What does the iTunes restore actually do?

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Level 1

14 points

What does the iTunes restore actually do?

I have a new iPhone 4 and had a small issue with the way the iPhone was making (or in this case, not making) phone calls from the Favorites tab. Apple Care suggested that I do an OS upgrade to 4.3.1.

Using iTunes I first did a sync, then a backup and then an OS upgrade. My questions are:

If I do a restore from the backup, will it also restore the iPhone to the previous OS? Or does the restore only restore the data?

If the restore only restore the data, is there some way to restore the old OS if I want to?

Thanks.

PC, Windows 7

Posted on Mar 28, 2011 5:57 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

jacksTLOS

Level 1

70 points

Mar 28, 2011 6:27 PM in response to MikeFromMesa

The restore only restores the data... Apple doesn't support out of date IOS so you can't go back to a previous OS if there is a new version out... The restore automatically downloads the latest version of IOS first.

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Answer 2

EBSkater

Level 2

496 points

Mar 29, 2011 12:33 AM in response to jacksTLOS

If you've ever jailbroken, you can downgrade, but you have to Google it, as it's not supported here, or even discussed. Just a heads up. Not particularly sure why you would want to downgrade though.

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Answer 3

MikeFromMesa Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 29, 2011 7:02 AM in response to EBSkater

There is probably no reason for me to downgrade, but I was thinking about a post I recently saw concerning the iPad. The user was complaining that after upgrading the OS on their iPad they could no longer use it, and the Camera Connection Kit, to download and store images from their sdhc cards on the iPad. They said that the upgrade included an OS change that lowered the device power output to the cards for the download process so much that it no longer worked on their reader and cards.

Given that they lost functionality due to the upgrade I just thought I would ask. Typically I expect an upgrade to fix problems (and this one did fix my dialing issue), but there is always the possibility that the upgrade might also have an adverse affect on some other functionality. Given that possibility it seemed reasonable to ask. At least now I know.

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