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Backup vs sync in iTunes

TitanTiger

TitanTiger

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2009
422
85
While we were on vacation my brother in law upgraded to an iPhone 4 and I bought his old 3G and jailbroke it using Spirit. I also unlocked it to use on TMobile. Now that I'm home, I wanted to sync it or back it up so that I wouldn't lose apps and such. I don't have any music or videos on it but would like to do that eventually also.

I have two questions.

1. I tried to sync some TV shows and it said that this iPhone was associated with another iTunes library so the sync would erase what was on the phone and replace it with what's on my Mac. My question here is, does it just erase things like videos and music, or will it also torch my apps and erase the jailbreak?

2. I notice when you right click the iPhone icon in the left side pane in iTunes there's a "Back up" option. Does that backup all of my apps to iTunes without erasing data on the phone or messing up the jailbreak?

TIA
 
TitanTiger said:
While we were on vacation my brother in law upgraded to an iPhone 4 and I bought his old 3G and jailbroke it using Spirit. I also unlocked it to use on TMobile. Now that I'm home, I wanted to sync it or back it up so that I wouldn't lose apps and such. I don't have any music or videos on it but would like to do that eventually also.

I have two questions.

1. I tried to sync some TV shows and it said that this iPhone was associated with another iTunes library so the sync would erase what was on the phone and replace it with what's on my Mac. My question here is, does it just erase things like videos and music, or will it also torch my apps and erase the jailbreak?

2. I notice when you right click the iPhone icon in the left side pane in iTunes there's a "Back up" option. Does that backup all of my apps to iTunes without erasing data on the phone or messing up the jailbreak?

TIA
Click to expand...

Back up (at least to me) is settings, texts, everything that is not synced.

The music, apps, photos, calendar, bookmarks, etc are synced.

Both can be replaced on a new phone if you upgrade or back to the same phone if you restore.
 
Assuming that's true (a couple of articles on Apple's site may indicate it's not, but that's a side issue), whither my jailbreak? Do either of these options bork up the jailbreak?
 
TitanTiger said:
Assuming that's true (a couple of articles on Apple's site may indicate it's not, but that's a side issue), whither my jailbreak? Do either of these options bork up the jailbreak?
Click to expand...

Yes and no

After a restore or upgrade/jailbreak, I recommend you always choose set up as new. Restoring to backup can possibly cause battery issues, bring back old jailbreak problems.

I can assure you that everything you had on an iPhone can be synced back via backup or restore if you wish. I have done so a number of times.

But, for my own phones I ALWAYS choose set up as new.
 
So, forgive me I'm new to this JB stuff....you don't restore from backup then how do you recover things like contacts and such? And do you go back and reinstall all of your apps one by one again each time?
 
Ok, so if I were to go ahead and tell iTunes to sync my phone, what's going to happen? Will it take all my contacts and other info from the iPhone and put it into iTunes and not harm my jailbreak?
 
TitanTiger said:
Ok, so if I were to go ahead and tell iTunes to sync my phone, what's going to happen? Will it take all my contacts and other info from the iPhone and put it into iTunes and not harm my jailbreak?
Click to expand...

Correct, unless you already have a prior sync in iTunes with the same name phone, then it will merge the old and new data. But it will not harm your jailbreak or unlock. Only an update or restore will do that.
 
Ok, when I tried to sync up some TV Shows I got a dialog box with this message:

The iPhone "iPhone" is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library?

An iPhone can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPhone with the contents of this iTunes library

So when it says "erase this iPhone", it's only talking about erasing things like music, TV shows and such, not the jailbreak/unlock and all my settings?

And once again, thanks for explaining some of this stuff to a n00b. I'm totally confident jacking around under the hood of my Mac or a Windows box. But this is my first time messing with a jailbroken iPhone and I don't want all my hard work to go to waste because I did something careless or stupid.
 
TitanTiger said:
Ok, when I tried to sync up some TV Shows I got a dialog box with this message:

The iPhone "iPhone" is synced with another iTunes library. Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with this iTunes library?

An iPhone can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPhone with the contents of this iTunes library

So when it says "erase this iPhone", it's only talking about erasing things like music, TV shows and such, not the jailbreak/unlock and all my settings?

And once again, thanks for explaining some of this stuff to a n00b. I'm totally confident jacking around under the hood of my Mac or a Windows box. But this is my first time messing with a jailbroken iPhone and I don't want all my hard work to go to waste because I did something careless or stupid.
Click to expand...

Correct, iTunes will not remove your jailbreak and unlock unless you upgrade/restore. Didn't I already tell you that ?

Done here !
 
You did. I'm sorry. I'm just one of those measure three times, cut once types. I appreciate your help.
 
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