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Getridofit

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Hi
Have recently built a new PC, Running Windows 7 (64 Bit) and haven't even installed itunes yet.

Can anyone tell me what data I will lose from my iphone 3GS when I first connect it?, I'm not worried about losing any apps, films or music, my only concern is keeping my contacts and SMS messages safe.

Will itunes allow me to do a backup of the phone first or will it erase everything off of the phone?

Thanks in advance,

Gary.
 
you will not loose contacts or sms. you will not loose apps if you either authorize itunes or simply turn off app sync in the itunes iphone menu. but you will (i believe) loose music and videos.
 
I always use a long workaround with this.

I have a separate folder on my mac which all my iPod touch/iphone 4 music is put.

When i want some new albums i rip to my mac and put it into that folder. Then i update my iTunes library with the new music, and then just sync.

Every so often i then copy my folder of music to a large memory stick as a back up !

Ultra careful !

I've been burnt before when a pc crashed and lost lots of albums !
 
Hi
Thanks for the replys, Good to know I won't lose SMS or apps, I do have the music and films backed up on a seperate HDD, I pulled the whole itunes folder from the old PC HDD before I built this one, thats why I wasn't bothered if they were erased, as I can simply put them back, The SMS on the other hand is a little more tricky.

There is another thing I would be grateful with any help or advise with, I have a little red notification on the settings icon (on the phone itself) It wants to upgrade the OS, and so far I have denied it because the last time the OS was upgraded I lost almost everything, strange thing is though, it left all of my contacts numbers on the phone, but erased all of the names, so I ended up spending hours trying to find out who's number was who's and re-entering the names, So any tips to stop this happening again would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Gary.
 
Hi
Thanks for the replys, Good to know I won't lose SMS or apps, I do have the music and films backed up on a seperate HDD, I pulled the whole itunes folder from the old PC HDD before I built this one, thats why I wasn't bothered if they were erased, as I can simply put them back, The SMS on the other hand is a little more tricky.

There is another thing I would be grateful with any help or advise with, I have a little red notification on the settings icon (on the phone itself) It wants to upgrade the OS, and so far I have denied it because the last time the OS was upgraded I lost almost everything, strange thing is though, it left all of my contacts numbers on the phone, but erased all of the names, so I ended up spending hours trying to find out who's number was who's and re-entering the names, So any tips to stop this happening again would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Gary.

well do you backup your iphone? if so on the pc or icloud?
 
well do you backup your iphone? if so on the pc or icloud?

Ahh, No not on a regular basis, apart from SMS messages there is little change so the last backup was about 6 months ago, and itunes has done some wierd and wonderful stuff to the phone in the past so I try not to connect it unless I need to add any apps or movies, which I haven't needed to do for ages.

I have read that there is a third party piece of software that will access the SMS messages and save them to the PC , cant remember what it is called but I can probably find it with a quick google search, If I do go for the 4s in the near future I will probably need something like this, as I'm not entirely sure what iTunes does and doesn't backup, Oh and No, I have never used iCloud as I find it a little confusing.

Regard's,
Gary.
 
Well your not alone with the confusion of iCloud.

I do not backup to iCloud, nor do I restore from an iCloud backup. Well I don't restore from any type of backup actually.

However the iCloud email account I find very useful.

Toggle on Contacts, and whatever else, and whatever you toggle on will alway be in your phone no matter what, as long as you enable "Use iCloud". Even after restoring and setting up as new device.

You can still use the email account to backup anything in iClouds settings while not backing up to iCloud.

All that enabling "Use iCloud" does when setting up the phone is put the email account in your phone...that is all it does.
 
Hi
Thanks for all the info guys, I just went ahead and bit the bullet, after authorizing and syncing the phone, which I hope will have backed up SMS and Contacts, I let it do the OS update, and so far all seems good, and as I have my eye on a 4s will keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way, as long as I can restore the SMS messages and Contacts, losing and music, Video and apps isn't a problem as they are easy enough to put back.

Thanks Again,

Gary.
 
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