If something has gone wrong with your iPhone/iPad and it is acting up then you might want to try something to fix it. For instance, if you’ve messed up the network settings or it is running slow or it is not tracking the location, you’d definitely want to find a quick fix. Well, in such situations, the best thing you can do is to reset your iPhone/iPad and restore it from some backup.
So, if you want to get on with the process, here is how to restore your iPhone or iPad from a backup.
Jump To Section:
- Always Have A Backup
- Reset Your iPhone/iPad To Begin With The Restore Process
- How To Restore Your iPhone/iPad From iCloud Backup
- Restoring iPhone/iPad From iTunes Backup
- What To Do When Everything Else Fails
Always Have A Backup
Just like you always backup your Mac regularly, it is equally important to schedule regular iPhone/iPad backups as well. Having a backup at hand any time is important to avoid any kind of problems with your little gadgets. Your device can be setup for automatic backups on a daily basis via iCloud. Alternately, you can make sure that it gets backed up every time it is connected to your Mac and you open iTunes. You have to decide your own backup schedule for your devices, but you must have a regular backup routine if you don’t want to get lost.
Once you have a backup ready, here is how to restore your iPhone.
Reset Your iPhone/iPad To Begin With The Restore Process
If you want to restore your iPhone/iPad, you will first have to erase everything on it and reset your iPhone/iPad settings and content completely. Resetting iPhone/iPad means that you’ll lose everything you have on your device if it is not synced to iCloud or some other cloud service.
When the device is reset, Find My iPhone is disabled automatically and is enabled the same way when your device is restored.
So, as soon as you have the iPhone/iPad backup ready, you can erase everything on your device and reset it to start the restore process.
How To Restore Your iPhone/iPad From iCloud Backup
After resetting the device, it’s time to restore your iPhone/iPad data from the most recent iCloud backup. Here are the steps to follow for that.
- As soon as “Hello” screen appears, press Home button
- Choose your device’s language
- Select the Country/Region you reside in
- Select your Wi-Fi network and connect
- Enable/disable Location Services
- Now set up the TouchID
- As “Apps & Data” screen appears, tap on Restore from iCloud Backup option
- Authenticate with your Apple ID & password
- On Terms & Conditions page, click Agree
- Select your desired backup from which you’d like to restore your device. Tap on “Show all backups” if you want to see older iCloud backups as well
Note: When looking to fix some problem then you may want to continue with some older backup. Remember, selecting older backups mean that anything collected after that backup will not be restored to your device if you go for this option.
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Restoring backups from your iCloud storage may take some time, so sit back and relax until it completes.
Restoring iPhone/iPad From iTunes Backup
Another option for restoring your iPhone/iPad is to use the iTunes backup instead of the one from iCloud. You can do this if you often connect your device to the iTunes and store your backups right on your Mac. For restoring from iTunes, you will first have to disable Find My iPhone manually. Afterwards, iTunes can be used for restoring iPhone/iPad. Remember, with this method, you can be able to restore contacts, notes, calendars, settings and text messages on your device but the firmware will not be restored by this.
Here are the steps to follow for restoring your device from iTunes.
- Connect your iPhone/iPad to Mac
- Open iTunes on Mac
- Click device icon that you can see towards top left of iTunes window
- Now click on device summary option from left side menu
- Ensure that the checkbox for automatically backup to This Computer is already checked
- Click the Restore Backup option
- As soon as you are prompted, select your iPhone/iPad and click on Restore button
- If asked, enter password for unlocking the iPhone backups you are restoring from (This password is the one you had used for encrypting the backup)
What To Do When Everything Else Fails
If, somehow, restoring your iPhone/iPad using a backup doesn’t do anything to solve the problem you were facing with your device, you can have a fresh start by installing a new copy of iOS. This way, you will completely empty your iPhone/iPad and there won’t be anything left behind. So, there will be least possible chance for the issues to persist. You can do everything from the beginning and only select the applications that are really needed to be on your device.
You should keep one thing in mind, however, that you will lose your Messages and Health data this way. So, before you opt for the clean install, it is advised that you put your photos, music, app data, contacts, and safari activities to some cloud such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud Drive. You’ll be able to have these things back on your device once you have set it up completely afresh.
When it comes to saving your Messages or Health data, it is possible to use third-party applications such as Health Data Important to export and import your Health data backups.
As soon as you have a backup of everything, you can simply install a fresh copy of iOS on your iPhone/iPad to continue. Set your device up as New and all your potential issues will be gone completely.
Now that you know exactly how to restore your iPhone or iPad, you should start doing it yourself now.