Getting text messages back

Question

Level 1

5 points

Getting text messages back

So I was having horrible battery problems and instead of Apple replacing the phone they told me to restore as new phone and to NOT restore from a backup. I hated to do that, but I finally got it done after an hour or two of manually downloading all my apps again and putting them back in their right places.

Now for the text messages. I backed up my phone last night before I took it to the store today. I really would like all those years of text messages back on my phone. Is there anyway this is possible? I know I can get it by restoring from backup, but Apple said that's the reason my battery was dying so fast was because I had a bad app or something.

Anyone?

Posted on Jan 24, 2013 2:48 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jan 24, 2013 2:51 PM in response to Brad87

Sorry, other than restoring from backup, there is no supported way to restore your SMS's back to the phone. However, you could use this to extract them from your backup, then achieve on your computer:

http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com/

Reply

Answer 2

Brad87 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 24, 2013 2:55 PM in response to wjosten

what's up with my calendar as well? it synced some of the information from my calendar, but not all of them from times past. That's on iCloud, shouldn't it be there?

Reply

Answer 3

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jan 24, 2013 2:58 PM in response to Brad87

You can view your calendar at iCloud.com. Are you saying that what shows there is not what is syncing to your phone?

Reply

Answer 4

Brad87 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 24, 2013 2:58 PM in response to Brad87

Ok, I figured out the calendar thing, kind of. In settings I just had to select it to say sync all events (instead of 1 month back, etc.) but when I did that, it still didn't load all the past appointments into my calendar.

Also, my photostream did not sync properly. I had well over 100 photos in there, and when I restored my phone as new, the photostream has only 92 photos. Any reason why?

Reply

Answer 5

Brad87 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 24, 2013 2:59 PM in response to wjosten

Correct, what is showing on iCloud is not what is syncing to my phone. I want the apointments for the whole past year to show up on my phone as well, and it doesn't do that.

Reply

Answer 6

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jan 24, 2013 3:01 PM in response to Brad87

The photos you upload to My Photo Stream are stored in iCloud for only 30 days.

Reply

Answer 7

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jan 24, 2013 3:03 PM in response to Brad87

Read here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3999

Reply

Answer 8

Brad87 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 24, 2013 3:03 PM in response to wjosten

So it will allow me to view them forever, but it only stores them for restoring for 30 days? Because I literally had photos in photostream that were well over a year old and I could view them in photostream....now when I restored the phone, I guess it would only be bringing up the photos from the past 30 days?

That's crap.

So what about the calendar issue? iCloud reflects everything properly for my calendar, but the phone is not syncing the information.

Reply

Answer 9

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jan 24, 2013 3:05 PM in response to Brad87

It's your responsibility to save the photos to your device or computer...the 30 day limit is designed to give you ample time to do so.

Reply

Answer 10

Brad87 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 24, 2013 3:29 PM in response to wjosten

Gotcha. I wasn't aware of that. Now I am. However...it's still a little confusing because even with a 30 day limit, my iPad has a photo stream that has pictures from back in April 2012. I'm not confusing that with pictures that have been downloaded to the iPad itself. It's actually in the "Photostream" section. Is there a reason they would stay there?

Reply

Answer 11

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Jan 24, 2013 3:34 PM in response to Brad87

The pictures may be on the device, but they're no longer in Photo Stream...you do the same to your iPad & you'll see what I mean. What you need to do is save these pics to your computer, back that data up, then sync whatever you like back to your phone & iPad. Do that, and you won't ever lose any data.

I guarantee, you don't start backing up everything, you will eventually lose all of your data.

Reply

Answer 12

Brad87 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 24, 2013 4:09 PM in response to wjosten

well I back up frequently, the only problem was they told me NOT to restore from a backup.

I understand what you're saying about the Photo Stream, but the pictures on the iPad are actually showing up in the Photo Stream section of the iPad...not the camera roll.

I'm sure they'd disappear once I did something to refresh that data, but shouldn't they fall off automatically or does it take me actually doing something to the device to make it refresh the stream data?

Reply