I lost all Contacts from iPhone 4 iOS 4.3.3 when I accidentally deleted my old MobileMe email account. (Never upgraded to 5.0+). Can I sync or restore a new iPad mini 6.1.3 using an old iPhone backup through iTunes to retrieve my Contacts? Is there other way? Not on iCloud. Don't wanna restore my iPhone & lose all its data since last backup. Thank you.
iPhone 4, iOS 4.3.3
You could try. You can restore to a backup made on the same or lower version of iOS as the device you are restoring to. Another option is to use 3rd party software such as iPhone Backup Extractor to extract your contacts from the backup.
You could try. You can restore to a backup made on the same or lower version of iOS as the device you are restoring to. Another option is to use 3rd party software such as iPhone Backup Extractor to extract your contacts from the backup.
Thanks so much for your reply! I have a question about the use of 3rd party extraction software like what you referenced (so as not to mess with the new iPad). Maybe I'm asking for the moon here, but would that allow me to just extract and restore my contacts and calendar only? And allow me to sync them back to my phone without disrupting SMS that I don't want restored from backup? Or is it pretty much an all or nothing proposition when syncing with iTunes? I read over the process and I'm confused... Thank you again for your help.
You could, but getting you contacts and calendar back to your device can be tricky. iTunes doesn't sync them directly; it syncs them from a supported calendar and contact management program on your computer so you would first need to import them to a supported program, then sync them back.
If you have an iCloud account there may be an easier approach to doing this. Do you have an iCloud account, and if not, are you willing to create one?
Wow, the 3rd party extraction software option is sounding too complicated and iffy at best - especially for a novice like me.
Btw, the reason I've never updated my iPhone software to the latest version is because there isn't enough space left on it. All 32g is maxed out, mainly with music (both purchased and personal library in iTunes) and over 7,000 pics and vids that won't offload to my pc because IT is out of space - I think... just get an error message whenever I try.
Yes, I do have an iCloud account - haven't really used it yet -- activated it when I got new iPad a few weeks ago. Went online to see if my contacts were there, but they were not. And my phone, with the old iOS doesn't have access to it... that I know of. That being said, I'm extremely interested in that possibility.
Thank you again for coming to my rescue... am pretty lost without all that info.
I'm tied up until later. In the meantime back up your iPad Mini to iCloud. To do this go to Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup, turn on iCloud Backup then tap Back Up Now. Be sure it is connected to wifi and your charger as this might take some time to finish (especially if this is your first iCloud backup).
Will do. Thank you so much!
It not possible to back up from previous IOS check this link
Backed up iPad which was previously backed up as recently as early this morning - unbeknownst to me.
Waiting for your next steps... with much appreciation. :)
Go to Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup and confirm that the backup completed successfully. If wi was it will say "Last Backup:" with a date and/or time at the very bottom under the "Back Up Now" button. After confirming this, do the following:
rexfromkaikoura wrote:
It not possible to back up from previous IOS check this link
Re-read the article. It's saying that you cannot restore a backup made on a device running a higher version of iOS than the device you are attempting to restore it to. The OP is restoring a backup made on a device running iOS 4.3.3 to a device running 6.1.3, which is supported.
Oh oh, have a bad sinking feeling... I didn't get very far into the process following your very helpful step-by-step directions. After clicking on Restore Backup, I was prompted to enter a PW to Unlock iPad Backup (won't even get into THAT nightmare!)
After finally getting past that step, the processing window came up that said: Restoring iPad From Backup / Estimating Time Remaining. But then... the dreaded red X Error Msg appeared: iTunes could not restore the "My iPad" because the backup session failed. Really big sigh. I was so excited to try this out and have it work. So is that it for the Restore from Backup possibility? Am I doomed? Thanks so much for hanging in here with me!
Yea, you may be out of luck if the backup is corrupt. You could check to see if there is another, perhaps older, backup available that would have the data you're looking for. To do this, open iTunes and go to iTunes>Preferences>Devices (Edit>Preferences>Devices if you have Windows) and check the list under Backups. If there is one, you could try restoring to the older backup instead.
If there isn't, then your only other option would be to try the backup extraction software to see if that could read and extract any usable data from the backup.
It's looking like I'm out of luck with the restore from backup option as there were not any previous backups on the list, which I don't get because I've had the phone for over three years. So looks like the 3rd party extraction software is my only hope. But if the backup files are corrupted, is there even any hope with that. Is the one you referenced earlier, iPhone Backup Extractor, the best one in your opinion... for what you understand I'm looking for and for my particular circumstances.
Thank you again for all of your help! It is so very much appreciated!
Unlike iCloud, which keeps your most recent three backups, iTunes only keeps your most recent backup (except for backups made in the process of restoring or updating your device). So it's not unusual to only find a single backup if you haven't been updating the iOS on your phone.
I haven't used any of them, and there aren't many options out there. The one mentioned earlier is the one most often referred to for this. From what I've heard, it seems to work better if you have a PC rather than a Mac. I believe they have a free trial you can download to see if the software will work on your system, and if it can read and extract data from the backup. This would at least confirm whether the software will work on your computer and whether or not the backup is usuable.
Well then I've got nothing to lose ... and a mighty big lesson learned as I've now personally experienced one I'd my greatest fears with relying so heavily on my electronics. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes, as it appears that losing contact information is a common problem out there.
Will be in touch and thank you again. :)
Can I use old iPhone 4.3.3 backup for new iPad 6.1.3 to recover lost contacts?
