Aptbackup or PkgBackup?

[pargoff]

so since this app looks buggy as hell, what do you guys recommend i use to backup all my cydia stuff in case i need to restore?

[Cory Gillmore]

so since this app looks buggy as hell, what do you guys recommend i use to backup all my cydia stuff in case i need to restore?

Even though it's had some issue this past month or so, it's fixed now and is still the best option. I still recommend pkgbackup.

[iphoneguy2007]

Assuming that one's phone is jailbroken, why can't you just copy the Applications directory from your iphone to your hard drive? Then, copy them back to the iphone following a restore or firmware update? respring and the apps should show up on the springboard again. Wouldn't that work?

[Cory Gillmore]

@iphoneguy: I guess because it would just be easier to purchase pkgbackup and do it that way. Plus, I don't think Cydia will recognize the apps unless you actually install the apps using Cydia. Therefore you wouldn't receive any updates for the apps. Could be wrong though.

[CONVBMW]

Assuming that one's phone is jailbroken, why can't you just copy the Applications directory from your iphone to your hard drive? Then, copy them back to the iphone following a restore or firmware update? respring and the apps should show up on the springboard again. Wouldn't that work?

This is a very good question as I am all about manual backups. Data saved in a folder, drag and drop, refresh.

Can anyone answer this question. It would be awesome if someone could.

[Mes]

Corry_Gillmore is correct. Apps also require more configuration/settings then from just putting in the Applications folder. One could install the '.debs' manually ... but it's much easier to let Cydia do it.

On the other hand, I often make manual backups also. However, my reason is not to attempt to restore the app but to restore personalized settings and customizations..

[CONVBMW]

Corry_Gillmore is correct. Apps also require more configuration/settings then from just putting in the Applications folder. One could install the '.debs' manually ... but it's much easier to let Cydia do it.

On the other hand, I often make manual backups also. However, my reason is not to attempt to restore the app but to restore personalized settings and customizations..

This makes me very very sad

[crashnburn_in]

Lots of amazing information. A bit confusing and contrasting but Im gonna print this out.

Ok so
1. Pkgbackup: All cydia packages
2. Appbackup: All App Store apps
3. Chronus: All stock iPhone app like weather, stocks, calender, clock.
So with these three app you could easily backup and restore an iPhone while setting the phone up as "new" pretty easliy. With these three app you would only have to SSH a few files that these apps don't backup. Like MXtubes VideoLibrary.plist file. And I think a few others. I hope you decide to write a new and updated backup/restore how to guide when you get your 3GS. Hint hint.

hi, this thread is the best place to know how to backup/restore all apps (appstore and cydia) alongwith saves and prefs, without using the internet to download any apps.
firstly, does pkgbackup backup the actual cydia apps or just the list of the apps (like aptbackup).
secondly, where r the backups of pkgbackup located on the iphone coz i dont want to do an itunes backup restore and want to ssh the pkgbackup directly from the pc to the iphone (like in aptbackup).
thirdly, can these cydia app backups be "exported" across iphone gens?
for eg., can i export the cydia app backups from my 2g/3.0 to 3gs/3.0?
thanx, in advance.

Sup yohu. Glad you find the thread useful. Pkgbackup's list is stored with your contacts. So you thankfully don't have to restore from an iTunes backup or implement ssh to get it to work.
It does NOT backup apps states/settings. Just makes a list like Aptbackup but works ALOT better than Aptbackup.
And yes it does work when going from different generations of iPhones. Although in my experience it won't create a list specific to each device. I tried using it on my 3G and my 3GS and it just overwrote the list of my 3G with the 3GS list. When you run the program for the first time it creates a contact on your device and in the notes field of the contact it saves a list of every single package/repo you have installed. Then you just sync with iTunes.
Combine Pkgbackup with Chronus and Appbackup for your jailbroken iPhone backup/restore solution. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the process.

Restoring my apps backed up in pkgbackup in FW3.01 on to 3.1 and all worked fine but all my App store apps then failed to open (closed after splash screen.

Using AppBackup & PkgBackup, I was able to go from jailbroken with all my jailbreak apps installed and set up how I wanted them, to restored as new phone, app store apps and settings back in place, and jailbroken with jailbreak apps installed in something like an hour, hour and a half. Only thing I had to do manually was download PkgBackup first thing after jailbreaking (gotta have the app installed to use it to restore) and reconfigure the jailbreak apps' settings, cuz as far as I know there is no solution for storing the settings for them, but that only takes a few minutes anyway.

Yes. Because the Dev Team always follow the law and they don't distribute custom firmwares as the ipsw files are copyrighted by apple.
They have always had a tool to let you make those yourself though (pwnagetool).

