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Nonapeptide

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 29, 2009
4
0
Hello,

I have the feeling that I've done something daft. Here's the brief outline of my situation. I have a brand new Windows installation. I fresh installed iTunes 8. I repeatedly received the MDCrashReport Tool error that I mentioned in this thread whenever I would try to sync it. I decided to reset my iPhone (3G, not jailbroken). Before I did that, I backed it up by right clicking it in iTunes and selecting "Backup" (it took seven hours, which is another issue in and of itself). I then reset the iPhone as per these instructions. After the reset I successfully restored the backup.

I know that the apps themselves aren't backed up (as per this KB article), but I was expecting that my download / purchase history would be remembered due to being logged in with my iTunes account and I could restore the applications from the "applications" tab within iTunes. Nothing is there however. I suppose its because I was unable to sync on this computer since I had issues with the MDCrashRportTool error?

I've got all of my preferences, email accounts and even bookmarks. Just no apps. How can I get them all back? I've seen some people suggest that you can re-purchase the apps from the iTunes store and that in won't cost anything, but I'm a bit hesitant to try that just now. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
The solution

Okay, It looks like all is well. Before I changed OSs, I ran a robocopy script on my Windows user profile folder and copied it to an external drive. I discovered that all of my iPhone .ipa application files were in the old profile folder in this path: "drive:[usreprofile]\Music\iTunes\Mobile Applications". I created the "Mobile Applications" folder in my new OS's folder structure, copied the .ipa files to the folder and then double-clicked each one. They appeared in iTunes and, after a monumental sync, all of my applications were back on my iPhone. The icons were even in the same place and it appears that all settings are retained.
 
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