Restore from iTunes backup not going as expected....maybe

[irateb]

Hello All,

I have a 4s on Sprint, had it since the Sprint launch, and I'm currently running iOS 6.0.1. I'm running iTunes 10.7.0.21 on Windows 8. The phone had been acting a little funny and sluggish so I thought I'd do a restore from backup to see if that would help. I did a full erase and then a restore from the iTunes backup. After the restore, I had all my apps, although all my folders and my background were gone. I appear to have my contacts, but things I thought would be back like my text messages, camera roll, email accounts, music, etc. are not there. Basically I thought I would restore from backup, and the phone would look just like the last time I backed it up. Was I mistaken to think that, or did I do something wrong? Or is there possibly something wrong with my backup?

 

[Alli]

Could be something wrong with your backup. Check in iTunes to see if you have others and maybe restore to an older one?

 

[John Yester]

Also check to make sure it was a full backup.

iCloud I back up everything

 

[irateb]

How do I make sure it was a full backup? I didn't see an option for full backup in iTunes (at least where I thought it might be). I looked in the Backups folder, and the backup folder is about 16.5 GB (my phone is 32 GB). I had about 5 GB free on the phone before the backup, but I assume the backup might be compressed? There were a few other backup folders, of which only one did not have a date/time stamp. I read that the date/time stamp ones are done after I did a restore. Anything else I need to look for or try?

 

[John Yester]

iTunes can create backups of your iOS device when you:

Sync with iTunes (disabled if you have iCloud backup turned on)
Right-click (or Control-click) the iOS device in iTunes under Devices and choose Back Up

Use these steps to manually back up your iOS device using iTunes:

Connect your iOS device to a computer with the latest version of iTunes installed
Select your iOS device in iTunes under Devices
Right-click (or Control-click) the device and select Back Up



I would try restoring from another just to rule out that there is no issue with the one you used.

 

[irateb]

I tried a couple of them, but they just seemed to be different timestamps of the same backup, and all failed. I also did a DFU restore and upgraded to iTunes 11, all with the same result: restore runs for 20-25 min with no errors, but nothing comes back. I have given up and started over. It was kind of sad to lose my text message history, but fortunately I had done a drag and drop copy of my pictures the day before, and those were the most important. Can someone recommend a program that can read the backup folder on my Windows laptop? I know there are several, just wanted someone's opinion on a good one...