How to backup your iPhone contacts

By Lory Gil on May 1, 2013

Every once in a while, a friend will ask me what to do when some terrible thing has happened to their iPhone. Usually, it involves the device crashing or freezing. And usually, it involves someone who doesn’t back up their data.

Before I move on, let me just say this. If you don’t back up your data, don’t complain when all 975 images of the past year of your baby’s life have suddenly disappeared from your iPhone. Back that sh#@ up! Don’t be a fool.

If you chose not to use iCloud to back up your contacts, but want to secure the phone numbers of all those ladies you will never call back, there is a way to do it and it is just about the easiest thing you could ever do.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to backup your iPhone contacts so you can save them or transfer them to a new iPhone… Read More

 

TinyUmbrella updated with support for iOS 6.1.3

By Cody Lee on Apr 23, 2013

Good news jailbreakers. Notcom has finally updated his popular SHSH blob-saver to support iOS 6.1.3. Apple seeded the update to users more than a month ago with a fix for the latest Lock screen security bug and Maps improvements.

Unfortunately, 6.1.3 also killed several of the exploits that the evad3rs were using in evasi0n, effectively killing the iOS 6 jailbreak. But for those of you who upgraded to it, whether by accident or choice, here’s TinyUmbrella version 6.13.00… Read More

 

The iTorch, a portable iPhone charger that lights the way

By Jim Gresham on Apr 10, 2013

Since my visit to CES 2013, a quest for a backup portable iPhone charger began. Running around the world’s largest trade show peddling for power was pretty ugly. New Trent was kind enough to send one over for review and it fitted the bill for my charging woes. A simple, travel size device, the iTorch IMP52D provided a full charge in just under 2 hours for my iPhone 5… Read More

 

Popular jailbreak backup tool iBye updated for iOS 6

By Cody Lee on Mar 29, 2013

Good news this afternoon on the jailbreak front, the popular backup/restore tool iBye has been updated to support iOS 6.x. The app, which is developed by Evil Penguin, allows you to backup everything from Cydia to your usual iTunes content.

Today’s update brings iBye to version 3.0.1, and includes support for the latest jailbreak, as well as a few other improvements. Users will enjoy faster upload and download times, bug fixes and memory fixes. There’s more details after the fold… Read More

 

How to back up your jailbreak tweaks before updating in iOS 6

By Mike Schnier on Feb 21, 2013

Many of our regular readers have been asking us about backup solutions for their devices after the release of iOS 6.1.2 and the jailbreak that followed shortly afterwards. I want to be clear here: automated backups can be very bad news. If you restore your tweaks without going through Cydia, and an update breaks a single tweak, you won’t have a fun time attempting to find the incompatible package that crashes your phone at startup. While minor updates (like 6.1 to 6.1.2) are less likely to cause conflicts, the risk is never zero.

With that warning in mind, there are a number of options for backing up your Cydia tweaks when upgrading to iOS 6.1.2… Read More

 

Source Saver automatically backs up your additional Cydia repos

By Mike Schnier on Feb 7, 2013

Don’t you hate it when you restore your iPhone and all the progress you’ve made getting your tweaks just right gets wiped away? There are packages on Cydia that make it easy to directly backup your tweaks, but workarounds like PKGBackup can cause issues, especially if you wind up automatically installing software that is no longer compatible with your device.

Source Saver gives you an intermediate solution with fewer risks. With the press of a button, Source Saver will backup the repos you’ve added to Cydia. This way you won’t have to manually add Ryan Petrich’s beta repository to Cydia, or dig through sites to find the address for the DosPad repo… Read More

 

How to transfer SMS and iMessage history between iOS devices

By Mike Schnier on Jan 30, 2013

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been waiting for the upcoming release of the iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak before you upgraded to the iPhone 5. Upgrading to a new iPhone is exciting, but there are always a kink or two in the process. One of the upgrading issues that always bothers me is the fact that iTunes doesn’t make it easy to copy your text message history to a new device; your only option is to restore from a backup, and that doesn’t always work.

