Best/easiest way to BACKUP an iPad?

[617media]

Sorry, I know I just posted a thread. But I am not on here very often, so I thought i would take advantage and just quickly throw this issue I have had up...

I have an iPad2. I forget some of the policies regarding the mods/this forum, so I'll just leave out the details and say that I have kept my iPad iOS at ver 5.0.1 due to convenience..

Somehow, my iPad became corrupted - meaning that pretty much everything still functions fine - except that when I connect it to my MBP, the "bar" that shows how much space you have left/how your storage space is used - the entire bar is yellow or "other".

I can still install apps, but major things like being able to change/sync new music from my iTunes, add new videos/movies , etc. is not possible. When I try and sync from my computer, the iPad-iTunes list of what is on there is "greyed" out and likewise with the "sync" button. AKA. I cannot add any legal music/movies at all. Tried troubleshooting this for at least 2 hours a while back and no luck. The only solution and a pretty obvious one is to restore the whole thing and install the newest iOS and just start fresh.

However, I have a good number of valuable apps, saved data for them, notes, writing, videos, pics, etc. and I don't want to lose any of that.

I don't mind re-installing the apps one by one, I guess... but I want to make basically a full backup of everything just incase.

I can figure anything out that I need to do, but don't really have time/nor do I want to spend it searching for the way to do this most efficiently.

If anyone can point me in the direction of some software or quick instructions for my MBP that allows me to back this up safely so that I restore with peace of mind, I would appreciate it.

Unlike backing up a MBP - Apple does not appear to really give that many options for iPads. At least last time I checked..

thanks again .

 

[blueroom]

Was it jailbroken?

 

[basesloaded190]

Your iPad is backed up every time you sync with iTunes. As far as the "Other" showing up in iTunes, I think the best was to get rid of the that is to do a factory restore.

 

[xnickitynickx]

I would definitely restore it to get rid of the "other" problem. As for backing up. I find iCloud backup to be the best and easiest way to do it. when its plugged in overnight, it backs up automatically.

 

[BFizzzle]

Your iPad is backed up every time you sync with iTunes. As far as the "Other" showing up in iTunes, I think the best was to get rid of the that is to do a factory restore.

and setting it up as a new ipad, if not the backup will have the other files in it.

I know its a pain to set sync the apps again, and do your settings, but its nice getting rid of your other data.

Make sure you eject your ipad from itunes too. Doing so gets rid of the mount and cache.. pulling it out "unsafely" causes a lot of that.

 

[617media]

^^^ I realize that, I'm not an idiot.. even 80 year olds these days know thats how it normally works.. (@ basesloaded190, not you BFizzle)

Obviously if I could just back it up through iTunes like it is supposed to work, then I would not be asking this.


However, I can't for some unknown reason. Meaning that I need a way to backup - the equivalent of how you can make a .CCD clone copy of a computer's hard drive as a backup... or a handful of other ways. Whether it is a jailbroken solution or not, doesn't matter. Like a raw system file browser that I could run on my MBP and then just make a compressed folder of the entire iPad's files and everything... save it to my hard drive. Restore. Then update, and just be able to at least add back my Pages writing files, some other stuff.


Losing apps would be annoying, but I can always reinstall those. Just having a backup on my computer is the only thing that is important.


*And sorry - not being very concise today... if it wasn't obvious from what I just posted... the issue includes iTunes NOT automatically backing it up like normal.

It is clearly corrupted somehow. I have heard of this happening before to people. Not common but it happens for one reason or another. I can troubleshoot it and figure it out myself, but I would be much appreciated if someone here has gone through this themselves, or just knows a simple solution so I don't have to waste time searching around the web through a lot of BS to find the proper way to do it

 

[spiderman0616]

I'm sorry if you've already tried this, but I have all my backups set to go to iCloud now. I do no backing up on a local machine anymore, and I only keep iTunes running on my computer so I can home share files to my Apple TV.

When I switched from iPad 2 to iPad 3, I found that restoring from iCloud backup was completely effortless. It was literally "set it and forget it". It does take awhile to re-download everything, but once it's done, it's like you have your old iPad back.

 

[basesloaded190]

Every post telling you to do a restore or setting it up as a new iPad isn't an option for you?

 

[BFizzzle]

^^^ I realize that, I'm not an idiot.. even 80 year olds these days know thats how it normally works.. (@ basesloaded190, not you BFizzle)

Obviously if I could just back it up through iTunes like it is supposed to work, then I would not be asking this.


However, I can't for some unknown reason. Meaning that I need a way to backup - the equivalent of how you can make a .CCD clone copy of a computer's hard drive as a backup... or a handful of other ways. Whether it is a jailbroken solution or not, doesn't matter. Like a raw system file browser that I could run on my MBP and then just make a compressed folder of the entire iPad's files and everything... save it to my hard drive. Restore. Then update, and just be able to at least add back my Pages writing files, some other stuff.


Losing apps would be annoying, but I can always reinstall those. Just having a backup on my computer is the only thing that is important.


*And sorry - not being very concise today... if it wasn't obvious from what I just posted... the issue includes iTunes NOT automatically backing it up like normal.

It is clearly corrupted somehow. I have heard of this happening before to people. Not common but it happens for one reason or another. I can troubleshoot it and figure it out myself, but I would be much appreciated if someone here has gone through this themselves, or just knows a simple solution so I don't have to waste time searching around the web through a lot of BS to find the proper way to do it

well i don think you can make an image of the device that can be put back on the device.

IMO the best bet would be downloading i-funbox.
It lets you view the entire iphone files incase you didnt know.

LINK

How to save Contacts Database:

◦go to /private/var/mobile/Library/AddressBook
◦you will find 2 files there. save them on your computer

how to save Messages Database:

◦go to /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS
◦Save sms.db on your computer

How to backup Calendar:

◦go to /private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar
◦Copy Calendar.sqlitedb to your computer

How to backup Notes:

◦go to /private/var/mobile/Library/Notes
◦Copy notes.db and notes.idx to your computer

How to Copy photos (on windows you can go to mycomputer)
or
◦go to /var/mobile/Media/DCIM/

How to backup Mail:

Email itself doesn't need any backup. Your iPhone or your computer is not the server for your email accounts, so you don't need to worry about loosing your emails accounts. However, you might want to save your email account as you set them up on your iPhone, so you wont need to go to all that process once again.

◦go to /private/var/mobile/library/ and just copy the folder called “Mail” to your computer


APPS are easy, just use the app explorer on ifunbox. IF you want the data its var/mobile/applications i think. copy all folders.


Really id back up as much to icloud, but if you want hard backups yeah..


edit* lol at me calling a digital backup hard.