IPhone backup is corrupted and not visible in ITunes. Can I recover the data on it?

Question

Level 1

9 points

IPhone backup is corrupted and not visible in ITunes. Can I recover the data on it?

Hi,

I am a Win 7 user. I recently upgraded my iphone 4 from ios 4 to ios 5. It seems that the upgrade process deletes all the data and then it recovers it from ITunes or ICloud backup. I did have only one backup and it was on ITunes. However, during the backup process I had some kind of error telling me that the backup is corrupted or something like that. Unfortunately I didnt pay enough attention to the error in order to quote it here. What happenned next is that the IPhone was stuck on the Conect to ITunes screen even thou it was already connected. Every time I was connecting the Iphone to ITunes, it was syncing, but it kept being stuck on that Connect to ITunes screen. To resolve this, I tried the Restore from a backup option by right clicking on the Iphone in ITunes. There I had only one choice of backup which was with no date. This solved the Connect to ITunes problem and the IPhone was up and running.

The next problem was that once I configured the IPhone, I had no data on it - no pictures, no contacts, no anything apart programs I have downloaded previously from AppStore.

A friend of mine assisted me, and showed me where the backups are stored on win 7 systems:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

My understanding is that you have as many backups as folders in the Backup folder above. I don't see however one of the folders in the ITunes Restore from Backup list. It is the largest and oldest folder - nearly 2GB. All the rest is like 30-40mb. I believe that any chance I may have to restore any information from my IPhone is by restoring this backup and being able to upload it to the IPhone or read it somehow. My friend discovered that the .plist files are missing in this folder. In particular 4 files: info.plist, manifest.mbdb, manifest.plist and status.plist.

We tried to cheat a bit by copying these files from one of the other backup folders. We also renamed some of the codes in one or two of the files, like the name of the folder, data and hour in info.plist. It didnt work. This folder remains unvisible by ITunes and therefore I cannot use it as backup.

Your help is much appreciated for finding a solution on that one,

Peppy

iPhone 4, Windows 7

Posted on Jan 13, 2012 1:59 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 19, 2017 7:52 PM in response to Peppy.

Hi,

What exactly did you change after copying the files from your other backup folder? You said 'the name of the folder, data and hour in info.plist. ' can you be more specific please I would really like to copy your solution!

Thank you.

Reply

Answer 2

gdgmacguy

Level 7

21,885 points

Jan 13, 2012 7:37 AM in response to Peppy.

If your backup is corrupted you cannot retrieve data from it.

Reply

Answer 3

Peppy. Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 18, 2012 2:36 PM in response to gdgmacguy

After looking a bit more in the forums, I found that there is a program that allows you to recover information from backups. Its called iphone backup extractor. By using the cheating method described in the last paragraph of my previous message, the program managed to read the backup. I have now my my contacts in .vcf file.

Afaik, in order to import the .vcf file in contacts you need to pass through outlook or maybe yahoo/gmail. I tried with outlook and am now stuck on the importing. When doing file > import > .vcf, outlook says:

"Cannot open file: D:\[file location and name]. The file may not exist, you may not have permission to open it, or it may be open in another program. Right-click the folder that contains the file, and then click Properties to check your permissions for the folder. The specified file does not appear to be a valid Address Book file."

Which is a **** vast warning message. I managed to open the .vcf file with Windows Contacts, which means that is more or less readable. However Windows Contacts pop-ups as many windows as contacts I have (or at least a lot of), one by one. When I close one, the other contact details appears and so on, which means that the contacts are more or less readable.

Now the question remains, how I can import successfully the .vcf file.

Reply

Answer 4

Peppy. Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 18, 2012 5:01 PM in response to Peppy.

Importing a .vcf file isn't that difficult at start. You can do it also via Gmail or Yahoo browser mail. I decided to go for the gmail import. It worked, however there was an issue with the contacts listing on my iphone. The names are not listed alphabetically, since gmail or iOs did something with the first/last name. I think it has mixed them a little - instead of putting first/last name, it has put the names as prefix/first name and this mixes the order on iphone.

I tried to import contacts with yahoo, too. But, gmail, although not perfect, is far better, since a) yahoo didnt import all contacts, and b) imported only the family name and number which messes up a lot your contacts if you havent recorded them properly and want first name too. Gmail imports all details, or at least at first sight. The problem is the mixture of the first/last name with prefix/first name as already explained. This I will have to fix manually via web browser in my gmail account.

For details on how to import VCF in gmail follow these steps:

http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=14024

Reply

Answer 5

Peppy. Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 19, 2012 3:51 AM in response to Peppy.

I have imported successfully all details to ihpone from the .vcf file via Gmail.

The problem I described earlier related to the contacts alphabetical order, in particular that the recovered iphone contacts were with messed first and last name - in particular the first became prefix and the last became first name in gmail, is not related to gmail. When opening the .vcf file with Windows Contacts the contacts are already messed up, meaning that this might be either because of the iphone backup extractor or something else.

After editing each contact name in Gmail and cutting from prefix to first name and from first name to last name fixed up that mess.

My contacts are now as they were before. I've also noticed that some details in the contacts themselves might miss. So far I've discovered 1 contact detail with 1 phone number missing our of 250 - me happy.

Reply

Answer 6

Aug 22, 2014 1:46 PM in response to gdgmacguy

gdgmacguy wrote:

If your backup is corrupted you cannot retrieve data from it.

I've been working on a tool that repairs most iPhone (iPad, iPod Touch) backups that iTunes reports as corrupted -- it seems to be working fairly well for people we've had using it lately! If someone stumbles on this post and wants to try it out, the program is Decipher Backup Repair, and you can try it here:

http://deciphertools.com/download-decipher-backup-repair.html

As other people in the thread have mentioned, you can also try some third-party programs to read the backup and pull-out the important data so you at least have it in some capacity. We have one on the website I've linked above, in addition to the repair software.

I hope this helps someone who finds this thread! Dealing with iTunes backups can be really painful, and I know it's horribly depressing to wait through a restore to get the corrupted message after SEVERAL minutes.

(Note: As I mentioned, I work on the backup fixing software I linked to, so I stand to benefit, financially or otherwise, from the links I've provided.)

Reply