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guineapig

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
169
0
Italy
I will soon be moving from 3G to 4S.
I would really like to make a "clean install", as I've seen many people having all sort of issues restoring other devices' backup.
I can move pretty much anything without restoring, just by syncing back from iCloud, and I can live without restoring 3G's app data and settings. The only thing I care is the SMS history.
Do you think there is a way to have the old SMS history without restoring from the 3G backup?

Maybe I can go with this:
1. Restoring from the 3G backup to the 4S
2. Syncing just SMS history from the 4S to iCloud (I've seen on my iPad I can cherry pick the applications I want to backup, does it work with SMS/iMessage as well?)
3. Restore the 4S as new and sync back the SMS history from iCloud, as well as contacts, calendars etc.

[I could easily do this after a jailbreak, but unfortunately that's not an option atm]
 
Last edited:

CrAkD

macrumors 68040
Feb 15, 2010
3,180
255
Boston, MA
There's an app called backup extractor or something that lets you extract only what you want out of a phone backup. I've never used it but I've heard good things.
 

guineapig

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
169
0
Italy
Thanks for the hint, I've looked into that and it can be useful to extract everything (also the message history) out of the backup, but after that, the restoring part can be done only by jailbreaking, unfortunately.
 

CrAkD

macrumors 68040
Feb 15, 2010
3,180
255
Boston, MA
Thanks for the hint, I've looked into that and it can be useful to extract everything (also the message history) out of the backup, but after that, the restoring part can be done only by jailbreaking, unfortunately.

Really? I assumed it just rebuilt the backup after extracting what you wanted. Well if it makes you feel any better I've been restoring the same backup since the 3GS and I'm having no problems with the 4s and I have text messages dating years back and I was jail broken the entire time until now.
 

drakkardnoir

macrumors member
Aug 8, 2011
42
0
OP were you able to find any solution to this? i am in the same boat and would like to do the same thing
 

AppleiPad

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2010
88
0
I've been restoring from backup since the original iPhone with countless number of jailbreaks during that time. I'm sure my backup is overcrowded and killing my battery now. +1 to hoping for a solution to this issue.
 

Kyotoma

macrumors 68000
Nov 11, 2010
1,996
46
Carnegie and Ontario
I've heard of an application out there, iOS or otherwise, called iPhone Finder that allows for you to view and edit the directory of your iPhone/iPhone backup. Given, it's risky business, but it might be helpful in your case. After you find your old texts I'm sure you could use that same tool to inject them into a fresh download of iOS.
 

AppleiPad

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2010
88
0
I've heard of an application out there, iOS or otherwise, called iPhone Finder that allows for you to view and edit the directory of your iPhone/iPhone backup. Given, it's risky business, but it might be helpful in your case. After you find your old texts I'm sure you could use that same tool to inject them into a fresh download of iOS.

It seems like that should be the case, but the injection is what I (and it seems like many others) are having problems with.
 

ToddJ

macrumors 6502a
May 23, 2008
564
24
i am looking to restore my sms from a backup as well. I have been trying to use TestFlight and it doesn't work. The only way i found that it will work is if i do a clean restore, but it would wipe out my messages of course.

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i am looking to restore my sms from a backup as well. I have been trying to use TestFlight and it doesn't work. The only way i found that it will work is if i do a clean restore, but it would wipe out my messages of course.
 

guineapig

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
169
0
Italy
I initially restored the 3G backup on my new 4S, but as the battery issues are very important, I want to try and set it up as new now.
I tried this method in any variant possible, copying the SMS file to the new empty backup and copying all the files that were in this new backup (sms included), back from the old backup, but there's no way to work around the iTunes backup checksum/encryption thing:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090624022758268
Anybody had any better luck as of now?
 

guineapig

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
169
0
Italy
You are the man. You really made my day. Thank you very much.
The app is also very intuitive!
 
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