Right clicking my iDevice in iTunes gives old restore options

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Right clicking my iDevice in iTunes gives old restore options

I just noticed that if I right click my iPhone in my Mac's iTunes and selecting restore, it gives me options for a bunch of very old backups, along with one undated backup (the one from this morning)

Further checking, I see that I can't even select restore that way with my iPad. I just tried again, and it tells me I need to turn off "Find My iPad before restoring", even though it is backed up to my Mac.

I wish to have previous backups available, but how do I control them?

(All of my software and firmware is current)

Posted on Feb 15, 2014 8:14 AM

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Answer 1

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Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Feb 15, 2014 8:19 AM in response to Howard Brazee

You get those date and time stamped backups if and when you restore from a backup with iTunes. In other words, if you restore from a backup today, you will have a backup in iTunes stated and time stamped for today.

The usual backup that occurs when you sync, is overwritten every time that you sync and backup again.

The more times that you restore from backups, the more "old" date and time stamped backups you will have. I have about 12 or 13 date stamped backups for my iPad alone in iTunes.

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Answer 2

Howard Brazee Author

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163 points

Feb 15, 2014 8:39 AM in response to Demo

Interesting. I just tested this out by restoring my current backup then checking. This particular backup is now available. A clumsy way of doing things, but now I can have a useful backup. It does no good to discover I need a backup, only to find out that I backed up a bad copy this morning.

So once a week, I will restore my iDevices right after the morning backup. Very unintuitive and time consuming.

Is there a way to delete old backups I no longer want (or maybe can't even use)?

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Answer 3

Demo

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166,494 points

Feb 15, 2014 8:43 AM in response to Howard Brazee

Launch iTunes and go to iTunes> Preferences> Devices. Your backups will appear in a window. Click on a backup to highlight it, then click on delete.

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Answer 4

Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

163 points

Feb 15, 2014 8:55 AM in response to Demo

That solved the first half of my problem. By right clicking the backup there I saw an option "archive", which turned the current backup into a dated backup!!! (Much easier)

Thanks.

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