Backup/Save Jailbreak apps and themes?

[rotobadger]

Does anyone know if there is a way (or App) to backup all your Jailbreak applications and themes? Also, can it be as simple as SSH into your iphone and copy them to your computer...then copy them back into the correct folder structure? Or do they have to be actively "installed" to work again.

I would like to put together my own complete backup in case a full restore is necessary in the future.

Thanks!

 

[TheConfuzed1]

AptBackup is a program that will make a list of all of your Cydia apps, and store that info in your iTunes backup.

That way, if you ever need to restore, you can install AptBackup again, and it will re-install everything that you had from Cydia previously.

It won't backup your settings, and it won't back up anything that you SSH into your phone, but this is a step in that direction.

For themes, you can definitely make a copy via SSH, and just drop them back in again later, but I'm not sure about apps.

 

[dieburnbot]

I wouldn't trust AptBackup, I told it to backup a list of my apps and then I backed up with iTunes and after restoring and reinstalling AptBackup it kept telling me that I can only use the program after I have made a backup which I had done already. I would just make a mental note or go through the packages list on Cydia and write everything down. You can try AptBackup and if it works for you more power to you, but I'm just telling you my experience as a warning.

You can backup some Preferences for some programs, look through your /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences folder and back up the preference file that relates to the app you are trying to back up. If they don't have a preferences file you could try to backup the entire App folder found in /var/stash/Applications, and then after you reinstall the app just copy over the backed up app folder and replace the ones that were installed and it should restore your settings, but I haven't tested this method.

To back up themes just navigate to: /private/var/stash/Themes and if you have any SummerBoard themes installed they should be in: /User/Library/SummerBoard/Themes

Most backup is done through SSH.

 

[goombah88]

I don't know about other operating systems, but I use Linux at home and it was quite simple and easy to use the rsync command to make a complete backup of my iPhone 3G. Every file is copied over to my computer whenever I double-click the icon to launch the script. The best part is that it can be set up to be an incremental backup so the backup on my computer is always current and up-to-date when I run it. It has saved my butt more than once.

Not sure if other operating systems (Winbloze, Mac) have rsync or not but since it's a UNIX command and Mac is built on UNIX it should have a variant of it.

 

[brayhite]

Also, can it be as simple as SSH into your iphone and copy them to your computer...then copy them back into the correct folder structure? Or do they have to be actively "installed" to work again.

I would like to put together my own complete backup in case a full restore is necessary in the future.

Thanks!

Is that all it is? Can I just use iPhone Explorer to access the phone, copy and paste the Root folder into TextEdit, and that be it?

 

[Abs_p]

Pkgbackup works fine