iOS4 restore does not keep app folders

On the phone to an Apple employee the other day and he assured me that folder syncing can be done.

However when I received my advanced replacement phone today and restored from back up....

*NO FOLDERS* 😟

Yeah the most basic of things are always missing. When OS# came out it did not remember app page locations either but now it does. Annoying is what this is.

I haven't restored from a backup, but I have 8 folders with an average of 4 apps per folder and I do not loose the setup when I sync. Did you build the folders on the phone or in iTunes? If you built them on the phone, I did read elsewhere that folks were having a problem, but when set up in iTunes all worked ok.

The fact that folders are not restored is amazing. Imagine if you used backup software on your computer, and found on a restore that although you had all your files, there were all in just one big folder. Or that when you moved iTunes onto a new computer, you lost all your playlists.

I have 100s of apps, and 80+ folders. When I got a replacement iP4, I learned that I would have to spend another 5 hours to recreate the organization that Apple so highly touts, but can't even backup/restore correctly

Actually I have found what causes it and the remedy.

When you are restoring the iPhone from backup, it attempts to restore folders first. Well, the problem with this is that the Apps are not there/restored yet so none of the folders are allowed to be created empty.

The remedy to this is, do your restore from backup which will restore all of your apps, etc. then immediately do another restore and your folders should be there. They were in my case. Don't sync between the two restores either.

{quote:title=JPBOSS wrote:} The remedy to this is, do your restore from backup which will restore all of your apps, etc. then immediately do another restore and your folders should be there. {quote}

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We've been plagued repeatedly by a variety of issues with iPhone updates, syncs & backups. Many times lost the order of our apps and "lost" apps on the iPhone (no way to delete them, reinstall them ...) and repeatedly spent hours sorting things out, as much as possible.

This weekend after a full backup, the iPhone was replaced (due to hardware issues), we did a full restore and yet even more apps went missing and all iOS4 folders were totally lost.

Thanks to your tip we've regained all iOS4 folders and the missing apps!

No problem, glad I could help. I decided to figure this out after I lost all my folders and in having a few i4's replaced I finally realized what was going on. This would be super easy for Apple to fix in the restore logic in iTunes. Just add a "restore-folders" line at the end of the restore code and poof, it's fixed. Company makes billions of $$$ but if you ask me spends money in wrong places like the $100 million testing facility that did nothing but show they wasted $100 million and bragged about it. They would make a better investment by hiring 100 human testers at $100,000 per year for 10 years.

When I do another restore from a backup (or using the button when my phone is highlighted), it wipes out my iphone, and I am back to square one. No Apps, and have to sync the folders again. Is there any way to do it without wiping the saved data?

Steps to solve this annoying and stupid problem (Apple devs take note so you can fix it)

1: Connect to your phone to iTunes (make sure this is before you tried to restore it or lost all your icons)
2: Right click your phone in the left hand menu and select "Back up" (record the time so you know which backup to use later)
3: wait for that to finish
4: If you need to do a full restore (firmware and software) click on your phone in the left hand menu then click the settings tab then click the restore button.
If you don't need to do a firmware restore (you do need to do this if apple has officially unlocked your phone or you have paid your phone carrier to do it) then just right click your phone in the left hand menu and click "restore from backup" it's important to note the difference between the two methods the first is a full firmware restore the second just puts your files back on the phone and does not touch the firmware.
5: Let it finish. Don't let it sync cancel it if it tries.
6: Once it's finished or it tries to start syncing and you have cancelled it click on your phone in the left hand menu and select "Restore from backup" (yes you have to do it twice it's not a typo). Make sure you select the backup you made in step 2.
7: let it finish and this time let is sync. It should take a while and once finished all your folders and apps will be there.

I just tested this in full using the Backup>Full restore>cancel sync>restore from backup method. iPhone4 iOS 4.1 iTunes 10.0.0.68 works perfectly.

Good luck.

Guys, I have a backup file dated 28th Sept 2010 with ALL my data, apps & folders. After i restored 2 times from that back-up file, the apps & folders are not restored?. Only half the apps were restored. What else i need to do to restore the apps in the right folders?. Tx for any help.

Brilliant.

I hope Apple reads your solution.

The double restore trick does work. A tip for those of you who want to speed up the process:
Keep an eye on the progress of your first restore. As soon as the apps are done copying and iTunes moves on to restoring your music, click the little "x" to stop the restore. Then right-click on the iPhone icon and select "Restore from backup." The folders will get restored and you won't have to wait for your music and photos to copy over twice.

This solution didn't fully help us because we were trying to sync the phone to a new computer, not dealing with a new phone. To be exact, it all worked except app folders.

We have concluded that only the folders that match the category names provided by Apple will be restored. So "Games" will work but "Fun" will not. Furthermore, the content of those folders will only be restored provided that the applications inside those folders match those categories. So if you put an Entertainment app in a Games folder, it will not show up.

As far as rebuilding your folders back manually, we just found a faster way that may be obvious to most of you. When you double click on a folder in iTunes, it will open up on the right side showing you the apps that are in it. Next, sort the apps on the left by name or category, check those you want to add and that's it. Much faster than dragging them around or worse, dragging them around on the phone!

I hope this helps some of you. We certainly spent some frustrating time today moving from Pro to Air. Very un-Apple like, I have to admit!

In order to run a couple new apps that require iOS4.1 we decided to upgrade. Synced / transferred new purchases, backed up the phone, updated the OS and guess what ... Game center icon added on page 1 and nothing more than 3 folders with 1 app each retained on page 2 and 3 and a handful of apps out of over a hundred. Tried the double restore ... spent hours trying to get things back through restores. No dice?!

All there is now, is 3 folders and hundred or so apps over the allowed pages with the rest in limbo.

This is so insane I can't believe it. We're now how many years with iPhones and this essential and elementary thing about updating and backing up is such a failure. How hard can it be to retain app positioning/ordering and folders? This should have never been an issue from day 1.

As much as we hate the really poor AT&T coverage in Maine and love the iPhone in general; this repeated nightmare with backups and updates, means this iPhone will become an iPod Touch when the ETF is over. Smartphone be ****** when you can't depend on it to make & receive calls and end up troubleshooting it for over a day every few months. And that the double-restore didn't work ... it seems like a so out of luck and options thing where you have to start over ... Thank you Apple. Not.