Tutorial to recover lost data from iTunes backup

Recover Previous Data from iTunes Backup

This recovery mode allows you to recover previous data by extracting iTunes backup files. That’s to say, you need to have synced your device with iTunes before you lost data. Another important thing is that don’t sync your device with iTunes after you lost your data, for iTunes will automatically update the backup file every time you sync with it. You’ll lose your previous data forever if the backup file is updated.

Step 1. Choose the device according to yours

This recovery mode is available for all Apple devices as long as you have iTunes backup on your Mac. Choose the one for yours in the primary window and you’ll get the window below (here let’s take iPhone 4 for an example).

Step 2. Select a Recovery mode and begin to extract iTunes backup

Select the recovery mode of “Recover from iTunes backup” and you’ll get a window as follow.

Here the iTunes backup for your device will be automatically found and displayed. Choose it or the latest one if there are more than one and click “Start Scan” to extract it.

Note: If you’re connecting another Apple device, excluding iPhone 4/3GS, iPad 1 and iPod touch 4, there will be only one option for you: Recover from iTunes backup.

Step 3. Preivew and recover previous data from iTunes backup

When the scan completes, you can preview all the contents in detail by clicking the categories one after one. Mark those you want and click “Recover” to save them on your Mac.

Note: Most of the text contents can be saved as HTML files on your Mac for great reading. As to contacts, you can save them as VCF or CSV formats, which can be used to import into your Mac Addressbook and you can import it back to your device through iTunes.