Location of iPhone backup made by iTunes?

[tocheskey]

Does anyone know where I can find the backup file of my phone that was made when syncing with iTunes? I cant seem to find it. I need the location of the file for a Windows XP computer...but any info such as a file name or extension would help!

Thanks in advance!

[spuggied]

Does anyone know where I can find the backup file of my phone that was made when syncing with iTunes? I cant seem to find it. I need the location of the file for a Windows XP computer...but any info such as a file name or extension would help!

Thanks in advance!

I'm in the same position. Did you ever find out?

[bigdogjonx]

It stores it in the following location:
CDocuments and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Under that Backup directory is a directory which looks like a GUID and in that is the files that itunes uses to backup your phone and all the settings.

Dixit

[andrewtzn]

my PC can't work! how can i transfer backup files into my iphone? cuz i restore my iphone (just copy and paste backup files to the other PC?, or copy and paste backup files into my iphone?) i tried "copy and paste backup files to the other PC" and iTunes backup window leaved blank!!?? Help!!!! THX

[s1ck]

ok i just downgraded from 1.1.3 to and i wanted to restore my phone from backup (to get my contacts back) and guess what - during the process of downgrading i had to set up my iphone as "new iphone" and itunes for some reason decided that i dont need the old backup anymore and deleted it

so now im left with a nice downgraded jailbroken 1.1.2 iphone and a crapload of phone numbers to figure out and put into phonebook... is there a way to restore that lost backup? because even though i really dont care about bookmarks and settings i need those phone numbers back because its such a PITA to go around asking people for their phone numbers again.

thanks

[bigdogjonx]

What you mean you deleted the backup. Because the actual backup iTunes makes stores it in this folder if you on XP

CDocuments and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

There is a GUID directory under it, you may have two since you chose new iPhone, or it might have overwritten the existing one, take a look there. If you have two then maybe the other one is your old one. Youd need to go into your iPhone and delete the iTunes_control directory and reconnect it to iTunes and see if it lets you pick that backup.

Dixit

[s1ck]

thanks for helping me bigdogjonx,

theres only 1 GUID directory in there which is my current backup that doesnt have anything in it. but some of the files in that directory (most of them actually) are dated from up to 10 days ago which leads me into thinking that they could have my old data in them, which would be awesome...

is there a way i can play around with those files to export data from them?

and yes im on XP

thanks again

[bigdogjonx]

Why not try to delete the itunes_control folder on your phone since there is nothing to lose there, and then reconnect to iTunes, see if the popup comes up asking if you want to create a new iphone or backup from existing.

[s1ck]

i tried doing that and i still can only select my new backup, "iphone 2".

is there a way to open those backup files and extract data from them? i tried notepad and they look like they have old sync data

[bigdogjonx]

Some of them are SQLite databases, if you open the file in notepad and if the first line mentions something about SQLite then you can use SQLite to open the file and export it to a text file cleanly.

Dixit

[s1ck]

hey, i wasnt able to get clean text out of the files so i just went around asking for everyones numbers again lol. i guess that did help me clean my phonebook

thank you for your help anyway.

[Imahottguy]

Use the address book that comes with XP to save your contacts. Upon every sync, the address book in windows is updated. I've set my iPhone up as new in the past, so this has been invaluable to me

[alexblanchard2]

The same thing happened to myself - luckily I backed up the Libary folder from my phone to my computer (using iPhone Browser) - in this folder are all of the databases the phone uses to get its data - I simply copied the databases I wanted onto my new phone (replacing the new empty DB's) - so now my new phone has my Contacts, Notes, SMS's ... without restoring a backup in iTunes.

I recomend everbody does back up this folder - I nearly cried when I thought I had lost all of my contacts.

[xtroverttwins]

The same thing happened to myself - luckily I backed up the Libary folder from my phone to my computer (using iPhone Browser) - in this folder are all of the databases the phone uses to get its data - I simply copied the databases I wanted onto my new phone (replacing the new empty DB's) - so now my new phone has my Contacts, Notes, SMS's ... without restoring a backup in iTunes.

I recomend everbody does back up this folder - I nearly cried when I thought I had lost all of my contacts.


Thank you for your post. I am having difficulties restoring my old data to my iPhone without restoring and upgrading to 1.1.3. Where can I get the iPhone Browser and is it available for Windows Vista? Also, how do I copy the old data into my iPhone?

Your quick response would be greatly appreciated. I have been going through the forum to look for resolutions but with no success.

Thanks in advance.

[alexblanchard2]

iPhoneBrowser can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/iphonebrowser/ - it is basically like exploring your windows system - so dragging a folder/file is just like in windows and will overwrite the origionals (it will back-up the files on your phone first for you though).

The directory you need is - var/root/library

and the directories underneath should be self explanitory.


...and yes, 100% Vista compatible - That's what I am using right now.

[disturbedreaper]

where is the directory that itunes saves the back up for the iphone on vista its differnt and i cant find it

[cheeski]

i cant really find the app data folder, but when i search for the data,syncdb file i find it ive tried turning hidden folder visibilty on for all folders.....?help wnat to back this up asap

found it

[ipodtouchpro]

i cant really find the app data folder, but when i search for the data,syncdb file i find it ive tried turning hidden folder visibilty on for all folders.....?help wnat to back this up asap

found it

What's the address?I can't find it.
Plz tell me..

[Alex 3245]

Hi. I'm running Windows XP Media Center, and I just barely upgraded to 2.2.1, and I made a backup of my phone before I restored it, but now the backup I made isn't listed as an available backup. There are older backups listed but not the one I made today. However, the folder of the backup is in the backups folder in Application data, but iTunes doesn't list it. How do I make iTunes recognize this folder as a iPhone backup? Thanks in advance!

[inframusic]

for mac users: login name>library>application support>mobilesync>backup