How To Recover Your iPhone Files, Photos, Contacts, Notes, SMS, Call History, Etc.

December 2, 2008 · 182 comments

in iPhone,Tutorials

If for some reason, you lost some important information on your iPhone, whether from 3rd party applications, your photos, contacts, notes, SMS, call history, calendar, etc., and doing a restore from iTunes is futile, don’t give up yet! As long as you have performed a backup in iTunes recently, your data is safely tucked away in a database in your computer—but you need another tool that can read and extract the data so you can copy it back to your iPhone.

In case you want to know, your iPhone backups are located in your Mac (~Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup) or on a PC (c:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup).

What You Need

Download and install the following:

DiskAid for Mac or Windows (requires a jailbroken phone to access the Root Folder)
iPhone Backup Extractor for Mac (not sure if there is a Windows equivalent)

Use iPhone Backup Extractor

(1) Open iPhone Backup Extractor

(2) Click Read Backups

(3) Select from Device Name or Date where you want to retrieve your backup data and click Choose.

(4) Select the Application where you want data be restored from or scroll down and select Other Files if you want to restore data from the built-in iPhone apps such as photos, address book, notes, SMS, etc.

In this example, we will extract the Notes backup to our computer so we need to select Other Files.

(5) Click Extract and select a folder where you want to extract the Notes data in your computer (remember this location).

Use DiskAid To Copy Backup Data To iPhone

(6) Connect your iPhone to your Computer.

(7) Open DiskAid.

(8) Click the pull-down at the bottom of the screen where it says Media Folder and select Root Folder (click Go Ahead when a warning window pops up).

For this example, we will recover data from our Notes application.

(9) Click User -> Library -> Notes.

(10) Click the Copy to Device icon above.

(11) Go to the folder where you extracted the Other Files backup files (in step 5) and select “notes.db“.

(12) Click Open.

(13) Click Replace.

(14) Check your iPhone to verify the recovered data.

(15) Do the same for the rest of your data that you want to recover.

Smile! :)

Note: If you want to save and read your iPhone text files (ex. SMS) on your computer, check out my post,
“How To Save and Read Your iPhone Text Messages On Your Computer”.

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  • Botan_ko

    HELLO EVERYONE CAN YOU HELP ME I HAVE LOST ALL MY CONTACTS WHILE I WAS TRYING TO SYNC ALL CONTACTS FROM MY I PHONE TO PC PLEASE HELP ME

  • Icassiec

    did u find a solution?

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  • John-fraser

    i have followed the instructions as far as i can but there is no pull down at the bottom so i cant access the root folder, do i have to buy the programme first to be able to do this? only have the demo at the moment. thanks!

  • docxavier
  • Anonymous

    most likely you have a backup, itunes does that before you restore.
    this one helped me http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414

  • Flynflip

    Thanks for the info. I used some of the info here and made a video tutorial on my site: http://flynflip.com/iPhone/iPhoneBackupHack.asp I hope it helps someone. I am working on a method to do this in windows. I can only find extractions methods that cost money. I’d like to find a free or open-source extractor for mdbackup files for windows. If you anyone has any suggestions let me know. Thanks again.

  • Moni_q27

    Yeah right. so it can lose all my data like the damn phone.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_64C4QFKWH7WK5BBXPMUBKZMRQU beaker002

    I actually lost all my contact when I updated my phone to 4.1 and had foolishly not backed up the phone before performing the update. I thought my numbers were gone forever, but found a way to get them back. It turns out that the iphone also stores your contacts (at least phone numbers) on the SIM card. Even if your iphone has no contacts they can still be found on the SIM card. To get them, hit the settings button on your iphone, and then scroll to mail,contacts,calendars. Scroll down to find the “import SIM contacts” button and hit it. Your contacts should appear. I should stress that this only worked for my phone numbers. Not sure if it will bring back email addresses. Hope that helps.

  • Anwar Onazi

    Is it possible to recover app by this way

  • Ashkan Nasiri

    hi,
    i have one iphone 2G. my contact list phone was deleted and i have not contact list backup, please help me.

