Will it be possible to transfer data from my busted 3GS to my new phone?
January 14, 2013 7:59 AM   Subscribe

I am one of those people who is overconfident in their own technical capabilities, and I attempted a DIY screen replacement on my iphone 3GS. It worked the first time, then I had to go in again because of another issue, replaced the LCD, and I now have a black screen. Considering that the phone is password protected, is there a chance that I can transfer the data to my new loaner 3GS? Is it lost forever? I am trying to get back into the phone and reset the connectors so that I can wipe off the password protection, but so far, the phone is resisting being worked on again....Am I SOL?

I am having trouble opening the phone again with my suction cup. I could try other ways to get it open and reset the connectors, but I don't want to force it and potentially lose access if there is a chance that I can pull my data from the phone as is. I haven't tried to connect the busted phone to itunes yet, I thought I read somewhere that I might not be able to get any data if the phone is p-word protected. I have not backed anything up to the cloud. I will definitely set things up in a different way once I get the new phone up and running (backup everything, no password protect), but what are the chances at this point that I am going to be able to get my data?
posted by lakersfan1222 to Technology (2 answers total)
 
Best answer: Do you mean a lock screen number password? That won't have any bearing on backing up or restoring.

Assuming the dock connector still works, you can back up the phone in iTunes and then "restore" the data to the new phone using these instructions. Just read the caveats about different iOS versions and you should be fine.

If you mean that you encrypted your backup (there's a checkbox for that in iTunes), your passwords will be stored in the backup; if you didn't encrypt it, you will have to re-enter them on the new device. You may have read something about encrypted backups causing issues with third party tools or something, but as far as I have seen they don't cause any trouble with the backup & restore procedure.
posted by bcwinters at 8:12 AM on January 14, 2013


Response by poster: Nope. iTunes says that I can't back up my phone because it is locked with a passcode. I am going to have to try to fix the LCD screen in order to unlock the phone.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 5:00 PM on January 15, 2013


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