A complicated syncing and backup question needing a (hopefully) simple answer

[MadnessAbides]

I need help from somebody to answer a few questions I have (I have searched around without finding any direct answers to the questions I have - thank you, thank you, thank you in advance):

OK, here?s the deal? I have a 16gb iPhone 3G. About 6 months ago my laptop died and I purchased a new one (both using Vista, but I doubt that really makes much of a difference). Being an app addic I have never had the ?Sync Application? box checked on my new computer... Upon receiving the new laptop I ?Transferred Purchases? from the phone to the computer and backed it up. Whenever I download a new app on my phone I transfer the purchase to my laptop and I backup my phone every other day or so (right click, ?Backup). I thought about syncing my apps but get the message ?All existing applications and their data on the iPhone ?. will be replaced with applications from this iTunes library?. On first glance this sounds OK to me because these are all the same apps (with a few extra apps in the library that were deleted off the phone but not out of the library), but this got me to wondering about a couple of things?

1. I have too many apps with sign-in data, friends, lists, game saves, and lots of other info to even think about losing the app data associated with these apps, so I am not even tempted to experiment to see what would happen if I do sync the applications without some type of confirmation that all will not be lost. If I do check the box ?Sync Applications? will I lose any app data?? The app data should be on my computer from my most recent backup, right??

2. Summer is coming soon, meaning new iPhone time (woohoo, forget the iPad, I am excited about what might be on the next iPhone)? Anyway, since I do backup regularly, when I get a new phone (even if it is just a 3GS a friend gives me), should it be simply a matter of plugging it in and hitting ?Restore from backup? to get all my old apps and their data onto a new device?? The reason I am confused here is that my backup folder is 462MB in size but my iphone tells me the following - Photos 151MB, Apps 2GB, Other 538MB.

My biggest worry here is that I don?t want to lose any app data on my phone by doing something stupid and checking the wrong box. I'd also like to confirm that all that should be needed to get a new phone (or old phone if it crashes) into the same state as my current phone is in is to "Restore from Backup", taking into account my just mentioned situation that my apps are not synced...

Thanks to whoever knows the answer and is kind enough to share some straightforward thoughts (and might be willing to humor any follow-up questions I have).

 

[flyingember]

We have no way of knowing if a new phone is coming but if one does, you have to had syncd your apps to get everything to go to your new phone that is on your current phone. Remember, you're not syncing your apps and thus not syncing your app data.

so if you're going to lose any data it can be now or when you get a new phone. Pick your time

transferring purchases just copies the applications, not the data.

 

[MadnessAbides]

Not really the answer I was hoping for (I wanted to hear no app data will be lost)... but the question I now have is - if I am not backing up app data when I sync and back-up my phone, what exactly am I backing up for 15-25 minutes every other day? It can't just be contacts and photos (I manually manage music and movies), can it?? Thanks again!

 

[sting7k]

It's backing everything else up, it's probably taking so long because your sync settings are messed up and it's getting confused with apps.

You are going to have the lose the app data. The iPhone only syncs with one iTunes library at a time. You can download apps again for free from iTunes. If you just get it over with when the new iPhone comes out all you will have to do is restore it from a back up of your old one and you won't lose anything.

 

[flyingember]

Not really the answer I was hoping for (I wanted to hear no app data will be lost)... but the question I now have is - if I am not backing up app data when I sync and back-up my phone, what exactly am I backing up for 15-25 minutes every other day? It can't just be contacts and photos (I manually manage music and movies), can it?? Thanks again!

when you transfer your purchases you're copying the applications themselves. you're not syncing them and their data.

that's the jist of it

your manually managed movies and music are actually a the worse of both options too. compare manually adding all your music again one song at a time vs picking the same sync settings and it gives you the exact same playlists with no extra work.

 

[MadnessAbides]

Well, I am very happy to report that, after deciding now was a better time to deal with this than later, I synced my apps and no app data was lost!!! I must have done something right somewhere along the line when backing up or authorizing my phone on this computer or something. The only change was that I had some apps added to my phone that I had previously deleted and all my icons were a jumbled mess, but all my logins, game saves, friend lists, etc. remained on my phone!! Thank you again for your help, but luckily I must have asked my questions poorly - or misunderstood the current state of my computer/phone.

As for manually managing my music - my situation is somewhat unique, although I bet I am not alone here - I have 10 times more music than my phone can hold (a filled up classic ipod does the trick for almost all of it - but that's not counting the spindles of DVD's packed with lossless live concerts that have yet to be converted)... therefore, for me, it is much easier to just drag and drop a playlist or artist or concert onto my phone as the need arises.