Restore iPhone from older backup

I'm having the same issue but I cannot locate the folder on mac osx mtn lion...anyone know?

Figured it out! Plug phone into itunes, hold down option key and hit restore backup. It will let you select any past backup.

pricewc

hold down option key? where? my phone got wiped out and the last backup, is of the new wiped out phone.how did you access your back up of say, yesterday after its been already wiped and a new backup already existing?

d12dirtydozen, pricewc is using a MAC... My guess is you are using a PC, such as me.

I have the same problem, trying to recover from a previous backup in Windows..

Has anyone found the final FREE solution? I tried dr. Fone by Wondershare but it will only let me save photos to the computer, but not contacts, notes, emails, etcetera..

I'm losing my mind here... Itunes isnt helping

d12,

Plug your phone into your computer and when iTunes opens it will show the screen about your iPhone. I'm using a mac so I hold down the option key on my computer and click "Restore Backup". It then shows a list of about 10+ of my past backups to my computer. I just selected the one I wanted and it worked. Took about 20 mins to complete.

is that because your on a mac? i dont have the option key on my laptop

not sure if this helps, but I just restored from my 2nd most recent iphone backup on my PC:

My story is that I tried to trade in my old iphone before purchasing the 5s, so I wanted to wipe out all my data etc on the old phone before I traded it in. But after I restored the original settings (i.e. blank) my iTunes was set up to do an automatic back-up, which created a basically blank database from which I was hoping to restore to my new iphone - which was not what I wanted.

I have Windows 7 and found the back up file in \\computer\users\[Bob = username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup - actually there are file folders there, I had 3 of them. I figured out which one I wanted to use and then moved the others to another folder (I just created another folder called 'hold on to these" in the MobileSync folder, leaving just the good one.

When I connected my iphone I was able to restore from the backup that comes up with the Restore Backup button.

Worked for me. Now I'm going to keep another folder of backups just in case.

Hope this helps.

Hey bob

I see them in the folder, but when I try to do it on iTunes it only pulls up my iPod backups, not my iPhone

iTunes has a nasty habit of deleting the previous backup every time it does a backup. If you really have an old backup intact, there is a way to restore from it. I forget the procedure, but I'm sure you can Google it. It's a good idea to manually go into your backup directory and manually copy it over to a new name once in a while. That way iTunes won't touch it, and you can use it in an emergency such as yours.

Here's a website that describes how to do it:

http://gg.gg/kwbp

It's Control instead of the Option key if you're using a PC; so hold the CTRL and left click the "Restore Backup..." button in iTunes if you'd rather use an older backup version that's existing on your PC. You should see the same list image that pricewc screenshotted in his last post.

i had the same problem of not being able to restore to an earlier back up and here's a solution that worked for me.

itunes does some overwriting of the previous back up when a later backup is done (ie. once you plug in and aren't fast enough to prevent an instantaneous backup which does the overwriting - yes the irony)

i was lucky that the version i was trying to back up to was pretty recent, so i was able to restore the entire backup folder to a previous version (the non-overwritten state)

to restore your backup folder to the previous state, go to:

\Documents and Settings\(username)\Appdata\Apple Computer\MobileSync\

right-click on the Backup folder and select properties and select one of the tabs called 'Previous Versions'.

i did a back up on Sep 30, but it was overwritten when i plugged in today, so i restored the folder to a 'previous version' that was between Sep 30 and Oct 23. this would bring the folder to the state before it was overwritten today. then when i selected restore backup in itunes, i was only able to see the Sep 30 back up and restored to that.

to find the backup folder in your PC: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

i am on Windows 7 and wasn't able to locate the appdata folder as stated. go to start and use the search function on "%appdata%" and it appears. think it's because it is a hidden folder or something like that

hope this works for anyone who has the same problem. i was really distraught until i was able to this restoration.

i had the same problem of not being able to restore to an earlier back up and here's a solution that worked for me.

itunes does some overwriting of the previous back up when a later backup is done (ie. once you plug in and aren't fast enough to prevent an instantaneous backup which does the overwriting - yes the irony)

i was lucky that the version i was trying to back up to was pretty recent, so i was able to restore the entire backup folder to a previous version (the non-overwritten state)

to restore your backup folder to the previous state, go to:

\Documents and Settings\(username)\Appdata\Apple Computer\MobileSync\

right-click on the Backup folder and select properties and select one of the tabs called 'Previous Versions'.

i did a back up on Sep 30, but it was overwritten when i plugged in today, so i restored the folder to a 'previous version' that was between Sep 30 and Oct 23. this would bring the folder to the state before it was overwritten today. then when i selected restore backup in itunes, i was only able to see the Sep 30 back up and restored to that.

to find the backup folder in your PC: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

i am on Windows 7 and wasn't able to locate the appdata folder as stated. go to start and use the search function on "%appdata%" and it appears. think it's because it is a hidden folder or something like that

hope this works for anyone who has the same problem. i was really distraught until i was able to this restoration.

My problem is similar. I lost all my contacts a few days ago. When I went to restore on iTunes it did the whole backing up thing first, so my restore would be to that version I just "backed up" with the blank contacts. I went to the location on the hard drive that noobiesg suggested and I see three folders, two of which are from previous users (this computer is a hand-me-down from family). The one that's mine has inside a bunch of files from today when I "backed up" and a bunch from the last time I backed up, sometime last year. I don't have a "Previous Versions" tab on my properties. I don't know if it's because I have Windows XP and the newer versions have that option and this doesn't, or what. So how do I get to the info from last year from just the files in that folder?

Huron -

try moving the empty backup to another folder so that your older backup is the only one there - this worked for me before I heard about the right click to find older backups. I had only had one other older backup, but it worked.

Hi

Just to be certain u got it right, because XP has e previous version function.

E right click properties should be of/on e backup folder, not inside e folder. Ie u have to be in e mobile sync folder, right click on back up.

Hope it works!