First off I managed to bring my sync cable home with me for the weekend and forgot to bring it to work - was out most of the weekend and my iPod Touch was getting very low on battery power. No problem - I borrowed a cable from a coworker, plugged it in, synced it and went off to get some work done. Came back about 45 minutes later and it's still syncing. Looks like it's installing half a billion apps that are in my library, but were not set to be on the device. This has happened before, sometimes when I sync at home (even though it's not set to sync apps on my home PC) it decides to install all my apps. OK, left it alone for a bit longer. Came back probably an hour later and my iPod is stuck at the apple screen. Again, I've seen this before, sometimes there's a long boot especially with all those new apps on there. Back again after 2 hours - still at the apple screen. A little nervous this time, reset the device. Apple screen. Left it alone again. Apple screen. So, I'm thinking, no problem, it ran a backup first, I'll try that. 20 minutes later I've got an iPod that has my settings, my saved photos, Calendar, Notes and contacts and NOTHING ELSE. Good job iTunes. If I didn't have the mind to copy my backup folder occasionally, I'd be completely hosed. I also see that my backup folder now has two folders in it where it originally had one. Anyone see that before with iTunes 9? Giving it one more chance to restore in case it was a fluke, but if that doesn't get it I'm going to be stuck restoring my last 3.0 backup and upgrading again... No way am I going to give up months of game saves & data. Only thing I'll lose that way is some achievements in Ramp Champ and time. Sorry for the rant, I'll go back to my coffee now.
This happened to me once, luckily i stopped it before it took all my games, off and it only took half. Lucky me I lost all my progress in those games. It stank.
Slight Update Interesting note, if I right-click my iPod in iTunes, and choose "restore from backup" there I have a choice of two backups now... I wonder how many backups iTunes9 keeps? Also, wasn't a backup supposed to restore my apps' settings? If not, what is the point of backing up? All my other important stuff syncs with Outlook.
I think iTunes keeps multiple backups in case you need to revert to some old backup instead. And it`s not just in iTunes 9 but was in iTunes 8 also. Just restore from the latest one there and you should be fine (Keep your fingers crossed just in case )
I believe that you could store unlimited backups as long as you have the HDD space. And I'm sure that a backup keeps up w/ all your app settings/info.
This has never been the case for me - there was just one folder in \Application Data\Apple Computer\Mobile Sync\Backup\{my UDID} Now there are two - the second one has a timestamp after the UDID Fingers are crossed!
After switching to mac, I see that when i go iTunes preferences and then to the Devices tab it only shows one backup (both 8 and 9) although with windows it showed several more.
Started the backup about 20 minutes before I started this thread - it's still syncing. Currently installing apps. Which makes me wonder, how does my app data return if it restores, then installs apps? Am I really doomed here and wasting my time? Can anyone vouch for restoring app data to an iPhone / iPod Touch?
It's the same thing when you get a new device: one sync brings in your settings, a second one brings in your music, videos, and apps. Save data should come through without a problem.
Have you never done a full restore before? Mine takes about 6+ hours to competely reinstall everything from the scratch. But mine also has appx 13GB worth of music/vids/apps. Yours might take little less in case you have less data to move. I always leave it to be done overnight if there's ever a need to restore the iPhone.
Well it's been 5.5 hours since I started, but the "restore" portion didn't seem to take that long, right now it is in the "sync" portion, and iTunes says it is installing applications. I'll be very interested to see what it looks like when it gets done. As long as I get my app data (not just games, I've got music and other information) comes back, I'll be happy.
Just leave it there and forget that you have an iPod atleast for today. It does take a lot of time. Btw, how much is the progress bar showing in the iTunes right now. You should be atleast 75%+ done by now.
Sync finished a few minutes ago. Booted a few games, Isotope, Ramp Champ, all data gone. Went to the search panel and got a bit of a white flash, now I've got an Apple logo again. Depressing.
Well, if it's any comfort (I doubt it), that's not what's supposed to happen. Looks to me like you have a corrupted backup file. I believe that iTunes keep more than one back up file -- check the Apple website to see if you can get any info. This is one reason why it's important to back up your entire iTunes library (heck, your whole hard drive) regularly, and not just depend on the iPhone backup system.
True. I've got copies of older backups. This was my only post-3.1.1 backup. I don't have time to try backing up again today, will give the 3.0 backup a shot tomorrow.
Damn. Feel sorry for you. Btw similar thing happened to me too. My 2G iPhone also kept restarting and stuck on apple logo too. I had assumed that there was some hardware fault here when the problem didn't resolve even after restoring twice. Since my iPhone is unlocked, I didn't even have a warranty to save my ass. But restoring it as a new iPhone solved this restarting problem for me at the cost of all my games data, notes etc. I still think it's coz a part of my 16GB ram is damaged or something. I'll try to restore my old backup once I do get the new 3GS someday and see if it works. But If it's any consolation, I don't really miss that lost data as much as I thought earlier. But it still suck that everything is gone .
Success! I am happy to report that restoring my final 3.0 backup worked, thank God I kept a copy of that. Restore this time took 6 times as long as the restore from the 3.1.1 backup, which looked like it was a good sign. (and it was!) I lost everything since 9/9/9, not too bad. Funny thing is this time my app arrangement was screwed up. It got that right last time. No big deal. Definitely was something that got installed, perhaps the sheer number of apps did it - before I restored this time I spent some time removing as many apps as I could from my library before restoring/syncing - as the restore that was missing all my app data also hung on me (apple screen) while I was poking around. So this time I'm going to steer clear of 3.1.1 for a little while - I want to have my iPod with me (and not spending all day syncing) for a while!
