Skip to main content

How to Backup Your Data in iTunes Sync Back Up, and Transfer Purchases

To most of us, the iTunes backup functionality is a mystery that we hope will pleasantly surprise us one day. We think weve saved our data by syncing our music playlists occasionally, but dont really give much thought to whether our data is protected. In this article, well remove some of the mystique, and give everyone some much-needed peace-of-mind.
When you plug your iPhone/iTouch/iPad into your computer and run iTunes, there are three forms of communication that you can request happen between your computer and the device: syncing, backing up, and transferring purchases.
Syncing

Syncing happens much more frequently; when your device is syncing, iTunes is making sure that the data on your computer and your phone are up-to-date with each other. Typically, this involves copying music or apps you have purchased on your computer to your device, making sure your calendars and address books match, and stuff like that. When iTunes syncs your device, it does not make a backup — this is the surprise that bites most of us later.
Backing Up

Less frequently, iTunes will make a backup of your device. You can tell this is happening because the iTunes status window (at the top of the iTunes window) will say “Backing up Name of Your Device”. This process actually makes a copy of all of your devices data from all of the apps (including the SMS app, Address Book app, Visual Voicemail if you have it, and all of your other apps). If you ever need to restore your device, the data from this process is what is used, not syncing.
You can see when your last backup was by opening iTunes, opening Preferences (iTunes –> Preferences), and clicking on the devices tab. If youre unhappy with how old the backup is, you can force iTunes to make a new backup in the main iTunes window by right-clicking on the device under “Devices” and clicking “Back Up”.
Transferring Purchases

In the syncing description, I said that syncing copies music and apps that youve purchased on your computer to your device — note that I didnt say a word about the other direction! If you purchase music and/or apps on your device, occasionally youll want to make sure these purchases are copied to iTunes on your computer in case something happens to your device. To copy your purchases, right-click on the device under “Devices” in the main iTunes window and click “Transfer Purchases”. I just did this myself and had five songs and twelve apps that I needed to copy to iTunes.
Backing Up Your Texts/Voicemails

As I mentioned above, the iTunes backup (not sync) does back up your SMS messages and your voicemails (if you have visual voicemail enabled). However, theres not any good way to view those messages with iTunes except to restore your phone from the backup. Thats where Decipher TextMessage and Decipher VoiceMail come in — those tools, and similar software, reads the iTunes backup files and makes its own history of your messages, including images, videos, and other files sent via MMS, so that you can view, save, copy, and print messages as you need them. I enjoy keeping my messages (especially my SMS messages) backed-up this way, because I can actually browse through the history — read old messages between my husband and I when were dating, look at photos my friends sent me, and copy-out information that I realized I never did put to use.
I hope this little post on data protection has been helpful to you. If you have questions, we encourage you to contact us.
Kelly Wilkerson is a Co-Founder of Decipher Media, a software company creating mobile and desktop software. If you have any questions about the contents of the article, please visit http://www.deciphertools.com or email Kelly at info@decipher-media.com
You can also view a video detailing the information in this article at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MjIhFPiFVs
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Safe and Secure Mac Storage,

Do not underestimate the importance of your Mac storage For new Mac users, storage isn’t really that high on your list of priories, so few people truly understand the benefits of having a large amount of Mac storage before it’s too late. Macs, just like PCs, need a lot of storage if you’re planning to use them personally, or in a business situation to store files or media. Why is that, you might ask? Well there are a lot of answers to the question so let’s go through them one by one. First of all files are getting bigger and bigger. For example, games that used to be 300 mb and now getting updated to be double that. The reason for this is that computers are getting larger and larger base storage capacity, so programmers have more room to add in extra options, or just be lax in their duties! If you think that you won’t be downloading or storing much, then a lower Mac storage option would suit your needs better, but it’s important to know the average file sizes of things you like to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Computers Are A Part Of Modern Life

Over the years, the image of the computer and those that use them has improved greatly, which shouldn't be much of a surprise. The computer industry has grown quite dramatically over the years, which has pushed people to want to go out and purchase one given all the benefits that it comes with. Regardless of how old or young the people in the home are, having a computer is certain to make things easier, which is always a good thing. It's very easy for you to see why the modern computer is able to impact young people so positively. Being able to access the internet ensures that you have access to almost limitless knowledge, enabling the younger generation to be able to take up interests in things that are not within their immediate vicinity, in addition to it being able to help children complete their homework and certain projects. It's also fair to say that there has been a large number of younger people that have been able to develop their personal s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Apple iPad Mini Reviews

The Apple announced the long-awaited tablet computer iPad mini and that was a real surprise, the fourth       generation   of the classic full size iPad. As usual, iPad mini are quite decent electronic toys that deserve a closer look. Reduced tablet Apple iPad mini is intermediate between the original iPad and the media player iPod touch.   This is evidenced by the original convex design back cover made of anodized aluminum, the main advantage of a tablet, as stated by the manufacturer, is the ability to hold it with one hand, thanks to its compact size, the diagonal of the display is of 7.9 inches, and the device weighs only 310 grams. As for the technical characteristics, they are more like figures iPad 2 model 2011, is the same display resolution (1024 × 768) and the same dual-core Apple A5, only slightly modernized.    Manufacturer has prepared as many as 12 variants of iPad mini, tablet PC is available in black an...
Post a Comment
Read more