Can I back up an unusable device?

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Can I back up an unusable device?

So, my iPad broke roughly a week ago, and due to an incredible lack of foresight I haven't ever backed it up. I have a writing app on there with somewhere around a fourth of the first draft of a book, and due to an even more astonishing stupidity I put myself in a situation where the only possible way to retrieve it is to get the app info and download it to my phone. I cannot sign in from another device: the app doesn't have signing in, and I do not have the file for the story ANYWHERE else. On the plus side, my iPad has all of its information, I just can barely see anything on the screen because it is broken so bad. It seems like the only option is to get the app info directly from my iPad. Is there a way to back it up (or otherwise get the app info) with no use of the iPad whatsoever? Again, the only part of the iPad impaired is the visibility of the screen. I have a Mac and an iPhone, so if need be I can use those to do so.

Posted on Jan 31, 2022 6:43 AM

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Answer 1

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Asblg Author

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Jan 31, 2022 9:32 AM in response to razmee209

So actually, I did have to do a bit of blind button-pressing, but I managed to hook it up to my mac and back it up. You were technically right as for most cases, but since my screen isn't totally black, here's what I did:

I connected my iPad to my computer with a usb cable.
I went to finder, to the section with the name of my device, and pressed the "trust" button.
The way I got my iPad to trust the computer is by doing the trust process with my phone and learning where the confirmation is located on the screen. It's where the cancel button would normally be, so after a few presses I hit it.
I saw the change in screen color and knew I had hit it and that it now needed a passcode input, so I connected a keyboard. First, I pressed backspace a few times in case I had accidentally hit a number while blindly tapping the screen, then I entered the passcode using the number keys on the keyboard.
My iPad and computer were now linked and I could back up my iPad (I didn't do so though, because I discovered that I could actually access the file I needed and put it on my computer without doing that, which saved a lot of time and computer memory)

If I didn't have a keyboard, my screen was completely black, and/or touchscreen imputs didn't work, this would not be possible, so I don't blame you for saying that this isn't possible.

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Answer 2

razmee209

Level 10

198,708 points

Jan 31, 2022 9:22 AM in response to Asblg

Asblg wrote:

So, my iPad broke roughly a week ago, and due to an incredible lack of foresight I haven't ever backed it up. I have a writing app on there with somewhere around a fourth of the first draft of a book, and due to an even more astonishing stupidity I put myself in a situation where the only possible way to retrieve it is to get the app info and download it to my phone. I cannot sign in from another device: the app doesn't have signing in, and I do not have the file for the story ANYWHERE else. On the plus side, my iPad has all of its information, I just can barely see anything on the screen because it is broken so bad. It seems like the only option is to get the app info directly from my iPad. Is there a way to back it up (or otherwise get the app info) with no use of the iPad whatsoever? Again, the only part of the iPad impaired is the visibility of the screen. I have a Mac and an iPhone, so if need be I can use those to do so.

No. You will need to get the screen fixed.

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Can I back up an unusable device?

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