My wife has a new laptop. Her current iPhone 4 has never been synced to that laptop and therefore never been synced to any computer at all. I've just ordered her an iPhone 4S.
Now since she's on iOS 4 and never upgraded to 5, iCloud doesn't exist. She has to backup to an actual computer and restore from there.
Yet I think that if I connect her phone to her laptop what I'll see is the usual--if you connect this phone to this laptop and sync it you'll erase everything on the phone message.
So in order to 'sync' her phone I think I have to:
- make sure all the music on her phone is on that laptop in iTunes
- make sure all the apps are in iTunes and then painfully recreate her apps/folders/screens setup after the phone is erased
- copy all of her photos back onto the phone after it is erased
Is there a better way to do this these days? Has somebody finally released a 'backup/restore' app for either OSX (she has an Air) or Windows (me)?
Question about
Best way to backup an iPhone 4 for restoring to a 4S
top answers
community pick
Well, assuming everything that's on the device has been purchased on the device, you should be able to hook it up to the computer, right click on it, and click on "Transfer Purchases." This will take everything ever bought from the device and put it onto the computer, allowing you to then erase and resync everything she previously had.
If she has stuff on her iPhone that she got from somewhere else (not sure if this is even possible because it's never been synced) then she might be in a bit of an interesting predicament. I'm about 85% sure that you can backup a device without syncing it by right clicking it inside of iTunes, but I can't be totally sure. It can't hurt to check.
If she has stuff on her iPhone that she got from somewhere else (not sure if this is even possible because it's never been synced) then she might be in a bit of an interesting predicament. I'm about 85% sure that you can backup a device without syncing it by right clicking it inside of iTunes, but I can't be totally sure. It can't hurt to check.
mark as good answer
2 people like this answer
Clicking the mark as good answer button helps us highlight the best answers.
If you still have the computer that the iPhone 4 is set up with, I would recommend upgrading to iOS 5 using that computer, then backing up to iCloud and restoring from that. I have done it that way and it was incredibly painless.
Alternatively you could transfer the iTunes library from that computer to her new laptop then follow the above steps.
Alternatively you could transfer the iTunes library from that computer to her new laptop then follow the above steps.
mark as good answer
0 people like this answer
Yeah, but that computer is dead, which is why we got the new computer.
mark as good answer
0 people like this answer
follow this question
share:
Related questions
3 users following this question:
This question has been viewed 388 times.
Last activity .
Tips for giving the best answers
Sometimes it's just little details that separates a great and not so great answer! Here are a few simple tips to keep in mind:
- 1
- Be complete and thorough. Don't skimp on the details!
- 2
- Try not to answer with a question. Because that's not really an answer, right?
- 3
- A little research goes a long way. Back up your claims and assumptions!
- 4
- Try to be patient, tech questions can be complicated.
- 5
- You are awesome for both reading this and answering questions.