iPhone Set up as new iPhone, jailbreak again...

[TomAndrews]

Hello all,

I jailbroke my phone earlier on in the year, but after a few months the novelty wore off and i reverted back to stock iOS. However, due to having many apps that i'd rather not lose the data for, I never set up as a new phone. This led to me having a large 'other' size on my iPhone (1.36GB). I'd like to reduce this size but without losing my app data.

Would it be possible to jailbreak again, download 'pkgbackup' and back my app data up. Then restore my iPhone as a new device, jailbreak again, and restore the 'pkgbackup'? I know this isn't the perfect solution (i.e, not clearing my 'other' section completely), but due to me not wanting to lose game saves and the like, its a solution that would suit me best - if its actually possible?

I'd be grateful if someone could shed some light as to whether this would work?

Thank you!

 

[Dima470]

Restore from your backup then download iCleaner from Cydia. It should clean out all the junk you have that you don't need

 

[BumpyFlatline]

I highly recommend AppBackup (which requires OpenSSH). Are you comfortable with accessing your phone with winscp, putty, iFile, or similar? Because after you use AppBackup to backup all your apps, you need to copy a folder to your computer. This folder contains one file for every app you backed up. So you can copy the entire folder to your freshly restored phone. Even though you don't have the game installed yet, once you install it, then that game appears in AppBackup. Then you tap restore and it puts the game right back identical to where you left off. I say all this because what happens to me most of the time, after I restore as new I don't always rush into installing games that I haven't played for a while that have been sitting on my springboard wasting space. Then randomly I'll get the urge to play an old game like Dark Nebula. Once it's installed, it shows up in AppBackup because one of the first things I do when I jailbreak is copy my AppBackup folder back onto my phone. Does this make sense? I was confused when someone recommended this app. I've been using it for a few years now I think. I have game saves from years ago.

Process:
1) Jailbreak
2) Install AppBackup and OpenSSH
3) Open AppBackup and backup all your apps
4) SSH into your phone and copy the "tarballs" folder to your computer (var>mobile>library>preferences>AppBackup)...you'll notice in this folder that each separate file is for every app you backed up
5) Restore your device as new
6) Jailbreak
7) Sync your contacts etc (via iCloud or iTunes)
8) Open Cydia and install AppBackup and OpenSSH (don't forget to change your password if you plan on keeping OpenSSH installed)
9) Reinstall any/all of your preferred apps from the App Store
10) Copy the entire "tarballs" folder you saved to your computer over into the exact same location as before (var>mobile>library>preferences>AppBackup)... it's ok to overwrite the existing folder since its empty and contains no backups yet
11) Open AppBackup and go down the list of installed apps and restore them to their previously saved state!

NOTE: steps 9 and 10 are interchangeable. It does not matter the order you perform those steps. If you copy your "tarballs" folder from your computer to the phone prior to installing the games, you'll notice AppBackup will not list the game. It won't appear in the list until you actually install the app from the App Store.

PM me if you have any questions. I can also provide you a link with a step by step tutorial for AppBackup but it's basically everything I just posted. This may seem like a lot, but I do it for every restoral and upgrade. Using AppBackup doesn't take long at all. It's the installation of the iOS that takes the most time.

 

[TomAndrews]

Thank you very much to both of you, especially 'BumpyFlatline' for very comprehensive instructions. Can't thank you enough!

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Thank you very much to both of you, especially 'BumpyFlatline' for very comprehensive instructions. Can't thank you enough!

You are very welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. You'll find this to be very easy if my instructions made sense as you read them.

 

[TomAndrews]

You are very welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. You'll find this to be very easy if my instructions made sense as you read them.

I've followed your instructions and they were perfect. I've said before, and i'll say it again, thank you so so much, i honestly can't thank you enough for your help.

Just a quick question though...