I restored from PkgBackup to 3.1.. I was stuck in Safe Mode]. Had to restore again and manually install all my Cydia apps again...[/COLOR

It's a good thing we know some pretty smart mac users

And no it doesn't It took me a couple hours to restore, sync, pkgbackup, try to fix the problem, restore again, sync again, and manually install my cydia apps :(

It shouldn't matter between firmware versions unless something you have now is not compatible with 3.1

haha. that's too late for me still
That app wasted a couple of my hours yesterday.

No.. I redownloaded everything I had before and set it up exactly like how it was before... only manually.
Now everything's all good.
3.1 is awesome.. everything is snappier and much smoother.. and app management is awesome

@jibrilg I re-installed all the apps manually that pkgbackup actually backed up and it worked fine.
It was only when I restored with pkgbackup that it got me stuck in safe mode..

Everything angie and I had in 3.0 from cydia works fine in 3.1 once re-installed manually.
Both of us had problems restoring a backup from pkgbackup.
Angies went into safemode mine seemed to work fine but all App store apps just crashed on opening.
Given the time it takes to restore we both opted to install out cydia apps manually rather than risk restoring from pkgbackup again.
I believe all my cydia apps were up to date when backed up - although now I think of it, I did not do a backup immediately before upgrading - maybe that's the problem?

After upgrading I let Cydia complete all updates before installing UltraSn0w then rebooting. I then installed pkgbackup before doing the restore.

Can't you just use iPhone PC Suite to backup everything to your comp? It saves the list and you can choose to actually back up the whole app to your computer........ I would just like to know which folders contain apps and their data/prefs and then restore them after upgrading to 3.0.1 cz i have 2.2.1 right now on iPhone 3G

I regularly use iphone pc suite for installing some apps and many different things you have the full control of your phone through it without need for i tunes it has many options and things in it..... and yes it can restore you can also back up over network or one key transfer all the data to another iphone..... type it in google and view some screenshots to see the list of things

I just downloaded it. Can't believe it's free! I would pay money for this! Just a couple of months ago I was asking about a good iTunes like desktop client for backing up/restoring jailbroken iPhone data. Nobody mentioned this. Which is kinda weird since it seems to have been out for a year or two.

so no one knows which folders in iPhone contain system files that shouldn't be replaced and which files for applications that can be replaced?

Make a direct copy of folders containing the apps to the computer and when finished updating iphone just copy all those folders back to the phone but without overwriting system stuff....... so just need to know which folders in the phone should be left alone

Hopefully someone will be able to help you. I've no idea myself.
I just restored all my app store stuff from iTunes and all my Cydia stuff from pkgbackup.
Now fully functional on 3.12 with minimal effort

^^^ what he said. Blackra1n + PkgBackup = happy eballesq.

Also, you guys should check out Stack v3 alpha 2. Now supports four stacks and everything shows up in iTunes app management.

pkgbackup works great, so glad i bought that app!

I'm a novice here for sure but it appears to me that you may be making something relatively simple more difficult. PkgBackup is wonderful and worth the investment ($2.00 I think). In restoring my 3GS after jailbreaking with BlackRa1N, I used PkgBackup, Chronus, and AppBackup based on information read elsewhere on this site. In all honesty, I am not sure that you need AppBackup and Chronus.

Yup. I'm so glad pkgbackup decided to play nicely with 3.1.2

AppBackup only backs up appstore app data. Chronus will backup settings for the weather, stocks, camera roll etc... It also does back up app store app data although on a much older version it did not do app store ap data reliably. I think that aspect has improved but I ahve not personally tested it. Plan to try it next time I restore.

Yeah I don't know about iPhone pc suite. When ever I connect my phone to the program it deletes my contacts. They are easily restored with chronus or a quick sync in iTunes but it still makes me nervous everytime. I think I'll just use it backup my data and just restore everything manually through winscp. I still long for a good desktop program for managing jailbroken idevices.

Same thing happened to me with the contacts as well. A bit disconcerting but also found that Chronus /itunes sync restored them.

I tried to restore the back up, it did let me run the restore with a warning that it might not be compatible with my firmware. Things like my camera, stock apps would either not open or freeze. I did ssh my backups teh "old" way as a precaution so I just re restored with my custom firmware and used pkg backup, appbackup etc...

Netimage: it's best to restore in iTunes as a "new" device whenever you restore. Especially when upgrading firmwares. Pretty much if you do a restore because you device is acting funny and you restore from the backup that was having problems, sooner or later you will have the same issues. That is why it's best to start from a clean slate everytime. It's much more of a pain in the *** to start new though....

Ergo, if the phone didn't have any quirky problems and I was restoring or updating to a new firmware then it would be fine to restore?

(That's what I did and it seems to be ok, but I am wondering whether I should redo it, tis time setting up as a new device, and then restore - what do I know, maybe the battery is draining faster than it should or something)

Twitch: I've wondered that myself. I don't really know for sure. [COLOR="rgb(46, 139, 87)"]But I've always heard it's best to setup as new when upgrading the FW. Before I started jailbreaking I never setup as new. I carried over the same backup for almost 2 yrs with no major problems. Your call.

