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Old iPhone data on new iPhone without restoring

O

old-school

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 2, 2009
287
34
UK
I've got an old 3G at the minute, and will be upgrading to the iP4 on Thurs. I want to start from scratch with the data, syncing my calendars from iCal, contacts from Address Book. I'd love to not have to restore from my old backup, but the only thing I will miss is my Text message history.

Is there anyway to use this data separately, or selectively? I want to start from fresh if possible, and want to avoid using the backups I've had through 2 phones, 1 of which had been jail-broken and gave me some issues. Anyone got any ideas?
 
I could be wrong, but I believe if you delete the backup, you can start from "scratch." The only problem is it may affect your app store purchases. You might want to catalog them just in case you will be forced to add them individually afterward.
 
Not really, and I would agree that a selective restore would be nice. I used to use a program...openphone(that's totally not it)? something like that, but would let you down/upload texts, notes, and other stuff. I'll have to look around, I really have no idea what it was called, but it is possible.
 
Like the OP, I really like my text conversations and do want to keep them, but I do want to start fresh on Thursday.

ChrisN
 
I think syncing apps in iTunes onto my mac under my apple id will consequently allow safe transfer of them over to the new device without needing a 'restore from backup'. That shouldn't be a problem. Can someone confirm this? Using Address Book and iCal will be fine using sync - just like a new phone. Photos/music are synced and will be fine.

It really is just the SMS that I'll lose with a clean start. I've done a couple of google searches and there have been programs to do this sort of thing, but it looks as though Apple have kicked away all of the ladders resting on the side of their walled garden!

I came across DiskAid and Syphone that both looked promising, but they seem to only work with older versions of iOS. I don't really need/want to jailbreak this new phone in order to use SSH to transfer files around though.

Has anyone got any ideas how I can save my SMS history with a clean install?
 
old-school said:
I think syncing apps in iTunes onto my mac under my apple id will consequently allow safe transfer of them over to the new device without needing a 'restore from backup'.
Click to expand...


Yes, apps will sync just fine to a new device, or to a factory reset without restoring a backup.
 
Thanks Alan. Has anyone got any ideas how I can save my SMS history with a clean install?
 
What's the process of starting from scratch? Do you select "setup as a new phone" instead of restore from backup? Then just.... type in your current number?
 
Cubsfan said:
What's the process of starting from scratch? Do you select "setup as a new phone" instead of restore from backup? Then just.... type in your current number?
Click to expand...

Yes, I think that's pretty much it. Ages ago since I did it. I think it's just registering it as a new phone, let iTunes install the latest firmware. When it comes to the setup the phone, I think there's a drop-down if memory serves correctly: restore from backup or from new.
 
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