Restoring backup issues

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Monza

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#133418 21-Oct-2013 21:17

Apple have sent me a replacement iPhone 5, now I need to copy all data on the new one and send the old one back. I plugged my old one into my laptop, iTunes is already set to sync everything, did full sync, and then a backup. All good so far but when I plug the new one in, ask it to restore from backup I get an error saying that it can't find 38 apps, saying that they couldn't be found. I know that *some* of these apps no longer exist but doesn't the backup from my old phone include the *.ipa files of ALL my apps?

Bit confused, maybe I've missed a step somewhere... failing that is there some 3rd party software that can just make a ghost image of my iphone so I can restore from that?

MightyApe

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clicknz

442 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#919448 21-Oct-2013 21:44

Hi - AFAIK the backup does not include the apps themselves - it just remembers what you had on your old phone. It could be that the missing apps have not updated to be compatible (with iOS 7 I presume you're now running).
The apps are tied to the iTunes account that they were purchased under, so if you happen to have ended up with some apps that were downloaded on someone elses a/c then you'd need to be able to log in with those a/c details to get them.
If you still have the old phone you could right-click on the device when in iTunes and ask it to download purchases, which should manually get the apps from the phone onto your computer.
I don't know of any s/w that could clone one phone to the other... iTunes has always done a good job for me, but I (like a lot of people) often take the opportunity with a major s/w upgrade to start with a clean slate and set up the device as new, then manually sync with the content you want. Depending on where your content came from, the only thing that you may miss out on are your old text messages - apps, music, photos, notes ~should~ be on your computer ready to sync again.

Cheers,
Mike

Photographer/Videographer clickmedia.nz

CYaBro

3803 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Subscriber

#919471 21-Oct-2013 23:35

Try connecting old phone again and in iTunes right click on the phone on the left and select Transfer Purchases (something along those lines - not on my computer to confirm)
That will download apps you've purchased on the phone to your computer.

Monza

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#920736 23-Oct-2013 22:38

clicknz: Hi - AFAIK the backup does not include the apps themselves - it just remembers what you had on your old phone. It could be that the missing apps have not updated to be compatible (with iOS 7 I presume you're now running).
The apps are tied to the iTunes account that they were purchased under, so if you happen to have ended up with some apps that were downloaded on someone elses a/c then you'd need to be able to log in with those a/c details to get them.
If you still have the old phone you could right-click on the device when in iTunes and ask it to download purchases, which should manually get the apps from the phone onto your computer.
I don't know of any s/w that could clone one phone to the other... iTunes has always done a good job for me, but I (like a lot of people) often take the opportunity with a major s/w upgrade to start with a clean slate and set up the device as new, then manually sync with the content you want. Depending on where your content came from, the only thing that you may miss out on are your old text messages - apps, music, photos, notes ~should~ be on your computer ready to sync again.

I think you may be onto something, as although my phone only has one iTunes account that all the apps have been purchased with I have changed the region of that account from UK to NZ. Now that my account is set to NZ I think it's refusing to restore apps that were bought in the UK app store. Annoying because most of them are available in both regions. I'm going to try doing a backup and restore to the replacement device with my iTunes account swapped back to the UK (I still have valid UK credit cards) and see what happens.

Monza

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#920738 23-Oct-2013 22:40

CYaBro: Try connecting old phone again and in iTunes right click on the phone on the left and select Transfer Purchases (something along those lines - not on my computer to confirm)
That will download apps you've purchased on the phone to your computer.

Looks like they have moved this option (I remember it too) in iTunes 11. You know go to file, devices, transfer purchases. I've found a lot of .ipa files in C:\Users\$username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Mobile Applications but not the ones I'm looking for...