When doing a major firmware update on a jailbroken phone (i.e 1.X -> 2.X -> 3.X) then you should set up as new. Since some things in the jailbroken backup aren't compatible with the new firmware, it causes for some headaches such as battery drainage, etc.
If the backup wasn't made when a phone was jailbroken then restoring from that backup should be fine. If it's a minor firmware update, (i.e 3.0->3.1 etc.) then restoring from backups shouldn't cause a problem.

Read this

Always a good idea to restore as new as when you restore from backup, the chance for corrupted files to be carried over is always there. Ive never had good luck restoring from backup.

I just JB'd my iPhone 3G w/ BlackRa1n, installed Cydia, installed PkgBackup and then it restored all my apps, no corruption, no issues. EVERYTHING is working as it should. Just my experience...

I updated to 3.1.2 last night and Rock.app has a backup feature which worked pretty well for me. I know it's not really part of this discussion, but I wanted to let you all know it worked great!

Hmmm - I've always restored from backup since I got my iPhone 2G and I have always been jailbroken.

It does help to know how to clean up filesystem/etc issues if weird things happen e.g. Cydia has a bad flaw of not cleaning up old copies of /Applications (and others) it puts in the stash directory.

Under Applications folder then Cydia there's two folders for the apps most likely one is of the new files one of the old

It creates a contact in Address Book on a MAC and stores the information there. The contact name is Pkg BackUp.

Illmatic: to clean up old apps from the pkgbackup backup, go to the pkgbackup contact entry on your iPhone and delete the whole notes field. Then just go and make a new backup with pkgbackup and sync with iTunes. Problem solved.

Edit: delete the entry on your pc/mac too before you sync the new backup with iTunes.

I just did a restore and after installing pkgbackup I'm now getting that damn message. I was able to backup my packages before I restored but now that message is back after my full restore. This has officially pissed me off.

Maybe he should post the original, which was working just fine. I tried the "fix" on his website and it messed some permissions on my phone. I just restored and re-installed my apps again. Now the app lets me do a backup without the message, not sure about a restore. Hope it does get fixed, I really liked this app.

Assuming that one's phone is jailbroken, why can't you just copy the Applications directory from your iphone to your hard drive? Then, copy them back to the iphone following a restore or firmware update? respring and the apps should show up on the springboard again. Wouldn't that work?

@iphoneguy: I guess because it would just be easier to purchase pkgbackup and do it that way. Plus, I don't think Cydia will recognize the apps unless you actually install the apps using Cydia. Therefore you wouldn't receive any updates for the apps. Could be wrong though.

Corry_Gillmore is correct. Apps also require more configuration/settings then from just putting in the Applications folder. One could install the '.debs' manually ... but it's much easier to let Cydia do it.

On the other hand, I often make manual backups also. However, my reason is not to attempt to restore the app but to restore personalized settings and customizations..

[phillipskid32]

wow i get to revive a dead thread i feel honored. anyway i want to upgrade to os4 if it can be cracked fingers crossed but just so i got this straight i need chronus and pkg to get all my apps backed up

[falstaffpac]

FWIW, I've been troubleshooting 2 programs which conflict with each other, resulting in a fatal crash which requires a complete restore of my phone to recover. I've preformed approximately 10 system restores over the past 2 months. All my cydia apps have easily been restored with aptbackup (free, from Cydia). I've been pretty happy with it.

[Steviemay]

can anyone help im trying to back up my data but for some reason it says this (look at picture) i used the app once before but got rid of it wasn't to keen on using it. so does anyone know how i can resolve this so i can update my firmware and not lose all my apps

[confucious]

cant you just create a new backup?

[Cory Gillmore]

Yeah I'm not so big in this app anymore. More than twice it has failed me at the time of a restore. Including the last time I restored. Too bad it's pretty much the only game in town as far as it's functionality. Someone needs to make an app that does what it does and also restores JB app settings.

[i.Annie]

Pkgbackup never worked for me. I did use aptbackup. It has worked twice for me. The only catch is you'd have to restore from backup and can't set up as new for it to work.

Whenever I restore it's usually bc something is wrong with my phone so I tend to not restore from backup which means I can't use aptbackup. But whenever I'm simply upgrading fw version and can set up as new, aptbackup works for me.

[Mes]

Personally, I think it's a great app ... but with limitations. Limitations I believe are nearly impossible to overcome. It's easy to see how PkgBackup might fail due to the many package interdependencies, mobile substrate add-ons, system file changes & tweaks, boot & respring requests, and on and on.

PkgBackup seems to work better when I:

1. Install Cydia apps prior to any iTunes setup/restore/etc ... and ..
2. Manually install all Cydia apps which include a Mobile Substrate dylib ... and ...
3. Manually power cycle instead us pressing a Cydia respring/reboot button.

IMHO

[MadBat]

What about the newer apps like iBye & backtodeb?
I feel like they may be better than PkgBackup