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Vegeta-san

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2006
432
0
I've read in a couple threads that it is disadvantageous to the iPhone 3GS battery life to restore from a backup. I understand this. What I DON'T understand is how you guys can reconcile doing that and, at the same time, losing all your past SMS messages, your past notes, past alarm clock settings, Maps bookmarks, Weather locations, and ad infinitum app data.....You literally just start afresh and get rid of all those in the process?
 
Yes..it would be stupid to waste time re adding everything manually. I had no problems with battery and restoring from back up ... its all according to what you use and how much you use it daily.
 
Yes..it would be stupid to waste time re adding everything manually. I had no problems with battery and restoring from back up ... its all according to what you use and how much you use it daily.

Ok...I'll take your word for it! Thanks for the advice! :)
 
I upgraded from 2G to 3GS 10 days ago and did so from backup. No issues whatsoever.

Just go through the 3GS once it's done and make sure all the settings are correct for your needs - after the restore from backup on mine, 3G was set 'on' when I am not in a 3G service area and had turned it off before the restore.
 
There should be no issues whatsoever.

TheSpaz seems to be negative on any post latley

(Nothing against you spaz but seriously man lots of negativity in just about every post you make)
 
I wish the iPhone backup was able to separate the OS elements from my apps and data. This would mean I could wipe my phone clean with a new OS and drop my apps (with all data intact) on top again.

The current method of "nuke and pave" is most irksome...
 
There should be no issues whatsoever.

TheSpaz seems to be negative on any post latley

(Nothing against you spaz but seriously man lots of negativity in just about every post you make)

I've experienced weird issues from going from 2.2.1 to 3.0 and restoring from backups. Starting clean on a new phone would be the best way to go. He asked if he should restore from a backup and I just didn't recommend it. Do you want me to just say what he wants to hear?
 
I wish the iPhone backup was able to separate the OS elements from my apps and data. This would mean I could wipe my phone clean with a new OS and drop my apps (with all data intact) on top again.

The current method of "nuke and pave" is most irksome...

+1,000

My wife just had to do a "nuke and pave" because the Apple Genius bar told her she had a corupt file of some sort that had, of course, been backed up so the only fix was a complete wipe.

It was causing Exchange to check constantly, running down her battery, so she had no choice.
 
The Apple Store recommended that I restore as new, then manually reinstall my contacts, apps, music, video via iTunes. It was a bit longer than the restore from backup, but I've had two iPhones with software glitches and they were traced to corrupt files in my backups.....:cool:
 
I did a fresh start on my 3G S. Yes, its a bit time consuming, but my 1st Gen had some issues when restoring from back-ups, so I thought its best to start fresh with this one and not screw up. In any case, me having my 1st Gen, I just had to check side by side everything was there. Took me an hour or so.
 
Wouldn't you rather have that piece of mind that the iPhone 3GS will not have any files that do not belong on it by setting it up as new?

Why not just avoid any potential problems and start out at a fresh start on your fresh new iPhone 3GS?

That's my advice. I'm not being negative.
 
Spaz has a point....tech support via phone told me once when I was having trouble with my 2g email that apps can potentially install data that could throw things off to restore and install items one by one to see what is causing the issue.

So if you are having issues with your prior phone then yes by all means start over from scratch...but if you have no issue then why not just use your back up?

Im lazy in many ways....and if it worked in the past Ill just plug it in and let it do its thing.
 
DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACKUP!

When I first got the 3GS I, also, set it up from a backup of my 2G phone. The battery life was horrible - worse than my original. Even when 90% of my usage was WiFi browsing, my usage time would average about 5 hours. Standby was significantly less, although I wasn't sure how much having a 3G signal affected that. One night I ran a test by running the iPod with the screen locked from 100% until it died - it lasted 9 hours, 34 mintues. The 3GS is rated at 9 hours of WiFi browsing and I hardly got that with the screen off playing the iPod!

I ended up restoring the phone as a new phone, and battery performace is easily twice as good. It will now only lose 1% every 3 hours (3G on with full bars). My average usage times are now around 7-8 hours. I ran the same iPod test and it lasted 29 hours, 43 mintues!
 
DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACKUP!

