How does the iPhone backup work in itunes?

[djrobsd]

Can someone please tell me how the backup is supposed to work in iTunes? Is this an automatic thing when I sync my phone with iTunes, or do I have to manually kick off a backup?

The reason I asked is that my iPhone suddenly gave me the dreaded "itunes can not read the contents of the iPhone..." message.

So, I clicked restore, and it downloaded the iPhone software again, and restored my iPhone back to factory settings.

As I understand, it's supposed to then give me the opportunity to restore my content, such as text messages, settings, etc, but it never gave me that option.

I am not able to find anything in iTunes to kick off a restore. Is there anyway to get my stuff back, or am I hosed?

 

[TEG]

Under 1.1.4, all settings are stored locally each time. Under 2.0, everything is backed up daily, but it takes 10X longer than it did under 1.1.4.

TEG

 

[djrobsd]

Under 1.1.4, all settings are stored locally each time. Under 2.0, everything is backed up daily, but it takes 10X longer than it did under 1.1.4.

TEG

Great, how do I restore from one of the backups?

 

[GregHK88]

Restore iPhone from Backup

Right click on the iPhone under Devices tab then chose restore from backup and then which backup file to restore.

 

[djrobsd]

Right click on the iPhone under Devices tab then chose restore from backup and then which backup file to restore.

Ok, I must have been doing something wrong because it never automatically bakced up my iPhone, therefore the restore option was not there! Once I did a "manual" backup, I noticed the restore option is now one of the choices when I right click on the iPhone.

Doesn't make sense to me, I thought they automatically backed it up whenever you sync. LOL