDJ

Just make sure you backup and sync your iPhone before you try anything.

culabula

Sad Professor wrote: »

As long as you have backed up and synced all your music etc, then you shouldn't lose anything. After wiping the phone and installing the new OS, iTunes will restore everything.

Unfortunately, it's incredibly erratic. Having done almost 20 machines since the 12/10, quite simply, sometimes it restores everything, occasionally it doesn't, despite backing up and despite watching it restore the backup. Usually minus apps. Easily retrieved.

ciaran76

Would text messages restore too ?

DubDJ

ciaran76 wrote: »

Would text messages restore too ?

They're suppose to but sometimes they disappear. Just problems with the update process for some.

culabula

ciaran76 wrote: »

Would text messages restore too ?

Usually. At least with iCloud, this will be a thing of the past.

jamesd

I ahev found on jailbroken devices you are best to do a clean restore, backup photos and contacts and transfer across purchased apps then do a restore and start afresh with a sync to bring across what you want.
I always backup my contacts to Outlook and at least you can see them in it and see they are all there.

chewed

jamesd wrote: »

I ahev found on jailbroken devices you are best to do a clean restore, backup photos and contacts and transfer across purchased apps then do a restore and start afresh with a sync to bring across what you want.
I always backup my contacts to Outlook and at least you can see them in it and see they are all there.

How do you backup contacts?

jamesd

I sync them to Outlook: If you dont use Oulook but have it on your machine create a dummy account,
If you use Outlook no need to create the dummy account
Once in itunes with the phone connected click the Under Contacts, click Sync contacts from, and then click Outlook and once you sync all contacts from the phone will go over to outlook.

See here
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/synchronize-outlook-and-apple-iphone-or-ipod-touch-contacts-HA010266802.aspx

chewed

jamesd wrote: »

I sync them to Outlook: If you dont use Oulook but have it on your machine create a dummy account,
If you use Outlook no need to create the dummy account
Once in itunes with the phone connected click the Under Contacts, click Sync contacts from, and then click Outlook and once you sync all contacts from the phone will go over to outlook.

See here
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/synchronize-outlook-and-apple-iphone-or-ipod-touch-contacts-HA010266802.aspx

Thanks!

coylemj

If you restore to a new device (e.g. an upgrade or replacing a lost/stolen device), the Wi-Fi passwords of known networks will not be restored, if the serial number is the same then everything will be restored.

If you don't have Outlook on your machine then I'd use Google to handle the contacts. Google has the advantage that they keep 30 days of backups of your contacts so if you completely fcuk up by accidently deleting contacts from the iPhone, you can sync., go into Google on the PC or Mac and do a restore and then sync. again to get them back.

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1069522&hl=en-GB

chewed

jamesd wrote: »

I ahev found on jailbroken devices you are best to do a clean restore, backup photos and contacts and transfer across purchased apps then do a restore and start afresh with a sync to bring across what you want.
I always backup my contacts to Outlook and at least you can see them in it and see they are all there.

i'm still confused about what to sync! You mentioned transferring across purchased apps. How do I do that? Basically I have not used iTunes in over a year. I've been using Media Monkey as my original PC with iTunes died. When I try to sync the Apps, it tells me that it will replace everything that I have on iTunes (which is nothing). so will I then lose all my apps?

120_Minutes

chewed wrote: »

so will I then lose all my apps?

if you go ahead you will at first, but once the phone is up and running, and you've signed in with your apple id, you can go to the app store>updates>purchased and tap "not on this iphone" and all the apps you used to have will be available to redownload

Shandon

Could anyone tell me what exactly I need to do before installing ios5 on my iphone 4? Do I need to back up my numbers, apps etc? Will need a step by step guide to it as am a bit clueless in truth!
Just clicked sync on itunes there and it seemed to work so am I good to get started now?

biko

This article explains how to use iTunes to back up, update, or restore your iOS device.

1. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
2. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414

Hope that helps.