Messing around on my iphone the other day and inadvertently erased an entire message thread between my youngest daughter and myself. No worries, I have iCloud, right? I'll just restore from last backup, and all the world will be right.

Wrong.

I end up somehow deleting everything off the phone to restore, and then restoring essentially all emails, pics, and messages (so yeah, I got that part), but deleting every song from my accumulated-over-many-years playlist. Then, I realize that the last iTunes backup I had that has 'most' of the songs on it is from 2018, so now I'm thinking I'm gonna lose all my new data when I download the songs (and Lord knows what else) from that old backup.

iTunes is confusing as it is, much less when I'm doing full bore stupid.

Add one more thread to the long list of “user error”.

I bet that the Apple support people can help you get everything restored.

Last I knew, the stores were closed because virus, don't know whether they have reopened yet, but you can look at the support page on their website and connect to them via phone or chat.

You're going to be messing with your phone, so if you want to talk to them, do it with a different phone. Or if you use chat, do it from a device (computer, iPad, etc.) other than the phone that you're trying to fix.

Question: why does this user error make you "Loathe Apple?" I have screwed up on other systems, much worse that I ever have on Apple devices. Should I tell you about the time I wiped out an entire database on a UNIX system, during an all-nighter, trying to get a new update ready to go live for start of business the following morning? With no Apple "genius" to help me get everything restored.

You can do a full iPhone backup to iTunes; it is different than the iCloud backup in that Messages will be included.

I have one from a friend's phone. 6 weeks of Messages (some images have disappeared), her saved voicemail, final Recent Call Log, exact snapshot of her phone except for some images within the message thread going blank.

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On your laptop in the hidden Library there is a Messages archive folder. Save it for now and at some point you may be able to restore it. The Archive data will come up in searches, and you can open and read individual dated items.

Finder --> Go + option brings up hidden Library folder. In that is Messages / Archive.

The process is what makes me loathe Apple, not operator error. My past experiences with trying to back up using iTunes, trying to add my own music to iTunes, etc. have lead me to dislike dealing with them. I shall try calling my hipster brethren, and see if they can make it happen.

It is important to be polite and respectful when dealing with Apple. Have had nothing but outstanding dealings with theApple People.

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
You can do a full iPhone backup to iTunes; it is different than the iCloud backup in that Messages will be included.

??? An iCloud backup includes messages.

iCloud backups 'can' include Messages, but they only include the data that you select. A couple of the iDevices in our household, which were recently 'Restored' do not have Messages selected as part of the iCloud backup, and that it NOT something I unselected. As such, I believe the Messages app is NOT part of the iCloud backup by default!

That said, using iTunes to do a 'Full Backup' (the only option, at least the version that runs on Windows) DOES backup Messages, along with everything else on the device.

i've gotten my wife's hand me down i-phones for years, the last an 8+ when she upgraded to the 11....previously 6+, all used wi-fi only.

i backed up the 6+, erased all content settings on the 8+, connected usb to pc/itunes & backed up from saved 6+ i-cloud.

messages, email accounts, apps, etc transferred to 8+.