I am trying to do a full image backup of an iPad, however iTunes only seems to take settings and other apple friendly application data. iTunes was able to take a full backup of a device in the past. Has this feature been removed?
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Full image backup via itunes?
- Thread starter yaddam205
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What do you mean full backup? Once you plug the device in the backup option in iTunes should backup everything by default except for certain data like the Health app.
Mlrollin91
macrumors G5
It is not backing up all application data. Instead of taking an image, it seems to only be backing up a limited amount. If my iPad is currently consuming 14GB of data I should be restoring a full 14GB. Instead, when I restore it will only do about 8Gb, and miss important application data. Previously, Itunes would backup the current system state and then you could restore it fully to another device. That does not seem to be the case anymore.
What's missing? iTunes doesn't back up the actual apps, only the application data. Then it installs the apps after restoring. The apps must be manually updated from within iTunes if they aren't already.
It's the application data I am concerned with. I have 2 programs with 4GB+ worth of data that is not copied on the backup.
Mlrollin91
macrumors G5
zorinlynx
macrumors G3
What sort of data is this?
Each app has a "temporary" directory in their storage where they put data that doesn't need to be backed up. One example is Spotify; when you download music to your phone for offline listening it goes into the temporary directory. There's no need to back up this data because it can just be downloaded again. Same thing with offline Google maps.
Neither iTunes nor iCloud backups contain this data. This is a good thing because you don't want your 15GB of downloaded Spotify music to waste space in your iCloud backups.
Now it's entirely possible that an app is misusing this temporary directory and storing important, irreplaceable data in it. If they are, you should let the app developer know because not only is this directory not backed up, it CAN'T be backed up so it's only a matter of time before a user of the app loses important data.
