Is there any way to make an exact clone of my iphone contents and state?

December 15, 2011 8:15 PM

Is there any software from anyone at all that can clone my iphone, so that if it craters I can restore to its EXACT state before it died?

Yes, I know there's itunes (blech, i use it), but I actually never use my iphone for music, just for apps. Which i do the backups of with. The annoying thing is that any time I have had to restore the phone, then I have to spend an hour or so moving all the apps around and recreating my little app folders that they go in, then putting them where I want them on each screen... resetting up the settings if they were jacked with, etc. Anything? Jailbroken, maybe? (I don't use the phone as a phone either, I just use it as if it were an ipod touch, so I only use wifi). It's an iphone 4 if that matters.

posted by bitterkitten to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

iTunes will help you organize your home page and all your apps exactly in the state you want it, even between syncs of all the other data (music, etc.). Connect your iPhone, click on it in the device list, and click on the "Apps" tab to manage the app sync and home page organization.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:55 PM on December 15, 2011

Response by poster: yes, that's true - but I still have to do it, i'm pretty sure, even after a restore. I'm looking for something that will let me just go "restore it" and bam. Done. I doubt such a thing exists.. probably Apple needs to get that going themselves.
posted by bitterkitten at 10:00 PM on December 15, 2011

iTunes backups include pretty much all the data on the phone, including all the apps and their positions. Normally if you restore via iTunes it will ask if you want to use the backup (sounds like you do) or if you want to start over from scratch.
posted by xil at 10:18 PM on December 15, 2011

Best answer: This is exactly what the iTunes restore from backup does. When I moved from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4s, I just restored from my iTunes backup and it was like I was using my old phone: all the apps were there in the same place, all of my high scores were preserved, etc.
posted by griseus at 2:07 AM on December 16, 2011

Best answer: iTunes backup and restore functions do exactly this.
posted by Brian Puccio at 3:51 AM on December 16, 2011

Yup. Old phone died, new phone was restored to almost exactly the same condition, with the exception of passwords, when I restored from backup.
posted by rockindata at 4:48 AM on December 16, 2011

If you turn on encryption, it will even back up all your passwords, wifi networks - everything.
posted by lohmannn at 4:54 AM on December 16, 2011

iTunes will do this...but you'll want to keep the actual backup file in a different location than the default iTunes folder. The software is notorious for silently deleting what it considers "phased out" versions of backups during iTunes updates.
posted by samsara at 5:24 AM on December 16, 2011

You don't even need iTunes: this works just as well when you sync to iCloud. I had 4s with a dead pixel, walked into the Apple Store, got it exchanged in about 30 seconds, stepped away from the genius bar, logged back in to the new phone and all my settings and apps auto downloaded right into place, positions, folders, everything. Piece of cake. Only annoying thing is that when I left the apple store range, the app download part of it paused cause I was off WiFi, and auto-resumed as I entered my house (since the settings restore also included my home wifi login)

I feel like we must be misunderstanding your question somehow, but yeah, iPhones do this as part of standard backup/restore and I think always have.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 6:29 AM on December 16, 2011

Are you making another backup in iTunes after you do all your fiddling with positions and settings? Because I do this and when I've had to restore or move to a new phone, it all just comes across perfectly.
posted by advicepig at 8:09 AM on December 16, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks y'all. Maybe I'm a spaz, but previous restore attempts did not put all the settings back into apps, the iphone settings, nor the apps anywhere resembling proper locations. Perhaps I did something wrong, but either way, next time it happens, I'll observe exactly what I did before posting again. : )
posted by bitterkitten at 12:08 PM on December 16, 2011