I've restored all my app data and its working perfectly, now all i'd like to do is remove the jailbreak. I'd like to get rid of much 'jailbreak' junk as possible (I didn't install any other tweaks so there shouldn't be too much). Would this work...
1. Manually modify> remove everything on cydia (all the packages under 'expert' - it gives me warnings telling me its unsafe)
2. Once everything is gone, back up my phone on iTunes
3. Then restore my phone from that backup, essentially removing the jailbreak

Would those steps work? Or would removing the 'core' packages brick my phone (i'm not bothered about removing the jailbreak obviously).

If it wouldn't work for whatever reason, I'd just skip step 1 and hope it worked!

Thank you again for your patience with a newbee like me!

 

[BumpyFlatline]

I've followed your instructions and they were perfect. I've said before, and i'll say it again, thank you so so much, i honestly can't thank you enough for your help.

Just a quick question though...

I've restored all my app data and its working perfectly, now all i'd like to do is remove the jailbreak. I'd like to get rid of much 'jailbreak' junk as possible (I didn't install any other tweaks so there shouldn't be too much). Would this work...
1. Manually modify> remove everything on cydia (all the packages under 'expert' - it gives me warnings telling me its unsafe)
2. Once everything is gone, back up my phone on iTunes
3. Then restore my phone from that backup, essentially removing the jailbreak

Would those steps work? Or would removing the 'core' packages brick my phone (i'm not bothered about removing the jailbreak obviously).

If it wouldn't work for whatever reason, I'd just skip step 1 and hope it worked!

Thank you again for your patience with a newbee like me!

You are very welcome. I joined this forum to help others after yeas of always just taking. So I'm glad I was able to help you out. Hopefully other members looking for instructions on how to back up app data and game saves and transition them to a fresh firmware install as new will find my post. I've tried every method available and I find this to be the best, easiest, and most efficient method for "restoring as new."

Now to answer you next question. I am not aware of a way to remove a jailbreak from a phone without restoring. Obviously if you restore from backup, you'll lose a lot of your game saves. I've heard conflicting reports about whether or not restoring from backup carries over game saves. Some say it does and others say it does not. I prefer not to take any chances and I always use AppBackup. Having said that, I URGE you not to go into cydia and remove all the packages as this will undoubtably cause a boot cycle and subsequent restore. My recommendation for you is to remain jailbroken, and remove AppBackup and OpenSSH. Are those the only packages you installed? After that, just put cydia in a folder you rarely use. Out of sight out of mind. The jailbreak itself with no additional packages installed will have ZERO effect on phone performance.

If you need to take your phone into the genius bar, just remember to install AppBackup and OpenSSH, back up all your app store apps, copy the tarballs folder to your computer then restore before taking it in for warranty repair!

(Sorry. I know this wasn't what you wanted to hear. That's my advice. Maybe another forum member has something better to add??)

Edit: I just realized I misspoke. One backup and restoral tool I have not tried yet is "iBye". I've recently read some grea things about it. The developer, EvilPenguin, just recently released iBye3.0 with iOS5 compatibility. Maybe some day I'll give that a shot. But right now iCloud backs up my contacts and AppBackup backs up my app store apps. That's all I need for my purposes. iBye is an interesting option though.

 

[HPLouis]

Thanks OP and BumpyFlatline for this thread.

I've been pondering the same thing with the new iPhone coming out this Friday.

Here's my question that ties into this. What about text messages, mail settings (i.e., the Exchange settings for my job email), and voicemail data? Is there a way to save them and then restore them just like the app data?

Thanks,
Henry

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Thanks OP and BumpyFlatline for this thread.

I've been pondering the same thing with the new iPhone coming out this Friday.

Here's my question that ties into this. What about text messages, mail settings (i.e., the Exchange settings for my job email), and voicemail data? Is there a way to save them and then restore them just like the app data?

Thanks,
Henry

You are very welcome. For a more comprehensive backup of everything you could try PkgBackup or iBye. I purchased PkgBackup and have used it in the past but you must be very careful what you restore if you are upgrading to iOS6. The reason I say that is because PkgBackup can restore cydia repos and installed packages. But as the veterans know, it takes some time before everything (and in many cases never) is updated to work on the new major iOS...this year being iOS6.

iBye says it backs up messages and mail. I am not sure to what extent. The developer is EvilPenguin. If you can't figure out what exactly it backs up, I highly suggest you contact him. Sorry I am not more helpful. I only backup and restore my contacts, calendars and app store apps. iCloud takes care of contacts and
calendars while AppBackup takes care of the app store apps. I am cautious of giving bad or outdated advice. I'm sure other forum members will chime in on this subject.

