Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
cannot activate iPads
- Thread starter sirdir
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have an ipad 2 3G and I had the same problem when I did the 9.3 update over the air. iTunes would not work so I had to do the DFU. That worked, the ipad had a clean 9.3 installation with nothing in it. I then did a restore from a backup I had on iTunes.
The big annoyance is that I lost apps. I had a message saying that some apps were no longer available in the app store and therefore they could not be reinstalled. It looks like doing a backup restore don't transfer apps from itunes but just tells the ios device to download the apps from the appstore and put it in the appropriate location/folder. Turns out that if the app is no longer on the app store it will not show on the purchase tab and it will not be recovered. I have the app on my iphone 5s so I figured I could back up the app to itunes and then transfer it to the ipad but no, since iOS9.0 that can no longer be done. The only way to install it on the iOS device is if the app is downloaded in iTunes already. My Mac hard drive was getting full so I turned off automatic download of apps on iTunes. Lesson learned. Do not rely on the purchase tab on the app store for past purchases. I have to download every purchase currently on my Purchased tab on iTunes and back it up to an external hard drive before other apps are taken from the app store.
Searching online it looks like there are Mac Apps (not available in the mac app store) that can be use to extract an .ipa from a back up and then transfer the .ipa to another iOS device with the same itunes account. I can try doing that from a backup of my iphone 5s where I have the app installed (it is an universal app).
Anybody else lost any apps after restoring from a back up?
The big annoyance is that I lost apps. I had a message saying that some apps were no longer available in the app store and therefore they could not be reinstalled. It looks like doing a backup restore don't transfer apps from itunes but just tells the ios device to download the apps from the appstore and put it in the appropriate location/folder. Turns out that if the app is no longer on the app store it will not show on the purchase tab and it will not be recovered. I have the app on my iphone 5s so I figured I could back up the app to itunes and then transfer it to the ipad but no, since iOS9.0 that can no longer be done. The only way to install it on the iOS device is if the app is downloaded in iTunes already. My Mac hard drive was getting full so I turned off automatic download of apps on iTunes. Lesson learned. Do not rely on the purchase tab on the app store for past purchases. I have to download every purchase currently on my Purchased tab on iTunes and back it up to an external hard drive before other apps are taken from the app store.
Searching online it looks like there are Mac Apps (not available in the mac app store) that can be use to extract an .ipa from a back up and then transfer the .ipa to another iOS device with the same itunes account. I can try doing that from a backup of my iphone 5s where I have the app installed (it is an universal app).
Anybody else lost any apps after restoring from a back up?
Last edited:
