iPad Clean install iOS 7.1 on iPad and restore apps

[skallal]

I've been frustrated with my iPad 3 ever since iOS 7 came out. I've got the lagging response many have also complained about. I was hoping iOS7.1 would help. It seemed to for a few days, but now it appears like my iPad is still sluggish as ever.

After reading https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1640156/ on this forum, I'm seriously thinking about wiping my iPad clean and staring fresh. However I've got a lot of whole data associated with apps that I don't want to lose. So I'd like to start fresh with a clean install, but I wish there was a way to restore apps on the one by one basis with the data. I wonder if there's a 3rd party solution, separate from iTunes, that can restore data from various apps?

 

[MatsSkoe]

I my opinion it boils down to this:

Breaking open backups and restoring parts has a high risk of returning the old corrupted files. I'm very pleased with my fresh iPhone installation of iOS 7.1. Much better stability, but no Angry Birds progress, text history, etc.

 

[skallal]

I have 377 consecutive FreeCell wins. How am I going sleep at night if I can't prove it?

 

[luckylisp]

I hear you, skallal. lol. I'm in the same boat. I made a similar thread yesterday, in fact. I want to do a fresh install, but keep my game scores. Doesn't seem possible. Guess I'll just have to ditch it all for the sake of the clean install and the hopes of getting rid of some of the issues I'm having on my Air.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Why not do this as a multi-part process?

(First, be sure all your Camera Roll images have been transferred to your computer, independent of the regular backup.)

1) Do the clean install of iOS, then restore from your iTunes or iCloud backup and see how things go.

2) If you still have problems, then you can do an Erase All Content and Settings on the iPad (Settings > General > Reset: Erase All Content and Settings), setup as new, and reinstall the apps and music, sync your photo albums, etc..

3) If that doesn't resolve your issues (it's a possibility), you may as well then restore the backup and get your scores back.

And note that not every app stores its scores on the device. Any that maintain account info server side will take a bit of the curse off this process.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I have both restored and done clean installs and have NEVER seen a difference.

It is kinda like a religion and the choice is yours.

 

[skallal]

I bit the proverbial bullet and did a clean install of iOS 7.1, which means going into DFU mode.

That said I've been able to get some settings back in some of my apps:

My 377 consecutive wins of Free Cell
Remote server connections in Jump Desktop
Drawings in Touch Draw and Penultimate
Mind maps from iThoughtsHD

The list will grow in the coming days!

Here is how:

First download iPhone Backup Extractor. There are two versions. The current version is crippled unless you register the Pro version at $99.95. Even the Home version at $24.95 is crippled. There is an older version here, but the list of apps is NOT sorted. Try that with a few hundred apps. Also the apps named aren't listed, but rather the app namespaces. But it will extract an entire folder tree, one app at a time, from an iTunes backup.

The second download is iTools found here. Use this utility to import settings extracted from the iPhone Backup Extractor above. This is Mac only.

I won't go into much detail about using the two utilties mentioned above. There are two folders for each app, named Documents and Library, that is exported from the extractor and imported with iTools. I got lucky and figured out how to do it with 5 apps so far. The procedure is time consuming, so I don't think i'll try it with many more apps.

I have the advantages of a true clean install. Some users report no performance increase with a clean install. I do have a more responsive keyboard. The boot time from a hard reset is faster. But time will tell if it continues. Plus I get my settings and data restored for my more important apps!