When I first got the 3GS I, also, set it up from a backup of my 2G phone. The battery life was horrible - worse than my original. Even when 90% of my usage was WiFi browsing, my usage time would average about 5 hours. Standby was significantly less, although I wasn't sure how much having a 3G signal affected that. One night I ran a test by running the iPod with the screen locked from 100% until it died - it lasted 9 hours, 34 mintues. The 3GS is rated at 9 hours of WiFi browsing and I hardly got that with the screen off playing the iPod!

I ended up restoring the phone as a new phone, and battery performace is easily twice as good. It will now only lose 1% every 3 hours (3G on with full bars). My average usage times are now around 7-8 hours. I ran the same iPod test and it lasted 29 hours, 43 mintues!

I restored from my 2G backup and had zero issues...
 
DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACKUP!

When I first got the 3GS I, also, set it up from a backup of my 2G phone. The battery life was horrible - worse than my original. Even when 90% of my usage was WiFi browsing, my usage time would average about 5 hours. Standby was significantly less, although I wasn't sure how much having a 3G signal affected that. One night I ran a test by running the iPod with the screen locked from 100% until it died - it lasted 9 hours, 34 mintues. The 3GS is rated at 9 hours of WiFi browsing and I hardly got that with the screen off playing the iPod!

I ended up restoring the phone as a new phone, and battery performace is easily twice as good. It will now only lose 1% every 3 hours (3G on with full bars). My average usage times are now around 7-8 hours. I ran the same iPod test and it lasted 29 hours, 43 mintues!

Hey, check it out! We agree on something! I was beginning to think you only said the opposite of everything I say no matter what.
 
Wouldn't you rather have that piece of mind that the iPhone 3GS will not have any files that do not belong on it by setting it up as new?

Why not just avoid any potential problems and start out at a fresh start on your fresh new iPhone 3GS?

That's my advice. I'm not being negative.

All of you advocating to just set it up as a new phone are completely missing my question: How do you reconcile giving up all that app data?

Like, let's say 'Gas Cubby' for example. I literally have gas economy information in that app dating back to January, 2008. EVERY TIME I've bought gas, I've entered data into Gas Cubby. If I set up my phone as a new phone, do I have to reenter all of that again?
 
Hi so I got a 3Gs on friday and set everything up with it. But had to take it back on sunday cause i noticed a spec of dust under the screen. So when i got my new 3Gs i restored from backup. Is this wrong? or is it only bad to restore from backup when you are going from a different phone? If it is bad is it possible to go back to new iphone settings and doing everything all over again? Thanks
 
All of you advocating to just set it up as a new phone are completely missing my question: How do you reconcile giving up all that app data?

Like, let's say 'Gas Cubby' for example. I literally have gas economy information in that app dating back to January, 2008. EVERY TIME I've bought gas, I've entered data into Gas Cubby. If I set up my phone as a new phone, do I have to reenter all of that again?

You reconcile it by the fact that your battery life will be greatly improved. It's a pain in some ways, but you can just sync a lot of stuff. The app data is pretty much the only thing you'll lose.

Hi so I got a 3Gs on friday and set everything up with it. But had to take it back on sunday cause i noticed a spec of dust under the screen. So when i got my new 3Gs i restored from backup. Is this wrong? or is it only bad to restore from backup when you are going from a different phone? If it is bad is it possible to go back to new iphone settings and doing everything all over again? Thanks

It's only when you go from a 3G (or below) to a 3GS.
 
All of you advocating to just set it up as a new phone are completely missing my question: How do you reconcile giving up all that app data?

Like, let's say 'Gas Cubby' for example. I literally have gas economy information in that app dating back to January, 2008. EVERY TIME I've bought gas, I've entered data into Gas Cubby. If I set up my phone as a new phone, do I have to reenter all of that again?

You know... I just thought of something. You could restore your backup data to get all of your 3rd party data and settings. Once that's all done, go into Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. This will clear all system settings but leave application data and settings in place. This is a pretty safe method and it does the same thing as setting up new.
 
You know... I just thought of something. You could restore your backup data to get all of your 3rd party data and settings. Once that's all done, go into Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. This will clear all system settings but leave application data and settings in place. This is a pretty safe method and it does the same thing as setting up new.

+1 on that....the AppleStore and the tech support on the phone told me the same thing....
 
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