Unfortunately even third party utilities like iTools.hk or CopyTrans Contacts are currently unable to transfer SMS and iMessage history between devices since iOS 5 and up. I was able to find a manual method, but it requires following the process to the letter. The guide also works with the iPad and iPod touch, but these devices will only display iMessages.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to backup your SMS and iMessages, and we will also show you how to transfer these messages from one device to another… Read More

 

How to delete your iPhone or iPad backups from iCloud

By Sebastien Page on Jan 26, 2013

With the introduction of iCloud, Apple has made our lives much easier when it comes to managing content on our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch. You no longer need a desktop machine to manage your data as everything can be done directly from the device.

iCloud comes at a price though. Even if the first 5GB are free, you probably will go over this allocated storage, especially if you have several iOS devices, and will be required to pay an annual fee for increased storage. To prevent this, it might be a good idea to delete old iPhone or iPad backups from iCloud.

Another reason why you’d want to delete an old iPhone backup from iCloud is if you know it contains a corrupted file. While this rarely happens and isn’t particularly easy to diagnose, I’ve encountered this situation before, and I believe my only option was to delete the corrupted backup.

This being said, let’s get into it and learn how to delete a backup from iCloud. Note that the process is exactly the same whether you use an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch… Read More

 

How to backup your iPhone’s unlock activation ticket with RedSn0w

By Jeff Benjamin on Apr 22, 2012

Backing up your iPhone’s activation ticket was a step suggested by iPhone Dev Team member MuscleNerd. Fortunately for us, his team has made it even easier to perform such a backup using the latest version of RedSn0w.

This step is suggested for those who take part in the recently uncovered SAM iPhone unlock method. If you followed our tutorial to unlock your phone, we suggest you follow through on preserving your activation ticket as well.

Check inside for a full video tutorial that shows how easy it is to successfully backup your iPhone’s unlock activation ticket, and any other file that you want to save locally from your iPhone… Read More

 

How to backup your unlocked iPhone’s activation ticket

By Jeff Benjamin on Apr 22, 2012

Earlier this morning iPhone Dev Team member MuscleNerd recommended that all who unlock their iPhone using the SAM method backup their activation ticket for future use.

To do so, he suggested that we backup everything contained in this folder: /var/root/Library/Lockdown/ for each SIM card that we use. If you have iFile installed on your jailbroken iPhone, then you can securely backup your activation ticket in less than 5 minutes.

Check out our video how to inside… Read More

 

Apple Stores reportedly readying local iCloud backups for iOS devices requiring replacement

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 19, 2012

A new report out yesterday alleges that Apple is working on an interesting new solution for Geniuses at its retail stores that would bypass the need for tethered desktop iTunes or wireless iCloud backups for people seeking iOS device replacements.

The solution would let Geniuses to quickly and effortlessly backup your entire iPad, iPhone or iPod touch prior to the device exchange process. Likewise, Geniuses would later on be able to easily move that data back onto the replacement devices.

The solution is reportedly being prototyped at Apple’s top-secret Apple Store labs near the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters… Read More

 

PadSync: a great looking iTunes file sharing alternative

By Nick Prokesch on Apr 18, 2012

PadSync from ecamm is yet another way to access the documents folders of apps on your iDevice. The interface is very similar to iTunes File Sharing, located in the device view of a synced device. The main advantage is that you don’t need iTunes running to use it.

Maybe not enough apps you use have added iCloud support yet. Or perhaps you want to be able to easily drag and drop movie files into your movie app from your computer without performing a full iTunes sync. The rest of you might need an easy way to drag a document from your iPhone or iPad to your desktop. Let’s take a look at how PadSync can help… Read More

 

iPod Touch Gets Siri From iPhone 4S Backup

By Cody Lee on Jan 18, 2012

This is kind of interesting. After all of the attempts we’ve seen by developers to try and port Siri to non-Apple-supported devices, it appears this guy did it by simply restoring his iPod touch from an iPhone 4S profile.

How’d it happen? Well as Gordon tells it, he recently purchased a late-model white iPod touch. And instead of setting it up as a new device, he decided to restore it from an iCloud backup made from his iPhone 4S… Read More

 

How to Manage Your iCloud Backups and Storage From Your iOS Device

By Cody Lee on Jan 6, 2012

iCloud launched last October to much confusion amongst consumers. Apple’s cloud-based storage service doesn’t work like your typical drag-and-drop cloud software (DropBox), leaving some folks wondering how to use it.

