Problem with Exchange - backup Apps?

[jeffp250]

When I got a new iPhone, I discovered that everything I had saved on iTunes - specifically, all my Apps - had to be erased for it to sync to the new device. Some showed up as owned by me when I tried to re-install, and that was great, but with some I had no choice but to repurchase them if I wanted them back.

Something on the Exchange-related calender system in my 3Gs has become corrupted - if I have an Exchange account configured on my phone, it constantly pushes things to the Exchange server and overloads it, which made the IT departement at my work very unhappy. Even if I disable Push, the first time I sync, a calender event appears on the phone, with the due time/date of that minute, and the phone continually tries to sync that with the server, without success. For the moment, I gave the account deleted from my phone (restoring it restores the problem).

As a solution, my IT department wants me to do a hard reset on the phone, returning it to the out-of-the-box condition. My concern is whether this will make me lose all my Apps, or whether there is a way to protect and restore them. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[flyingember]

your apps are sync'd to itunes on your desktop, right?

 

[jeffp250]

Yes. I sync work email, contacts, and calender with Exchange at work and everything else with iTunes on my home PC. Are you saying that if I do a hard reset on my phone and re-install the newest firmware, all my old Apps will automatically be restored from iTunes when I sync with my home PC?

 

[flyingember]

if they're on the computer they can be sync'd

 

[jeffp250]

I returned my first 3gs after getting several Apps, which were sync'd to the PC. When I got a second, iTunes popped up a message about only working with one phone (I don't remember exactly what it said) and when I said OK, it deleted the Apps and THEN sync'd. I'm worried about the same thing happening here, and loosing 60 Apps (including several purchased ones).

Of course the best thing would be a fix to my Exchange issue that didn't involve wiping the phone.

 

[flyingember]

I returned my first 3gs after getting several Apps, which were sync'd to the PC. When I got a second, iTunes popped up a message about only working with one phone (I don't remember exactly what it said) and when I said OK, it deleted the Apps and THEN sync'd. I'm worried about the same thing happening here, and loosing 60 Apps (including several purchased ones).

Of course the best thing would be a fix to my Exchange issue that didn't involve wiping the phone.

I did something similar yesterday

The computer wasn't set to sync app before they bought a bunch on the phone. I stopped the sync and right clicked on the phone and chose "transfer purchases" to copy the apps to the computer. I then confirmed all their apps were on the computer.
I setup syncing for their apps from the computer and said yes to have the apps replaced. It copied the apps back from the computer. Going forward it will automatically transfer new apps/updated apps bought on the phone back to the computer and vice versa.

 

[jeffp250]

>I stopped the sync and right clicked on the phone and chose "transfer purchases" to copy the apps to the computer.<

Thanks, I'll be sure to do that. Meanwhile, they think they've found the problem with Exchange, so I may be OK.

 

[flyingember]

>I stopped the sync and right clicked on the phone and chose "transfer purchases" to copy the apps to the computer.<

Thanks, I'll be sure to do that. Meanwhile, they think they've found the problem with Exchange, so I may be OK.

activesync can be a pain at times. (I personally set it up at work, 18 months later is broke for some reason after rebooting the server, took two days to figure out a fix)

but the way I figure it, it doesn't hurt to be 100% sure to know you have your apps not just on the phone.

 

[jeffp250]

I made the mistake of letting iTunes delete the apps from the local computer, thinking the downloads were stored. Some were, and came back automatically, some showed up as purchased when I went to the App store, and were easy to retrieve, but with some I had no choice but to buy them again if I wanted them back.

 

[jeffp250]

It looks like I'm going to have to do a complete reset on my phone anyway. On my drive in this morning, I noticed that if I listened to music, it would quit after one track. I might select an album, and it would only play the first track, or select an artist, and it would only play the first track. I thought it might be some oddity with my Blutooth headset. However, I was sitting at my desk working on something and was going to listen to music with regular corded headphones and found it does the same thing. I've also notice that if I press the "next track" button while a track is playing, the application stops and takes me back to the main app-select screen.
*
It looks like whatever was pushed to my phone (or all my messing with it) has corrupted a core application.

 

[jeffp250]

Working again?

This is getting more complicated. I just plugged it in to my home PC to get a good backup of the on-board Apps, and instead of showing up in iTunes as usual, it flashed up a screen saying that the phone had previously been used on this PC and asked if I wanted to set it up as a new phone or restore from the last backup! I unplugged and tried a different cable and USB port and saw the same thing. So, right now I'm restoring from the backup and I'll see what I get.

Well, the restore has finished, the phone restarted, and at the moment everything appears to be working again . . .

Any ideas what happened?