Need to recover photos deleted off iPhone - have backup

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Level 1

27 points

Need to recover photos deleted off iPhone - have backup

I searched on this, and have found a thread which indicates it is possible, but want to be sure to do it right (don't want to over-write the backup!)

Had a small disaster yesterday with iPhoto, and have lost the pictures from a recent trip, after d/l'ing them from the phone and flash cards. The phone did run a backup with the photos still on it, and that is the last time I have synced, so the most recent backup should include the pictures, I believe?

I've seen the description of needing to restore without backing up (how does one do that?) and saying no to updating the backup after restoring. Could I ask for a bit more detail on this? The only time I see a "restore" option is when I plug the phone in to sync, and it automagically is already running a backup at that point... something I seriously don't want to have happen.

Many thanks, I very much want to reclaim these pictures without plunking down $90 for FileRecovery.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.7), iPhone 3G, 7 iPods

Posted on May 11, 2010 5:31 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

kramey74

Level 1

105 points

May 11, 2010 7:47 AM in response to derring do

Your only option here is to restore the phone from backup and hope the images are there.
On Windoze, right click on the phones name once iTunes recognizes it and choose restore from backup. Choose the most recent backup.
On Mac, control click on the phones name and choose restore from backup.

Good Luck.

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Answer 2

derring do Author

Level 1

27 points

May 11, 2010 7:59 AM in response to kramey74

Yes, thanks, Mac definitely.

My question here is HOW to keep the phone from backing up once I plug it in, and iTunes starts... I don't know how to stop that step, and get to the "restore from backup" step.

Or is that the control/click you mentioned?

Definitely don't want to make a mistake here. Thanks for the post.

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Answer 3

kramey74

Level 1

105 points

May 11, 2010 8:28 AM in response to derring do

You can stop the backup in several ways.
1. on the phone: slide to cancel. Look at the phone and slide to cancel.
2. At the top of iTunes where it starts to back up, click on the little black x.

There are other ways, such as modifying the settings..but these are quick and easy and should accomplish what you want.

To see what backups are currently on your Mac:
Open iTunes Preferences:
Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click Devices (iPhone or iPod touch does not need to be connected).
iTunes 8.1 or later will show the phone number, IMEI, and serial number of the backed up iPhone when you position your mouse pointer over a backup (serial number only for iPod touch). Use this to locate the backup for the iPhone.

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Answer 4

derring do Author

Level 1

27 points

May 11, 2010 11:08 AM in response to kramey74

Thanks again, I will try this tonight with one of the phones, and hope for the best. A recovery of the phone pics would mitigate slightly the disaster of yesterday. I appreciate your help.

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Answer 5

derring do Author

Level 1

27 points

May 11, 2010 12:49 PM in response to derring do

Was waiting until later to give this a try, when The Man had a friend demo this application to him. Hope it's okay to mention here, we don't have anything to do with the dev, and he's not charging anyway.

Program is called iPhone Backup Extractor, and it works on the Mac with the backups currently residing in iTunes (so no scary attaching of the iPhones with possibility of overwriting that backup!)

It presents you with the iDevices, you select the phone (or touch) you want, then what data you want to extract (like an App, or the iPhone OS Files) A few seconds later, there is the file structure.

All my iPhone missing photos are back, which is great. So far the only downside I've seen is they have the recovery date and time as their creation date. I'm planning on doing this with both phones' backups, and THEN trying to restore the phone, to see if I can keep the original dates.

Thanks again for the helpful posts, I feel much better with these pictures banked before trying the restore.

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Answer 6

derring do Author

Level 1

27 points

May 11, 2010 12:50 PM in response to derring do

Stupidly forgot the address (silly name): http://supercrazyawesome.com/
iPhone Backup Extractore

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