But never fear, iDB is here to show you how to make the most of your iCloud account. Today we are going to show you how to manage and/or delete your iCloud backup files from your iOS device in just a few easy steps… Read More

 

OpenBackup: One of the Most Promising Jailbreak Backup Solutions on Cydia

By Jeff Benjamin on Dec 21, 2011

Today I tried out OpenBackup, a new package backup solution for your jailbreak apps and tweaks. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical. I’ve had my fair share of experiences with backup tools for jailbreak apps tweaks in the past, and they either don’t work, or are overly complicated.

Outside of PKGBackup, I can’t really recommend any backup solutions, although I have yet to try iBye (I have heard good things about that).

But even an excellent app like PKGBackup can be borderline confusing when it comes to safely backing up and restoring your Cydia tweaks. With the advent of iCloud, I held out hope that a backup tool could harness its power for backups and restores, and that’s just what happened.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing OpenBackup, the first tool of its kind that utilizes iCloud for seamless backups and restores… Read More

 

How to Download Deb Files From Cydia

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 10, 2011

It’s easy to venture into Cydia and download your favorite apps and tweaks, but what if you want to save the files that you download for backup or later use?

There are tools like PKGBackup that save the links to the apps and tweaks that you have on your device, but it’s not as straightforward to backup and save the actual .deb files responsible for installing the packages that we use.

What to do? In the following video tutorial, I’ll show you how to easily download deb files using OpenSSH and a handy FTP client… Read More

 

How to Manually Backup Your iDevice to iCloud

By Oliver Haslam on Nov 8, 2011

We love iCloud here at iDB, and we love backups, too. That said, it isn’t really surprising that we’re huge fans of the ability to backup our iDevices to iCloud.

It has been said before that the best backup strategy is the one you can set and forget. That’s where iCloud comes into its own, with backups being done automatically each night, so long as the device is plugged in.

There are times when you might want to be absolutely sure that the backup in the cloud is up to date, and Apple has thought of that, too. Here is a quick guide that shows you just how to manually perform an iCloud backup… Read More

 

iOS 5 Takes ‘PC-Free’ One Step Further with Time Capsule and Airport Base Station Setup

By Oliver Haslam on Jul 28, 2011

In another step toward killing the PC, Apple’s iOS 5 now allows users to set up the company’s own Time Capsule and Airport hardware, according to an AppleInsider reader.

Until now, setting up either of Apple’s networking solutions required a PC, but once iOS 5 is released later this year, users will be able to get online with nothing more than an iPod touch… Read More

 

iSHSHit Updated for iOS 4.3.4

By Sebastien Page on Jul 22, 2011

iSHSHit, the tool that lets you save, upload and email your SHSH blobs directly from your iPhone, has been updated to bring support for iOS 4.3.4 and iOS 4.2.9.

The purpose of iSHSHit is the same as TinyUmbrella, except that it doesn’t require to be connected to a computer in order to save your SHSH blobs. Simply launch the application, select what SHSH blobs you want to backup, and iSHSHit will do the job for you… Read More

 

How to Backup and Restore SMS Messages Using PKGBackup [Video Tutorial]

By Jeff Benjamin on Jun 28, 2011

One of the most frustrating things that I’ve encountered with the iPhone, is doing backups and restores. Now admittedly, most people are okay with this, they just backup their iPhone with iTunes and restore with whenever necessary.

I like to take the backup and restore process a bit more seriously. For instance, I’ve actually created a starting point “stock” iTunes backup with all of my favorite apps, settings, mail accounts, etc.

Secondly, I have a separate backup for all of my jailbreak apps, tweaks, and settings. For this, I use PKGBackup.

I’ve found that the combination of the iTunes backup coupled with PKGBackup makes for a quick, and painless restore back to my favorite settings.

There’s one problem with this methodology though; it doesn’t backup all of my SMS messages… Read More

 
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