iPhone 5 or earlier Backup to get contacts back?

[duggram]

After the last few updates I noticed that a lot of my contacts and contact information is/are missing. When I try to restore from iTunes it wants to back up my current iphone data. Won't that wipe out previous backups, which would insure that I lose my contact information from earlier backups?

When I select to restore without a current backup I get a warning that all of my settings will go back to the factory defaults. How do I get my previous contacts and contact information back?

 

[noobinator]

Contacts restore when you log into your Apple ID. If you are logged in and this isn't working something is wrong.

When you log into www.icloud.com and click on contacts are they showing up there? If not, they are gone.

 

[duggram]

I don't use iCloud.

 

[Minorite]

Get iMazing trial version, open your iTunes backup and check if you see the missing contacts. If they are all there, get the license and transfer them to your phone as vCards (export as vCards from a backup to computer, then import vCards to the device). No backup restore needed and iTunes backup won't be affected.


Longer way: you can try to archive iTunes backup first, check this. But imo it's also better to save the backup manually to another location. Are you on Mac or Win?

 

[duggram]

Thanks for the reply. I'm on a '12 MacBook Pro. Good old laptop.

I'm not understanding what is really happening here. In iMazing app I can from my backup last summer that all of my contact information is there. Why can't I use macOS to reover these backups? I have to pay ~$45 for this software to access what is already there.

 

[Minorite]

Thanks for the reply. I'm on a '12 MacBook Pro. Good old laptop.

I'm not understanding what is really happening here. In iMazing app I can from my backup last summer that all of my contact information is there. Why can't I use macOS to reover these backups? I have to pay ~$45 for this software to access what is already there.

There's no UI for this in macOS/iOS, unfortunately. Only third-party apps allow you to browse backups.

To save the backup, go to Finder > Go > go to specific folder > copy&paste '~/Library/*user name*/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup'. It should open iTunes backup location. Now copy all folders with 40 random chars in name to a safe location (like '123a32w11ert...', these are your backups). After this you should be safe to make a new backup.

To make the backup visible for iTunes, just copy it back to '~/Backups' folder when you will be ready to restore.

And about iMazing, I would strongly recommend this app at least due to incremental backups. No pain with 'oh damn I've overwritten my main backup' is a lifesaver sometimes. Also there's a last day of MacWorld sale, iMazing is only $20 (these sales seem to be regular though).

 

[duggram]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this and the information. Especially appreciate the savings. I ordered.

 

[newellj]

There's no UI for this in macOS/iOS, unfortunately. Only third-party apps allow you to browse backups.

To save the backup, go to Finder > Go > go to specific folder > copy&paste '~/Library/*user name*/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup'. It should open iTunes backup location. Now copy all folders with 40 random chars in name to a safe location (like '123a32w11ert...', these are your backups). After this you should be safe to make a new backup.

To make the backup visible for iTunes, just copy it back to '~/Backups' folder when you will be ready to restore.

And about iMazing, I would strongly recommend this app at least due to incremental backups. No pain with 'oh damn I've overwritten my main backup' is a lifesaver sometimes. Also there's a last day of MacWorld sale, iMazing is only $20 (these sales seem to be regular though).

Thanks for mentioning the sale pricing on iMazing. HNY!

FYI/FWIW, if I understand your post correctly, you can also save old backups by archiving them in iTunes>Preferences>Devices>left click/'archive'

 

[Minorite]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this and the information. Especially appreciate the savings. I ordered.

Glad I could help

Thanks for mentioning the sale pricing on iMazing. HNY!

FYI/FWIW, if I understand your post correctly, you can also save old backups by archiving them in iTunes>Preferences>Devices>left click/'archive'

Yes, at least for Mac users (was sure this should be possible on Win as well, but no ). Imo it's still better to save a copy on an external drive just to be safe. Also as far as I understand archived backup is still a full backup, so that may be a problem if you have 256 GB SSD for example. That's why I love iMazing, backups are incremental and keeping a long backup history is much less painful.

p.s. Happy New Year everyone!