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  • Mike

    I found this great tutorial

    http://www.sync-iphone.com/notes-2/sync-iphone-notes.html

    on how to Backup iPhone Notes

  • Lucas

    Thank you for the tutorial! It has helped me GREATLY. I was unable to restore my iPhone from a backup, and while this is a little more time consuming, it actually works!

  • Moises Flores

    I have a huge problem. I downloaded the app, and I locked all my apps, but I never set any password. Now it wont let me get into any of my apps! Is there anyway to delete iProtect? I need help! PLEASE

  • Moises Flores

    I have a huge problem. I downloaded the iprotect app, and I locked all my apps, but I never set any password. Now it wont let me get into any of my apps! Is there anyway to delete iProtect? I need help! PLEASE

  • http://www.weprintdiscs.com/ DVD Duplication

    Thank you for sharing the link. This would definitely help me a lot.

  • Grangerhaps

    Hi,

    I have an unlocked Iphone 3gs. I have synced it up on my PC via Itunes but when I click on Apps to enter info on the computer (to be updated on my Iphone) there is a haze over the page. That is I cannot click on any apps to update info on my pc or backup my phone info (contacts, schedule etc) on pc. Any advice or help would be appreciated.

    Thanks!

    G.

  • Britroseusa

    Thank you beaker002. You have saved my life. It worked and all my contacts are back.

  • http://www.best-registrycleaner.net registrycleaner

    Perfect software to recover you iphone. I owe you guyz.

  • flyNflip

    I have been working on my website. Think I got it like I want it. The link I had posted before was showing dead for a while. It now redirects you to the new page at: http://flynflip.com/iPhone/iPhoneBackupHack.html Hope it helps someone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/grissjames James Grissom

    I have an iPhone and decided one day to sync the contacts from Address Book on my Mac thinking that it would ADD the contacts from Address Book to my already existing contacts that I had on my phone already. wrong. deleted all my previous contacts, and now all i have are the few contacts from Address Book. How do I get those back????

  • Pchadha93

    I have an iphone 3gs and its on the firmware 4.1 I completed all the steps and my phone is jailbroken but i still can not find the root menu :( help??

  • H_mav

    I just went through all of this and when I was finished I saw all my old notes back on my iphone. After a few minutes they all vanished again. And now when I go through all of the steps again it won’t work and if it does, all my notes disappear again shortly after transferring..

    Help!

  • Joyssanne

    Credit to the person who posted this. Tried and all lost contacts, photos, smses, everything, came back. Really thankful for this.
    http://www.ipodrobot.com/itunes-backup-manager.htm

  • guest

    I’ve deleted and restarted everything on my iphone 3G. How do i restore it?

  • guest

    I’ve deleted and restarted everything on my iphone 3G. How do i restore it?

  • Kahwachi_erbil

    I don’t have a backup of my file on my pc for th iphone …….what I do help

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  • rahul

    All the deleted data can be recoverd easily by using simple software given at http://latesthub.in/2010/11/19/iphone-spy-stick-how-an-iphone-spy-stick-can-recover-deleted-data-latesthub/
    Belive me i recovered my all deleted data with this software… :)

  • harriette

    how can I retrieve deleted messages from a non jailbroken iphone on a mac?
    Please help!

  • http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com Andy Coles

    Try out the iPhone Backup Extractor at http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com, its work on Macs, Linux & Windows platforms. You can easily retrieve lost data with this application and the website gives you tips and help to retrieve iTunes data that is old, missing or corrupt (http://www.iphonebackupextractor.com/help-howto-and-support/).

  • Cerivera88

    hi, i synced my iphone in my macbook , but now ive lost most of my contacts , how can i recover them?

  • http://twitter.com/JB_Bryant Jonathan (JB) Bryant

    I had to share this with someone because I can’t believe I figured it out. I wanted my notes that I guess I didn’t have syncing. Did a little crazy work but finally figured out how to do it and read them. First I used iPhone Backup Extractor (http://supercrazyawesome.com/) to find the backup. I selected “read backups”, then “iOS files”. I extracted those files and found the notes folder in the library folder. I then used Base (http://menial.co.uk/software/base/) to read notes.sqlite – the trial/free version was good enough. Then, using Base, I exported sqlite_master. Then I used Text Wrangler to read the .sql file that Base exported. All of my notes were in that file. It was formatted weird but I only needed a little text from one notes so it was exactly what I needed. I’m freaking amazed.

