Restore after Downgrade

[jbob0124]

I have an iphone 3g which was on 4.2.1, I downgraded it to 3.1.3 so that it would run smoother. I made a back up before I downgraded it, but was stoopid and didn't stop the iphone from creating a new backup once I got it connected to itunes again which needless to say, it overwrote the previous backup.

I've looked through where the backups are and only saw the most recent backup only. So extracting that data isn't an option. I do however have a disc image of the phone before the downgrade. I know I can extract the info to get images/contacts/sms...etc off of it, but can someone run me through it? Not sure if it is as simple as downloading an image extractor, or if there is more to it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Oh yeah, I've also mounted the image, and have ran photorec to recover the files. I've got all the files extracted, just not sure how to access them to get the info.

EDIT:

I was able to restore an old back up file from a few weeks ago, so I upgraded my 3G to iOS 4.2.1 then restored it back the old back up file I had. Im missing a few sms's but thats no big deal. I made a fresh back up and made a copy of it and moved it to the desktop so I wouldn't have any screw ups again.

I downgraded again to 3.1.3, but am unable to restore. I have already edited the info.plist file to show the current version, which that didn't work. I get the "iTunes could not restore the iPhone "XYZ" because a session could not be started with the iPhone."

Anyone have a solution to that?

[iPittsburgh]

Are you trying to restore to a stock 3.1.3 ipsw?

[jbob0124]

I restored to a stock 3.1.3 yes. Im trying to use my backup from 4.2.1 to put onto my 3.1.3.

[i.Annie]

I believe it would report that the backup for 4.2.1 is too new to restore back into 3.1.x and vice versa. Users seem to have this issue and I have yet to see a proper resolution.

[jbob0124]

Yeah I've skimmed through here and google, and have found that some have been successful with changing the plist file within the backup files. I've tried, but still get an error. Wasn't sure if there was a way around it.

[i.Annie]

Yes I read about that as well. That's why I mentioned there isn't really a proper solution bc that method doesn't always work if at all. Don't know how the one or two people I saw in the thread got it to work

[jbob0124]

Im tempted to upgrade again back to 4.2.1 just so I can have all the info back. I mean I've got all my contacts (I think) the pics I have on the computer but losing some text and all the saved app info sucks.

[i.Annie]

Perhaps you can try upgrading back up, and using a data extractor to get your texts and whatnot. I'm no expert on how to do this but maybe someone else knows more on how to do this, but I know it can be done.

Just don't know how to put it back into the phone either. Google data extracting for iPhone maybe? I think there's a few threads floating around here that has info on that too.

[jbob0124]

Yeah I spent the past weekend working on it. I think I up/downgraded 3 times trying to get something to work. I've got a few different backups of both the 4.2.1 and the 3.1.3. I've tried the extractor's, rescuse's, reincubators and whatever else I could find. I can get the data, just not sure what to do with it once I have it. Its not a big deal, just wish the 4.x os didn't lag the 3g so bad so I wouldn't have to downgrade.

[i.Annie]

Yeah see that's what i don't know either, how to stick it back into the phone.

Have you tried using 4.2.1 without multitasking and wallpaper? That would improve performance well.

If not well enough, also look into removing unused language packs. YouTube for "iPhone remove unused language packs" by Dr Jailbreak. I do that for all my phones regardless if my phone is fast as it is. It frees up a lot of space especially if you have a lot of apps.

If your info is that important, try that. If you can deal without, then stay on 3.1.3.

[jbob0124]

I didn't know that you could disable multitasking on the 3g. So even though we can't use multitasking on it, it is still loaded?

[i.Annie]

Not sure what you mean? You can disable multitasking and wallpaper on any device on iOS 4

[jbob0124]

I will look into doing that then, also read about disable spotlight search as well. Maybe thats what I will do, and see how it runs. Thanks for your help.

[i.Annie]

Yes just be sure to remove those unused language packs because that can free up a lot of space. I get like 30-40MB free on my iPhone 4. On my old 3G I had like 20-30MB freed.