how to do a major os upgrade

[jollyreaper]

So, I want to make sure I understand this correctly.

Minor OS upgrades can be handled with a backup to the PC, install of the software, restore of the old stuff back to the phone. Major updates (os4 to 5, or between major point revisions) require a clean install.

If I do a backup and restore, apps and data are loaded.

If I do a clean install, I can get the apps back but the data is lost.

Is there any way to backup the data independently when performing a clean install? If not, this seems like a major stumbling block/oversight. Hopefully I'm missing something.

 

[Mr.C]

Neither a minor nor a major OS upgrade require a restore of the old stuff or a clean install. You should do a back up before hand just incase the upgrade gets messed up so you can restore from a working backup.

You are correct that if you do a restore of a backup you get both the apps and related data as well as your settings back. If you do a clean install then you just get your apps.

 

[jollyreaper]

Ok. The reason why I ask this is because the recommended technique is a clean install to remedy some of these strange problems. That's fine all except for the part about losing the data.

And what some of the people on here are saying is you never do a major upgrade that isn't a clean install. For example people going from iPhone OS 4 To OS five on iPhone 4 of course needed to do a clean install. That is not optimal.