To restore or not to restore?

[superstudlyhunk]

Here's a mini-case study, please advise:

i bought an iPhone when it came out and used it with AT&T for several months in America, upgraded to 1.1.2. I just moved to China last week, and had my AT&T account deactivated (fee waived), and had the phone hacked here with anySIM so that I can use it with my simcard here. No problems! I can now make calls with ChinaMobile and SMS in chinese, all that good stuff, although it's been downgraded back to 1.1.1.

Now here's my question.. i just plugged in my iPhone into my mac hoping to sync my old contacts and photos back in. Do I: (a) "set up as a new iPhone" or (b) "Restore from the backup of BJ's iPhone", my original phone with the old phone number listed from the US?

I am thinking choice A, since I don't want to Restore, but rather Sync. but I'm almost certain it won't let me sync my old info back in if I set it up as a new phone. What should I do? Thanks!!

 

[munroe]

I think you're playing with fire a bit there. Either way, you should be prepared that if something goes wrong, you can upgrade the phone to 1.1.3 then activate, jailbreak, and unlock with ZiPhone or iJailbreak.

You might also make sure that you have your contacts and photos stored in Address Book and iPhoto (or whatever) on your mac.

 

[correspondent]

re to restore or not to restore

superstudlyhunk

Do you use Address Book ? Has your iTunes version been changed (updated) since your first sync ? That would be the first sync following the hack . Or will THIS be the first such sync ? Are there any contacts or photos currently in the iPhone ?

At any rate , in my opinion you have little to loose if you try the " forced one-way sync " which you find in the Info tab ( scrolling down to Advanced ) of iTunes when the iPhone is in the cradle . You can choose to replace Contacts , Mail Accounts , Calendars or Bookmarks.

Perhaps you knew all this already . Let me know .

 

[superstudlyhunk]

superstudlyhunk

Do you use Address Book ? Has your iTunes version been changed (updated) since your first sync ? That would be the first sync following the hack . Or will THIS be the first such sync ? Are there any contacts or photos currently in the iPhone ?

At any rate , in my opinion you have little to loose if you try the " forced one-way sync " which you find in the Info tab ( scrolling down to Advanced ) of iTunes when the iPhone is in the cradle . You can choose to replace Contacts , Mail Accounts , Calendars or Bookmarks.

Perhaps you knew all this already . Let me know .

Unfortunately I do not use Address Book. And like an idiot, I updated iTunes yesterday... and yes, this would be the first sync after having the phone hacked. Right now, no contacts or photos.

Problem is, when I plug in my iPhone to my mac I have to choose whether or not to restore my phone or create a new phone, before I can even get to the tab menu that says Info on it. I don't know which to select, because the old phone info is backed up on iTunes, but even has my original number listed, so i'm afraid it might try to restore my old number and settings, which won't work here in China.

Any thoughts on the initial setup? Does it try to "restore" everything back to the way it was kind of like Time Machine or will it just "sync" the backed up info onto the newly hacked phone? This is the question... thanks!

 

[jav6454]

Unfortunately I do not use Address Book. And like an idiot, I updated iTunes yesterday... and yes, this would be the first sync after having the phone hacked. Right now, no contacts or photos.

Problem is, when I plug in my iPhone to my mac I have to choose whether or not to restore my phone or create a new phone, before I can even get to the tab menu that says Info on it. I don't know which to select, because the old phone info is backed up on iTunes, but even has my original number listed, so i'm afraid it might try to restore my old number and settings, which won't work here in China.

Any thoughts on the initial setup? Does it try to "restore" everything back to the way it was kind of like Time Machine or will it just "sync" the backed up info onto the newly hacked phone? This is the question... thanks!

Restore from XXXX's iPhone.

That will send all your previous information back to your iPhone

 

[correspondent]

We have a problem . My hunch is that the update of iTunes may complicate your situation . I am only familiar with Address Book issues anyway. I would suggest crawling the iPhone hacks websites and googling . Find the information using the kind of hack that was applied / the iPhone version etc , the iTunes version etc . In addition there might well be a way to recover the back up from the US and use only the desired data in your " new iphone " . I would make sure to save that info somewhere .

I think your solution will be found starting from the hack and not from iTunes .

I have a hacked phone as the iPhone has not yet arrived here . It is wonderful to have it connected to other network operators but there are downsides and frustrations inter alia with iTunes and iPhone upgrades .

Hopefully some local Chinese nerd is just waiting to assist. Four hundred thousand iPhones near you.....