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Restoring Your iOS Device with Folder Organization Intact

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Apr 12, 2001
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Macworld writer Dan Frakes details his frustration at losing his iPhone's folder organization one night. All his iPhone's organized apps had been strewn about folderless. In his attempt to restore the process, he figured out the right way to restore from iTunes to ensure his folder organization remains intact.
It turns out that iTunes actually offers two kinds of restores. The first is the one described above, accessed by clicking the Restore button in iTunes' Summary view for your iOS device. The other one is less obvious--you access it by right-clicking (Control-clicking) your iOS device in iTunes' sidebar and choosing Restore from Backup. As the dialog that appears explains, the latter procedure restores only your data and settings, not the iPhone’s firmware or OS. What the dialog doesn't note is that your third-party apps apparently remain on the phone, as well. In other words, it gives iTunes that “second pass” at restoring your Home-screen app organization.
Click to expand...
Frakes details the multi-step process to avoid losing hours of tidying work.

Article Link: Restoring Your iOS Device with Folder Organization Intact
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/17/restoring-your-ios-device-with-folder-organization-intact/
Had this problem quite a few times myself!
I knew there were two different restores but I didn't know the exact difference,as I carry a small number of apps I never really bothered much.

Thanks for sharing this info it will be very useful!
 
And if you have a jailbroken iphone and have infinifolders installed, When you restore the phone and install all the apps, reinstall infinifolders and when it resprings it will automatic rearrange all the apps back to the original state.
 
I've restored probably 4 times and had this problem half the time.

The problem for me was that it would apply firmware, restore the apps, then start syncing all my music/video/photos back on which took forever (or the phone would ring during that time!). So I would cancel it at that stage, and all the apps would be alphabetical all over the place.

If you can make sure you don't touch the phone until it's fully completed it's restore and sync, the apps are fine. It must do that as the very last thing.

Your note though will be very useful next time I stuff up. I can then do this shorter restore like you describe to get the apps back in their right place!
 
Can't you do this already???

now correct me if I am wrong.

If I restore my 4th Gen iPod Touch using itunes 10.2.1, iTunes ASKS me if:

1. Would you like to start as new iPod Touch
2. Restore from a Backup of ....... (Drop down menu listing most recent backups)

Am i right???
 
I guess I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't had this issue. I've DFU restored multiple iPhones and iPads, and after selecting "Restore From Backup" the apps always go right back to where they should be. :cool:
 
Had this happen too and it PISSED me off bad! I had gotten my brand new iPad 2 on launch day and finally organized all the apps i had found and downloaded only to have all that work GONE because I had to exchange my iPad since the screen was defective with leakage! Fast forward till today and I am on my 3rd iPad 2 with a defective screen and still can't exchange it for one with a non-defective screen as they ALL have defective screens! I have to wait till they fix their display supply and quality control problem as was recently reported till I can exchange it for my FOURTH iPad 2 just to get one that is not defective! :rolleyes:
 
I've never had this problem as it always seemed obvious to me. Restore device wipes it fresh and restoring device from a previous backup does exactly what it says.

MacFly123 said:
Had this happen too and it PISSED me off bad! I had gotten my brand new iPad 2 on launch day and finally organized all the apps i had found and downloaded only to have all that work GONE because I had to exchange my iPad since the screen was defective with leakage! Fast forward till today and I am on my 3rd iPad 2 with a defective screen and still can't exchange it for one with a non-defective screen as they ALL have defective screens! I have to wait till they fix their display supply and quality control problem as was recently reported till I can exchange it for my FOURTH iPad 2 just to get one that is not defective! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You just ended every single sentence with an exclamation mark, and no other punctuation. I makes it rather hard to read.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Mr. Gates said:
Another thing that needs to be fixed in iOS 6.0

If its done sooner,...I'll $H!T a Brick
Click to expand...

I don't think that it is a problem with iOS. I believe that it is more of an iTunes issue.

Having said that did you actually read the article??? It is saying "we have found out how to do this" not "this would be really cool. Can apple do something ASAP"
 
cleggster83 said:
And if you have a jailbroken iphone and have infinifolders installed, When you restore the phone and install all the apps, reinstall infinifolders and when it resprings it will automatic rearrange all the apps back to the original state.
Click to expand...

Yeah! It's the one reason why I don't mind re-jailbreaking. At first I thought I would have to rearrange everything myself. But as soon as I installed it again, I was surprised and happy! My Games folder has like 45 games in it.. that it like having 4 original folders- in one!
 
I wish I would have known this before Saturday, when I synced up my iPad 2 for the first time using my 1st gen iPad backup.

It only took around 10 minutes to get everything back into their respective folders, but it was still slightly annoying.
 
koobcamuk said:
You just ended every single sentence with an exclamation mark, and no other punctuation. I makes it rather hard to read.
Click to expand...

Ok, obviously I am a bit heated on the subject, but how on earth do punctuation marks of any kind or quantity make something harder to read lol?

GregA said:
Just out of interest - did you (like me) let it MOSTLY restore, but then cancel the music/photos sync thinking you could finish that later on?

Or did it fully restore before you disconnected it?
Click to expand...

I didn't stop anything, it fully restored from the previous backup.
 
Last edited:
I wish I had known this when my phone was stolen on my bday ... I still haven't fully reorganized my apps, I have 527 at the moment.
 
GregA said:
I've restored probably 4 times and had this problem half the time.

The problem for me was that it would apply firmware, restore the apps, then start syncing all my music/video/photos back on which took forever (or the phone would ring during that time!). So I would cancel it at that stage, and all the apps would be alphabetical all over the place.

If you can make sure you don't touch the phone until it's fully completed it's restore and sync, the apps are fine. It must do that as the very last thing.

Your note though will be very useful next time I stuff up. I can then do this shorter restore like you describe to get the apps back in their right place!
Click to expand...
I never understood why the default isn't to leave the phone off during an initial restore/sync or at least give you the option to NOT answer during a sync.

Peteman100 said:
You'd think that restoring with folders intact would be the default option...
Click to expand...
It is if it finishes the restore/sync without interruption.

MacFly123 said:
Ok, obviously I am a bit heated on the subject, but how on earth do punctuation marks of any kind or quantity make something harder to read lol?
Click to expand...
Punctuation is there to make things easier to read. You ought to research the evolution of punctuation. It's pretty fascinating (ex. you spell one to nine but write 10+ because it's faster to read that way).
 
QuarterSwede said:
It is if it finishes the restore/sync without interruption.
Click to expand...

This has also worked for me even before folders, back when they added app position sync (in 2.x I believe).

I tried posting as much on the macworld article comments, but Dan came back saying that doesn't work for everyone. Still, it seems a bit misleading to claim restore NEVER puts folders back where they should be.
 
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