Restore iPhone from backup not listed in iTunes

If you open the Backup folder there will be one or more folders with long hexadecimal names. Open the one with the latest date if there is more than one. info.plist should be one of the last entries in this folder; there will be literally thousands of files before you get to it, so one option is to do a reverse sort on the list of files. Note that this process may not help if the backup is not compatible with your phone, but it is a place to start.

Are you sure you are looking in the innermost folder? And you have scrolled through several thousand files looking for it? If so, the backup is not valid and you can't use it. But that would be quite unusual.

what if there are no .plist files listed in the desired backup folder?

it shows the .plist files in all but the one I need.

Hi Everyone, I was having this issue and just solved it. My iphone 4s was not showing any backups except for the most recent one. This was horrifying because the most recent backup was made as soon as I connected my phone to the computer. So I could not backup to a time that would have been useful, but instead could only update to right now--when my phone was messed up and useless!! So, to correct thisI I went to

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

In that folder I found two backups. One from 6 months ago that I wanted and one from today when I plugged in my phone (ps-deactivate the automatic synch option because it will automatically override your past back ups...)

Here is where it gets a little bit complicated, but still managable even for a novice:

If iTunes tells you there are no back ups but there are more desirable backups in the backup folder, then click "back up now" and a new clean functional backup will be created (of course not with the data you want, but we will get to that) . Now go to the backup folder and open the folder that was just created by Itunes. Skip next step.

If itunes is only showing the most recent back when you click "Restore Backup" but in the backup folder but there are more desirable backups, open up the folder of the most recent (non-desireable) back up folder.

Now that your folder (latest backup) is open you will see a very long list of files. At the very bottom of the file list you should find this file:

Info.plist

Open the file info.plist, that is an xml formated file. Copy all the text from the begining all the way up through

"<key>IC-Info.sidv</key>"

Now, with that info on your clipboard, close this file and go back to the backup folder. Now open the back up that you actually want (the older one that is not showing up in itunes). In that folder you will also find the Info.plist

Open that file and delete everything all the way through "<key>IC-Info.sidv</key>"and then paste what you copied from the other file.

Now save the file and close it.

Open up iTunes. You should now be able to see the older backup version that you wanted to backup to but that ****** *** itunes would not let you see before.

Sounds complicated, but is pretty easy actually.

Good luck!

Can you not find the file, or does it not exist? if it does not exist, you should know that both the folders and the files can sometimes be hidden, so try searing for it.

If you cannot open it properly, check to see what program you are using to open it. You might need to manually select the correct program. You should be opening the file in textedit.

Thanks for sharing this. I was able in Windows to move the backup file to a new computer and restore the backup into a new iphone!.

Question is:

The backup folder have 2+GB of data in 5000+ files. There is lot of backups there!. How I can restore not only the recent one but older backups?

so everything till copying the text from that file worked but my previous backup that I see doesn't have a info.plist file can you please help me with this as that back up has a a lot of important data

As Rbenachour posted 4 years ago, you probably won't get much help that way.

The backup is not a file; it is a directory with thousands of files. so your post doesn't make much sense without additional context. Can you explain what you are trying to do and what isn't working? It might be better to start a new discussion so it is more visible to people who might be able to help.

I have an iPhone 5c which got disabled and could only be opened through iTunes and the only way I could access it again was to completely wipe out everything. Since I had no other option and as I wasn't expecting this I didn't have a recent backup. so I got the phone enabled and it obviously wiped out everything. So I searched for previous back up files on my Macbook pro running on high Sierra OS with the latest iTunes on it as when I connected my iPhone it didn't show any previous backups available and started showing me ways to set it up as a new iPhone altogether. I found a previous back up and I followed all the steps that Rbenachour has instructed in his/her post above. It all followed well but I got stuck at the part where it says to go to the older back up file to search a similar file named "info.plist" and to paste data from the newer back in there. I couldn't do that because it just doesn't have a similar file named "info.plist" at all. thats where I am stuck. I even tried third-party applications to extract files from back ups but they don't recognise the old back up at all too. can you please help me out with this.

OMG... Thank you! This definitely worked for me and saved me from the huge headache of starting from scratch. Lesson learned, I will backup more often! Although, the desirable backup will show up in iTunes with the same date and time as the undesirable backup.

The folder with the backup I want (pre-iOS7) doesn't have the info.plist file.

I am also not sure why I can't open the Info.plist in the latest backup to copy and paste. I get the following:

Any help would be great. I am now on the Maverick OS and the phone I had replaced is on iOS7.

I am running OS X El Capitan 10.11.5, Itunes 12.4.1.6, Iphone iOS 9.3.2

This is iTUnes and the only way I know how to backup or restore a back up. As you can see below the phone I am needing the backup from "iPhone Gold" isn't listed.

Here is a photo from my Iphone Gold's screen.... showing I backed it up yesterday!

And this is from icloud.com showing all my devices, also showing Gold was backed up. How else can I get this backup on my new phone? My new phone is the "Iphone New Black".

You put the backup on your new phone by setting the new phone up, signing in to the iCloud account that the backup is on when prompted, and then selecting "iCloud Backup" when you get to the screen that asks you how you want to set the device up.

You do this via Wifi, not via iTunes.

Your screenshot very clearly shows that an iCloud backup was done for the iPhone Gold device yesterday.

Not sure what it is you are looking for beyond that?

GB

And just an FYI - you can see your iOS Backups to iCloud on your Mac by clicking on the  in the top left-hand corner of the Mac, then clicking on System Preferences>iCloud icon>and at the bottom right of that screen clicking on Manage, then Backups:

You are right! A backup was done, but the Iphone gold isn't listed when I actually go to do the restore.

It's just not there. It shows on my old phone that it was backed up and it shows on icloud.com but it will not show inside of itunes where I actually have to go and do the restore. I don't know what to do. I really need the stuff off of the old phone to go onto the new "iphone black".