help me recover backup on iphone

April 29, 2010 8:01 PM

Why can't I get Restore Backup to complete on my iPhone?

Hey everyone. I have an original model iPhone and use a mac mini with up-to-date iTunes software.

I was updating my iphone to new software a few days ago. And after the update it went to restore and i chose a backup to restore to - but then it was never able to complete restore. I tried to restore again, and it seems to restore to original settings just fine - with the globe screen and none of my contacts or anything, a clean slate. Ok, fine.

But I want my contacts etc!!! So again I click a backup to restore to, it goes through the process on iTunes again , from a screenshot today.

like this




Then it basically, according to Itunes, completes, and even indicates i have my photos, contacts etc. restored to the iphone, like this:


looks as it should when backed up, i had no music on it, just photos and other data



But when I look at my iPhone, the screen is stuck at the silver Apple with an empty status bar beneath it. Nothing I do gets it to go away and continue no to normal functioning. I have tried restoring to a backup many times in the past few days. It always works fine setting it up as a clean, like-new iphone, but then when i go to load in a backup during the restore, it leaves me with that screen, and iTunes thinking it's all set and done.

What is going on with my phone? Any way for me to fix it?

posted by Salvatorparadise to Technology (8 answers total)

In the "silver Apple with an empty status bar" mode, disconnect from the computer, and hold the power and home button for 20 seconds - that should restart the phone, and it may be enough to get you going.

Alternatively, if you can restore it to an empty state and you still have all the contact info in your Address Book on your mac, just set it up as a new phone, tell itunes to replace the contacts on your phone with those in your address book, and you're done..
posted by DreamerFi at 5:29 AM on April 30, 2010

i have tried the restart and it does not work, just takes me back to the same screen

and i never put these all in my address book on the mac - unless it did it automatically. i've never even used the address book on the mac.
posted by Salvatorparadise at 6:06 AM on April 30, 2010

Well, when iTunes syncs your contacts on your phone to the computer, it's generally putting them in the Address Book. Open it up and see.
posted by devinemissk at 6:10 AM on April 30, 2010

hmmm, OK, i did not know that! i'm home sick today w/o access to my mac at work where I do this, so i'll have to wait until tomorrow. And - does it put my photos anywhere I may not have looked?
posted by Salvatorparadise at 6:41 AM on April 30, 2010

By the way, have you tried restoring in recovery mode? I don't have an iPhone, but that seems to be the suggestion from Apple.
posted by devinemissk at 7:22 AM on April 30, 2010

And - does it put my photos anywhere I may not have looked?

iPhoto by default, although it can be turned off. If you haven't noticed it happening, I suspect it was.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:46 AM on April 30, 2010

i did try the recover mode process, but I couldn't make it happen for whatever reason

iTunes still sees photos on my phone, even tho that weird screen won't go away, so maybe i'll put iPhoto on and sync to see if it brings them in
posted by Salvatorparadise at 8:08 AM on April 30, 2010

thanks everyone

although neither contacts nor photos had ever backed up to my computer, even in my iphone's weird frozen state on that screen, i was able to activate syncing for photos and contacts, then pull them off the phone. Once i did that i restored to new, and put contacts and photos back on the phone. it's all set now.

thanks again
posted by Salvatorparadise at 5:21 PM on May 1, 2010