What exactly does iTunes backup for iPhone?

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
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iPhone 7 running 11.3.1

My iPhone is getting so unstable I can hardly use it, and I'm considering wiping it and starting over.

Question:

What exactly gets backed up using the backup utility on iTunes? Is it just the data and files, or is it like a clone of the entire OS?

If anyone has a better suggestion on what to do with an iPhone that constantly locks up or goes blank besides a restore, I'm all ears...

Thanks!
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
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Sep 15, 2004
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It will be the data, files, and settings. I don't think the entire app gets backed up and instead gets re-downloaded when you restore. But it's been a while since i've done a wired backup.

How's your battery health, is that playing into it? A friend of mine just had his 7 replaced by Apple when the battery suddenly took a nose dive
 

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
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No, the battery is pretty solid, I can still get 2 days use out of it without problems. Every once in a while it will freak out and drain overnight, but that's only once in a blue moon.
 

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
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It will be the data, files, and settings. I don't think the entire app gets backed up and instead gets re-downloaded when you restore. But it's been a while since i've done a wired backup.

How's your battery health, is that playing into it? A friend of mine just had his 7 replaced by Apple when the battery suddenly took a nose dive

So, theoretically, I can restore to factory, update to the most recent OS, and then restore all my data?
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
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Sep 15, 2004
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So, theoretically, I can restore to factory, update to the most recent OS, and then restore all my data?
Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health (Beta) to be sure.

Yes...? You'll probably want to update to latest, back up to iTunes (PASSWORD PROTECTED!*), reset to factory default, restore from iTunes in that order.

*If you password protect the backup it will also back up all of your passwords and messages and anything else encrypted.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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If you are running 11.3.1, and do a factory reset, you'll still be on 11.3.1.

I am _pretty sure_ that you can take a (for example) 11.3.0 backup and restore it to a phone running 11.3.1, but I'm not 100% on that. That's why I recommended that you update to the latest OS, backup, THEN do the factory reset, and restore from your fresh backup. Last time I did this, I was backing up device A and restoring it to device B, and I made sure they were on the same OS version before I started just to be safe.
 
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