How to tell iTune to keep every backup?

I don't know what you are smoking, but Apple has NEVER provided multiple backups for the iPhone in the 5 1/2 years that I've had one, except when updating. The most recent backup or the last backup of the previous iOS version are the only backups that you can restore.

Of course, you can keep separate backups yourself by backing up the backup directory. If you have a Mac this happens automatically when you use Time Machine, if you have Windows you can get commercial backup programs that will keep multiple generations of files, or subscribe to a cloud backup service such as LiveDrive that will also keep multiple generations.

Call it what you want, but I like many others who have just posted before me (with SCREENSHOTS even) WERE IN FACT ABLE to restore our deviced from multiple sessions that had been saved. I was able to do this with my first gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3Gs. I remember VERY CLEARLY restoring from a recent session, only to find that some system preference was corrupted (and that was conveniently in the backed-up session), but LUCKILY I had an older session -- which I restored from, and not through Time Machine -- and which didn't contain the corrupted backed-up preferences.

PERHAPS.. and this is a big PERHAPS the reason some of us are seeing these multiple back-up sessions COULD be due to that which shalt not be mentioned here -- the big JB. It's a wild guess, but perhaps we were getting multiple sessions -- because we were backing up JB'ed devices.

Can you guys who were experiencing these "multiple sessions" confirm this? C'mon, admit it. It doens't mean you're a pirate. There are those of us who genuinely do it ONLY for the extra functionality like the ability to back-up saved game data in the Cloud (if the game only supported it through iTunes backup) etc.

Coz these other guys swear they ne'er seen the multiple backups (even with screenshot'd proof). I would take their word for it too -- if they've never JB'ed.

You must really be special, because, while I could SEE multiple backups, I could only restore the most recent. I could show you a screen shot with several backups, but only the latest was actually available to restore. So the screen shot proves nothing.

The reason I want to do it is because I want to save all my text discussions I had with my baby brother before he pased from cancer. It comforts me to reread them. However, I need to make room on my phone and I have a lot of text conversations with pictures etc. Makes perfect sense to me.

Wrong. Atleast on a PC, in the passed your backups no longer showed in iTunes but they were still saved in the hidden folder were the latest backup was saved. This was awesome for fixing the screwups with the Apple updates by going back to the previous versions that worked fine. Apple programmers now fixed it so ALL previous backups are deleted. I got around this by backing up my iphone on three differnt PC's at differnt times. So if I must I can go to an earlier backup. So there Apple!!!!!

Amor2013 wrote:

The reason I want to do it is because I want to save all my text discussions I had with my baby brother before he pased from cancer. It comforts me to reread them. However, I need to make room on my phone and I have a lot of text conversations with pictures etc. Makes perfect sense to me.

There are other ways to archive your text messages without saving your iPhone back ups. I use PhoneView (Mac). However, TouchCopy (Mac and Windows) is also recommended frequently in these forums.

How do you do it on a PC?

Or is it even possible?

Thanks in advance!

Ron

rjmoose wrote:

How do you do it on a PC?

Do what?

Does anybody know why in iTunes > Preferences > Devices - when I go to select my one backup that's there and right click it, why the options aren't available? In other words, I don't get a dropdown menu when I right click it. Has anybody encountered a fix for this? Running iTunes 10.7.

Probably because the feature was added in a later version. I never noticed it before v11

Hi guys,

I randomly solve this .

Simply after back up your iPhone or iPad restore it immediately,

( restore the back up again to the device )

When you check the Preference - device -back up

You will find the back up saved with the date of back up 4/11/2013. If you not restore the back up it will be saved with the time only today 3;22

Hope you find that help you can contact me for more help

<Email Edited By Host>

What if you backup, then change the name of the phone (In Settings -> General -> About) then backup again?

That way, it thinks of it as a new phone and keeps the old backup?

MDJCM wrote:

What if you backup, then change the name of the phone (In Settings -> General -> About) then backup again?

That way, it thinks of it as a new phone and keeps the old backup?

No.

If you want a new back, Restore the iPhone.

But restoring is the opposite of backup, how could that possibly be the answer to this problem.

If you want to go left, turn right

I have a backup on iTunes I want to keep/archive/(have available to me for restoring in the future), and now I want to backup the same phone but create a completely separate backup.

When you restore the iPhone, it takes the current backup of that iPhone and adds the date to the name.

iTunes then creates a new backup of that phone.

See the bottom of this page.

-> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

You can also copy your backup to another location.

If you are on a Mac, you can simply select the backup in iTunes prefs > Devices, right click > Archive.

This adds the date to the backup name and a new backup will be started next time you plug in your iPhone.