How to tell iTune to keep every backup?

Andreas - Gothenburg wrote:

Aren't these 2 different thing? Making a backup or sync?

They are, but EVERY TIME you perform a sync, the first thing done is an iPhone backup.

Again, think for a minute...

Mmm, not really helpful coments, to be honest. Like I said already, iTunes doens't have an backup option at least not on my mac. Syncing doesn't create the typical backkup that I can return to after doing a restore of the Phone. Feels like talking in a circle...

Look, after making many syncs:

so where is the backup?

wjosten wrote:

Again, think for a minute...

Hey! When did thinking become a requirement?!? 😉

This started as a discussion on whether iTunes keeps separate iPhone backups, every time you sync(it doesn't). The problem you're now describing is that iTunes does not give you the option to backup your phone, correct? If you right-click(control click) your phone in the left device pane, do you have the option to "Backup"?

No, not since I updated to the new iTunes version.

Eject your phone.

Close iTunes. Open terminal & type the following command or copy & paste:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false
defaults write com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false

The above are two separate lines.

Hit enter.

Re-boot your computer, launch iTunes, connect your phone. Right-clik in the left device pane. Is the restore from backup option there now?

Didn't need to restart, the Backup option is there now. Why was this dissabled?

Thanks! Now we can start from scratch again with this discussion. 🙂

Your welcome.

Now we can start from scratch again with this discussion. 🙂

Nothing more to discuss...your problem is solved & you can now see for yourself how iTunes handles iPhone backups.

Enjoy your phone.

I've been following this thread with great interest because I was wondering the same thing myself, however, I am surprised that no one has mentioned my particular issue.

Many have asked why anyone would want to have multiple backups of their iPhone data. I want to make sure that I always have a cumulative set of backups so that in case a piece of data (i.e. SMS message) accidentally gets deleted from the phone, I can go back to a prior backup and retrieve it (either using iTunes or a third-party utility).

Can anyone tell me how iTunes handles this? If an SMS is on a backup done on 08-12-11, and I've made two more backups since then, is the data from the 08-12-11 still available or has it been deleted?

You've got two practical options, given how iTunes handles iOS backups, to do what you want: 1. Employ a backup procedure of the data on your computer, ala Time Machine for OS X(I've, in essence, got every iPhone backup, for every iPhone I've ever owned, since 2007)...or 2. use a third-party program, like this, to extract your SMS's from your phone & then backup that data:

http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php

I'm reading elsewhere that what iTunes does is create a major full backup whenever the phone is restored, and then, in order to save both space and time, the next backup (and I am assuming every one after that) only saves any changes from the prior backup, and so on and so on.

Can anyone tell me if this is true, and if so, how is the Restore from Backup accomplished? Does it string together all the prior backups pieces into a single restore? If so, suppose you want to get back some data you erased at some point after the first backup? I mean, it's there on the full backup, but since subsequent backups were made, how does it know when it does a restore to bring back the older data?

I am really confused!

macintosh1984 wrote:

I'm reading elsewhere that what iTunes does is create a major full backup whenever the phone is restored, and then, in order to save both space and time, the next backup (and I am assuming every one after that) only saves any changes from the prior backup, and so on and so on.

Can anyone tell me if this is true,

Yep. That's how it works. Normal backups are incremental, restore backups are time/date stamped & not overwritten.

how is the Restore from Backup accomplished? Does it string together all the prior backups pieces into a single restore?

Nope. When you restore from backup you select the normal backup or a restore point backup.

So Time Machine just copies the then-current MobileSync folder, whose contents are always being replaced by the latest backup?

To be clear, does iTunes completely replace the backup data every time it performs a backup, or does it just save any new data in addition to what was there? If I make a backup today that contains 500 SMS messages, and then I delete every message from my phone but 1 and then make another backup, what's going on behind the scenes in the MobileSync folder? Are the other 499 messages completely gone, or has iTunes retained the original but added another backup layer that has only the single message. If the former, then I can manually get to the 500 by using a utility to read the data file. If not, then they are all gone?

macintosh1984 wrote:

To be clear, does iTunes completely replace the backup data every time it performs a backup,

No, it's an incremental backup in that only data that has changed is actually backed up.

If I make a backup today that contains 500 SMS messages, and then I delete every message from my phone but 1 and then make another backup, what's going on behind the scenes

The 499 SMS's that were in your iPhone backup will be removed.

Thanks for your help with this, it's a little confusing. Please help me with these steps and point out where I am right/wrong.

The SMS data is in the file called: 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 in MobileSync.

There's one file like this for each hex-named folder.

There is an original backup folder and then subsequent incremental folders, each with a hex name.

Each time iTunes performs a backup, it continually adds additional folders.

The original folder will have the largest 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 file since it backs up everything.

The subsequent folders will have much smaller 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 files, since they only capture what is different from (the original or the last backup?)

Only the latest backup is available to restore through iTunes, but all the 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28 files are still retained in MobileSync for manual extraction using a 3rd party software.

Am I getting it 100% yet?