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Prepping for the upgrade to iPhone 5... Any suggestions??

DDustiNN

DDustiNN

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 27, 2011
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Friday is almost here, so it's time to prep! I've got 3 phones coming (me, mother, sister), and I just want to make sure I've got everything ready to go.

Based on reading the other threads, it seems like setting up "as new" is the safest route, at least looking at what happened with the 4S battery situation (which I did not partake in), and paranoia about random jailbreak files carrying over.

I have the Verizon iPhone 4, jailbroken, and I have everything synced via Gmail Exchange (contacts, calendar, mail).

However, I'd like to retain all of my contacts, text messages, photos, and app data, but I don't care much about the apps - I can just reinstall them as normal. I'm also unclear about the iMessage thing. So I'll elaborate a bit:

Question 1: If I set my contacts to sync to iCloud, will they be duplicated? What I mean is, should I sync that way when I get my iPhone 5, or should I just leave that off, and do the same Gmail setup I did before?

Question 2: Is there a way to keep all of my text messages, without doing a full restore from backup?

Question 3: Is there a way to keep all of my pictures/videos without doing a full restore from backup? The only thing I can think of is to save the entire camera roll to a folder on my PC, maybe call it "old iPhone 4" or something, and then just import them through iTunes on my iPhone 5. Doesn't sound all that exciting though...

Question 4: Is there a way to keep all of my app data (not necessarily the apps themselves) without doing a full restore from backup?

Question 5: Do I have to "disable" the iMessage on the iPhone 4 somehow? And if so, how do I do that? I read previous posts saying that people were getting iMessages still going to their old phones, even after activating the new one. Since I'm selling my old phone, I just want to make sure I get all of the messages to my new phone, and not someone else via my old phone.

Question 6: How do I transfer my custom ringtone? Is iTunes the only way to do that? (that's how I originally added it to my iPhone 4).

Question 7: My sister is upgrading from an old Droid Incredible. Is the Gmail Exchange the best way to import all of her contacts? Or would it be better to use the Verizon Backup Assistant?

Question 8: My mom is upgrading from the LG enV3. I think all that's necessary for her is the Verizon Backup Assistant for her contacts, right?

Thanks in advance for the help :D
 
Last edited:
I hate to see you all alone in here, so I'm answering, but the truth is that I always restore from back-up, so I don't have a clue about your questions.

----------

You might want to change your thread title to something along the lines of "Not restoring from back-up - how do I keep data?"

Or something like that.
 
LePigeonBleu said:
I have the same question as the OP, but I wouldn't want to restore from backup, because any corruption in the old iPhone will transfer over... at least according to apple genius'
Click to expand...

I do it with every new phone (and iPad) and it's been fine. Do it, and then IF you have problems, you can always just wipe the phone and start over.
 
You can use a program called iBackupBot for iTunes (has a trial, tested and worked) to copy information from one backup to another.

What I'm going to do, is full local backup of my 4. Send a random text with my 5, then full backup that also. (sending the random text as the software can only replace files that are already in the backup you want to transfer to).

Transfer SMS info from 4's backup to 5's and restore from backup that way. I've only tested this with SMS (as thats all I care to transfer over) and it worked flawlessly, granted, it was back to fresh restore of the same phone. Might work for other things as well, you'll just need to install it and look at the interface. Looks similar to what you would see browsing your phones files from iFile or something similar.
 
nightpanda2810 said:
You can use a program called iBackupBot for iTunes (has a trial, tested and worked) to copy information from one backup to another.

What I'm going to do, is full local backup of my 4. Send a random text with my 5, then full backup that also. (sending the random text as the software can only replace files that are already in the backup you want to transfer to).

Transfer SMS info from 4's backup to 5's and restore from backup that way. I've only tested this with SMS (as thats all I care to transfer over) and it worked flawlessly, granted, it was back to fresh restore of the same phone. Might work for other things as well, you'll just need to install it and look at the interface. Looks similar to what you would see browsing your phones files from iFile or something similar.
Click to expand...

This is amazing!! Thank you so much for showing me this.

It's a bit tricky to figure out though. Can you tell me how you did your SMS? I want to do the same with SMS, Notes, Contacts, Call log, etc...

I have exported each and saved them as their own individual databases. But how will I import them into my new iPhone 5 backup file? I only see a "restore" option, which I assume would just restore everything, right? I'm not 100% clear on how this application works.

Thank you again, I think this will solve a lot of my questions! Once I get it figured out at least, haha :D
 
DDustiNN said:
This is amazing!! Thank you so much for showing me this.

It's a bit tricky to figure out though. Can you tell me how you did your SMS? I want to do the same with SMS, Notes, Contacts, Call log, etc...

I have exported each and saved them as their own individual databases. But how will I import them into my new iPhone 5 backup file? I only see a "restore" option, which I assume would just restore everything, right? I'm not 100% clear on how this application works.

Thank you again, I think this will solve a lot of my questions! Once I get it figured out at least, haha :D
Click to expand...


You gotta first export sms.db, then send a random txt on the iphone5, then back it up with itunes. Reload ibackupbot, and open iphone5 backup you just created. Choose import and choose the sms file you backed up. Then restore your iphone 5's backup.
 
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