 

[TomAndrews]

You are very welcome. I joined this forum to help others after yeas of always just taking. So I'm glad I was able to help you out. Hopefully other members looking for instructions on how to back up app data and game saves and transition them to a fresh firmware install as new will find my post. I've tried every method available and I find this to be the best, easiest, and most efficient method for "restoring as new."

Once i'm more knowledgeable i'll make an active effort to offer my help, just like what you've done for me! You've helped me much more than i expected, put a lot of effort into your posts, and just generally been really helpful. Thanks!!!!!

Before i started the whole process of jailbreaking, i made a backup and saved it to a USB drive, just as a precautionary measure. So as long as i didn't 'brick' my phone, i was quite keen to 'experiment'. With this mindset, i went ahead and restored my phone. I started off by backing up (my now jailbroken) iPhone, then continued to press restore. After a while, iTunes then asked me if i wanted to set up as new or restore from a backup. I selected the backup i had made a few minutes previously (the jailbroken backup). It then went and loaded all apps, just like when i was jailbroken. Cydia was no where to be seen, so i believe i'm no longer jailbroken. The best thing being that all my app data is there! So I think i've essentially set up my phone as new, but kept the app data.

I couldn't have done it without you, so i thank you endlessly. Anyone else reading this thread in the future, all thanks go to BumpyFlatline!


EDIT: Screenshot of my iPhone 'other' size, tiny in comparison to before i started the whole process! I'll put all my music, photos etc on now, i don't have a 32GB iPhone just for apps!!

 

[BumpyFlatline]

Once i'm more knowledgeable i'll make an active effort to offer my help, just like what you've done for me! You've helped me much more than i expected, put a lot of effort into your posts, and just generally been really helpful. Thanks!!!!!

Before i started the whole process of jailbreaking, i made a backup and saved it to a USB drive, just as a precautionary measure. So as long as i didn't 'brick' my phone, i was quite keen to 'experiment'. With this mindset, i went ahead and restored my phone. I started off by backing up (my now jailbroken) iPhone, then continued to press restore. After a while, iTunes then asked me if i wanted to set up as new or restore from a backup. I selected the backup i had made a few minutes previously (the jailbroken backup). It then went and loaded all apps, just like when i was jailbroken. Cydia was no where to be seen, so i believe i'm no longer jailbroken. The best thing being that all my app data is there! So I think i've essentially set up my phone as new, but kept the app data.

I couldn't have done it without you, so i thank you endlessly. Anyone else reading this thread in the future, all thanks go to BumpyFlatline!


EDIT: Screenshot of my iPhone 'other' size, tiny in comparison to before i started the whole process! I'll put all my music, photos etc on now, i don't have a 32GB iPhone just for apps!!

As a permanent jailbreaker, that's why I ALWAYS restore as new and use AppBackup! I like to start as fresh as possible and that includes keeping the "other" section free of unnecessary plist files and the like. I'm really happy everything worked out perfectly for you. And I'm also happy to hear iTunes backups restore game saves. Although I won't ever use it because of my OCD to restore as new, but I'm glad iTunes does that. I wasn't 100% sure. Thanks for sharing! Enjoy!

 

[thetruest]

Just a quick question though...

I've restored all my app data and its working perfectly, now all i'd like to do is remove the jailbreak. I'd like to get rid of much 'jailbreak' junk as possible (I didn't install any other tweaks so there shouldn't be too much).

you'll want to keep ur jailbreak if only for the sole purpose of using f.lux.
http://stereopsis.com/flux/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.lux

you should also download it for all the computers u use.

No one at Apple will be able to tell you JB'd after you do a iTunes restore, or probably even care.

Everyone should be using this program.