  • Leonidas

    Hi all
    Solution to the problem of lost contacts and notes and everything else after upgrading the iphone to IOS 4. After upgrading itunes could not find the backup file (it found backups of 3 different iphones I once had). I spent 4 hours looking at various posts and the solution was simple but frustrating.
    In my PC, the backup folder itunes created during the upgrade was not in the default folder (…documents and settingsapplication dataapple computermobilesyncbackup but in a different folder and under a different name (I figured it out when, while browsing in the apple folder, I noticed that there was another folder containing the same file names as the other backup folders). The name of this folder was in my computer apple computeritunesmobile backups(iphone serial number)structured. I copied the folder to the default itunes folder and then relaunched itunes.
    After relauching it found the backup and restored the iphone from there.

    It is very frustrating and bad for a company like apple not to have a solution posted. Since their software is not at all flexible denial of problems (like they have done many times in the past) is bad policy.

  • http://juliomromero.com rusty shackleford

    Want a free “Iphone Backup Extractor” License? leave a comment on this post (email is required): http://su.pr/1PpIoD The winner will be announced December 23

  • Guest

    what a stupid post. no shit you can recover from a backup. how about recovering from something when you haven’t synced?

  • http://ifolio.idfact.net Impulse

    thank you!

  • http://www.dotpeak.com Web Design Company

    Thanks,

    It works perfect. I used to always try to restore old version of iPhone by cmd and click on my phone icon using iTunes that would bring up a restore option. Now using these two software, I can easily extract what ever information I want.

  • No1bosco

    my iphone is backedup in itunes, on my pc (winxp home) my phone was stolen and is gone!! how can i recover all the filesand read them on my pc??

  • Adamski Addams

    Utterly outstanding work there, man! Worked like a charm. ;-) I’d strongly recommend everybody try this method from Leonidas, it’s a bit more complex but it works perfectly.

  • NO1BOSCO

    let me make this clear, i am BOSCO, i backedup my iphone in itunes on my pc.. the phone was stolen- i DONT have it and DONT have any other apple product to download to, and i cant AFFORD to buy 1.. is there any way to recover the backedup files that r in my pc and read them on my pc 4 FREE???????????????????

  • help me sam

    can you do this tutorial without a jailbroken phone… if so please help i am stuck on step 8 and can not find the root folder

  • Ravi Gill

    Similar Approach but then for Contact Names and phone numbers; http://blog.tigabeats.com/?p=108

  • Dtman04

    THIS WORKS!!! I thought all hope was lost because my iphone synced AFTER I was able to restore my backup files. It has taken me about 8 hours total to figure this all out and you need to do a lot of manual work. I had to email myself all of my notes. I had to to look back at all my old texts to try and find my contacts. it took a while but when all hope is lost this is what you need to do! Thank you so much Leonidas

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KWB3O2VE2E57XBWXAXD2CPIYWM Tommy Smith

    Free download and learn more this best selling solutions to backup iphone sms, contacts, call list, ibooks, photo, songs, video,music…
    http://backup-iphone-sms.xstudio.biz

  • BC

    my phone shut off because it was too cold. It wouldnt turn on until i held both buttons and the white apple appeared. I believe its called a hard reset. But when i went into my text messages. All had been cleared. Everything else seems to be there. Anyone know how to get them back? Anyone know why this happened?

  • Ramsey

    Hey, thanks for this. I’ve managed to restore my SMS using this method, but when I try to restore my Notes, I am unable to. My extracted Notes folder only has “notes.idx” and “notes.sqlite” (I believe this is what iOS 4 uses and I’ve just downgraded to 3.1.3 because 4 is so slow on my 3G). There is no “notes.db” file. I’m new to this type of thing, so I don’t know if there is a way to convert the sqlite file into a db file. Any help?

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