iPhone Restoring data (SMS, Photos) from backup file without using backup method

[cathyy]

Hey guys, I finally upgraded my iPhone 4 from iOS 7.0.2 back to iOS 5.1.1 a few hours ago. Couldn't stand using iOS7 any longer as it was so freaking laggy. I made 2 backups before restoring: one to iCloud and the other to my computer. Anyway it was successful and I did a clean install with a backup from iCloud. These are the only data I care about:

- Contacts
- SMS
- Photos
- WhatsApp Messages

Contacts - Restored fine. I added 2 new contacts today and both were there.

WhatsApp - Well...it restored my messages/media to all the way back to Sunday. I remember seeing the second last backup was up till Sunday, but I backed it up again and it stated the last backup was today. Well it's not too big a loss I guess and I can live with it.

Messages - Completely gone. I'm sad Is there a way to retrieve it from my Backup file and place it back into my phone through SHSH or other methods? Otherwise is there a way I can retrieve it from the Backup file and export it to some other format read-able on my computer?

Photos - Gone too. I have a backup of the DCIM folders on my computer but I'm not sure how I can put it back in. Furthermore my WhatsApp photos used to be in my Camera Roll but not any more. They can still be accessed through the WA Application but no longer through the Photos app. Any suggestions on how I might be able to fix this? Thanks!

 

[numlock]

Hey guys, I finally upgraded my iPhone 4 from iOS 7.0.2 back to iOS 5.1.1 a few hours ago. Couldn't stand using iOS7 any longer as it was so freaking laggy. I made 2 backups before restoring: one to iCloud and the other to my computer. Anyway it was successful and I did a clean install with a backup from iCloud. These are the only data I care about:

- Contacts
- SMS
- Photos
- WhatsApp Messages

Contacts - Restored fine. I added 2 new contacts today and both were there.

WhatsApp - Well...it restored my messages/media to all the way back to Sunday. I remember seeing the second last backup was up till Sunday, but I backed it up again and it stated the last backup was today. Well it's not too big a loss I guess and I can live with it.

Messages - Completely gone. I'm sad Is there a way to retrieve it from my Backup file and place it back into my phone through SHSH or other methods? Otherwise is there a way I can retrieve it from the Backup file and export it to some other format read-able on my computer?

Photos - Gone too. I have a backup of the DCIM folders on my computer but I'm not sure how I can put it back in. Furthermore my WhatsApp photos used to be in my Camera Roll but not any more. They can still be accessed through the WA Application but no longer through the Photos app. Any suggestions on how I might be able to fix this? Thanks!

how did you do this "upgrade"?

a software like ibackupbot can browse through your old itunes backup

http://www.icopybot.com/download.htm

to actually copy the texts and pictures you would have to buy it.

but you can also go into the iphone backup itself

see this site for instructions http://www.iphone-sms.com/

and get the file in question 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 copy it to your desktop and rename it to something like sms.sqlite and open it in an approriate software. a free one is a firefox plugin called sqlitemanager

sadly apple makes its quite hard to get our data

 

[cathyy]

how did you do this "upgrade"?

a software like ibackupbot can browse through your old itunes backup

http://www.icopybot.com/download.htm

to actually copy the texts and pictures you would have to buy it.

but you can also go into the iphone backup itself

see this site for instructions http://www.iphone-sms.com/

and get the file in question 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 copy it to your desktop and rename it to something like sms.sqlite and open it in an approriate software. a free one is a firefox plugin called sqlitemanager

sadly apple makes its quite hard to get our data

But this doesn't allow me to place the messages back in my iPhone right?

Anyway I was able to do it because I still had my old SHSH blobs saved on Cydia back from my old iOS5 jailbreak. Downloaded the IPSW and used iFaith to stitch the SHSH blob together with the IPSW. Restored it using that file and bam it worked.

This guide should work: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2013/10/downgrade-ios-7-ios-6-1-3-using-ifaith.html

 

[numlock]

But this doesn't allow me to place the messages back in my iPhone right?

Anyway I was able to do it because I still had my old SHSH blobs saved on Cydia back from my old iOS5 jailbreak. Downloaded the IPSW and used iFaith to stitch the SHSH blob together with the IPSW. Restored it using that file and bam it worked.

This guide should work: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2013/10/downgrade-ios-7-ios-6-1-3-using-ifaith.html

sadly no. not unless there is some converter out there which i have not heard about.

you dont even have a pre ios7 backup you could or would want to restore to?

its a **** position iphone 4 users are put in having to choose between a failed experiment like this and losing all data when you go back because ios7 is too slow or that the freaking autodownload that steals every available mb.

 

[lukejc1]

Check out Backuptrans iPhone Data Transfer. I've used it and it works pretty well.

 

[darricksailo]

You can't transfer your SMS anymore. iOS 5.1.1 won't be able to read the 7.0.4 compatible SMS database file

You can use something like ibackupbot to export your SMS.db file or a more easily readable format such as PDF. Or you can upgrade to 7.0.4 and restore from backup, jailbreak and retrieve the SMS.db from /var/mobile/Library/SMS for free. And then downgrade back to 5.1.1

There might be some free .db to .pdf/alternative converters out there

As for the pictures, one way is to email the pictures to yourself and save to camera roll

 

[numlock]

there is a chance this one will work

http://www.wondershare.com/phone-transfer/

but for that you would need two phones. ive had it used to transfer texts from nokia to an iphone but the only downside is that the new texts got new threads so the old texts are just there as an archive of sorts.

You can't transfer your SMS anymore. iOS 5.1.1 won't be able to read the 7.0.4 compatible SMS database file

You can use something like ibackupbot to export your SMS.db file or a more easily readable format such as PDF. Or you can upgrade to 7.0.4 and restore from backup, jailbreak and retrieve the SMS.db from /var/mobile/Library/SMS for free. And then downgrade back to 5.1.1

There might be some free .db to .pdf/alternative converters out there

As for the pictures, one way is to email the pictures to yourself and save to camera roll

its easier to just browse to the iphone backup and get 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 rather than upgrade, jailbreak and ssh it i would think

 

[darricksailo]

there is a chance this one will work

http://www.wondershare.com/phone-transfer/

but for that you would need two phones. ive had it used to transfer texts from nokia to an iphone but the only downside is that the new texts got new threads so the old texts are just there as an archive of sorts.



its easier to just browse to the iphone backup and get 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 rather than upgrade, jailbreak and ssh it i would think

True. But how would they extract the SMS.db file from that? They would need a piece of software for that (which will cost money, and not everyone will want to pay to use the software one time)

 

[numlock]

True. But how would they extract the SMS.db file from that? They would need a piece of software for that (which will cost money, and not everyone will want to pay to use the software one time)

you just change the name of the extension of the file (of course do it to a copy of the original) to .sqlite and it opens in something like sqlmanager (a firefox extension)