I getting a new iphone 3GS this coming friday and I was wondering what would happen to all my game saves. I back up my 3G regularly and I was wondering if i can just restore the new 3GS from the 3G backup and keep all my settings and such. Im not sure if this is something people know yet, as obviously the phone isnt out yet, but I figured it doesnt really hurt to ask. Thanks
no, saves go bye bye, the game saves will not transfer over since your udid will be different. you will keep your contacts, and it will know what games are installed, however you will no longer have your game saves. and since the 3gs will not be jailbroken for awhile, you can not even ssh the saved games into the new phone. there is no way besides not upgrading to keep your saved games.
ok...so it wont keep my game saves but it will keep all my other settings such as what apps i have installed and things like that?
yup it will keep all of that. including text messages and all your email settings etc., you will just not have your saves.
I've successfully had my saved games restored from a backup to a new device when I got my 3G replaced at an Apple Store recently. After I restored the new 3G, all my game saves where there. Now the question is can you restore a 3G to a 3Gs in order to have those game saves on the new 3Gs. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.
I don't see why not. Just make sure you have 3.0 on your 3G. I've successfully restored everything when going from a 1G Touch to a 1G Touch and from a 1G Touch to a 2G Touch. I've heard of others who have switched from a 1G Touch to a iPhone 3G. Just backup your 3G then when you setup up your 3GS for the first time, selected restore from a backup. It should work fine, unless there is something special about the 3GS.
I backed up my 3G and then did a restore on my 3GS. Worked except I didn't get any apps or app saves (or ringtones or music). The 3G backup must not have backed up my apps/ringtones/music. Any idea why?
Hey guys, unfortunately I have learned how this works by losing months of play in several MMO's. If the game or APP is contained locally on the iphone -or- if you connect to a game server by logging in, then yes. Your saves will be restored when you restore. However, if your character or account never required a login, its likely the whole process was handled by registering your UDID or IMEI. This is a unique value to your phone and some games (all the Playmesh titles) handle account simply by this value. Unfortunately, if you upgrade your phone or get a new one in a warranty exchange because it dies, your account is located in limbo. I can't imagine playmesh being so busy counting money that they don't have some vehicle for allowing customers to provide old/new values and letting them transfer accounts to new phones, but I have not heard back from the emails I have sent them when I lost my games after saturday's upgrade. The last bit of advice I would give is to remember to transfer purchases from your phone to your PC's itunes account. I buy most of my apps over the air and didn't know to include this step, so when I backedup, I never had my app included in this.
I'll sum it up to the best of my knowledge: Restore only restores saved information for your apps if they are stored on your device. For example, Zenonia game saves are saved on your device. Restoring a backup with that save to another device will transfer the save. Soem game information is saved online on servers. These take your device unique UDID, which is different for each device. This information will not be saved in backup and will not be transfered. Some developers do offer transfer services if you sent an email to them, but it's unlikely. Restore does not restore music/apps/videos. Restore will restore data such as contacts/photos.
Contact the developer of those MMO games. They can link your account to your new phone. I switched Touches (twice), and both times I lost my account to Epic Pet Wars. I just emailed the developer, and they linked it to my new Touch (both times).
Having read about this here prior to my 3G S arriving I was prepared but even so it's a bit shocking to lose basically every save for every game on my phone. Can't really blame the app developers as the whole UDID thing is probably for good reason but man, that's a cold shower right there to see all those months of progress on all my games just wiped.
Ok I made some progress here. When I first did the restore from 3G backup to brand new 3G S, all local save data and settings were completely gone and I figured I was just fkd. Having nothing to lose, I went back a 2nd time and restored from the same backup and wham-o, all my local data is now back.
Deckard, what you are actually doing is not two restores, but a restore and a sync, which is it he proper procedure to fully rebuild an iPhone. I've done it several times in the past (once when I went from an 8 gb to a 16 gb, once when I cracked the glass of my 16 gb on the pavement, once when I bricked it in the early days of the App Store, once when I short-circuited my dock connector) and I just did it again on Friday when I got my 3GS. All my game saves have carried across every single time -- it's the way it's supposed to work. Of course, that would not count for games saved remotely, based on the iPhone's unique ID (instead of a login/password system). Frankly, it seems very unwise to use the unique ID of the phone for anything, as it is common practice for Apple to simple replace your phone whenever there's a mechanical problem. Then again, I don't play MMO's, so what do I care?
restore from a back up and then sync regularly? or restore to factory settings and sync regularly, no back up involved?
Since you have a lot of experience with new iPhones what are the steps then? Once you connect the new iPhone there'll be an option to restore from a backup? Then once the backup is restored all we have to do is sync as always? Thank you in advance.
I just bought the 3GS and even though I'm keeping my 3G (for development), I was able to restore from the 3G backup and sync. I have all the saves that were stored on the 3G, so I can confirm the info given above.
Assuming that you successfully synced your old iPhone, and you do not manage your media manually, the procedure should be as follows: 1) plug in your new phone and activate it as instructed; 2) when activation is done, choose "restore from back-up"; 3) when "restore" is done, sync normally. All your apps, music, and other media should be reappear on your phone. As an added bonus, when I upgraded to the 3GS, my apps reappeared on the correct screen (though with an extra blank screen, which was much appreciated). The key here, though, is that you have to have iTunes set up to manage your media automatically -- not necessarily on plugging, but at least on pushing the sync button. Hope that helps.
I just received an email from playmesh saying they are working on a solution for the transferring of account from one phone to another. They told me to hang onto my old device as it will most likely involve entering an email address from the old device to verify the user. I am really surprised and disappointed that: a) playmesh has been so busy cranking out clones of the exact same game to sell playmesh points that they never stopped to consider how to transfer these accounts from one device to another. b) besides all of the time spent playing characters in their first two games, all of the money wasted on those stupid points you use to upgrade weapons, etc. I can imagine that they are in a firestorm of emails right now, due to a chunk of their base upgrading to a new phone over the weekend, but what did they do when someone had their phone swapped out by apple? Of all the iphone users I know, most had been on their 2nd - 4th 3g. I just counted myself lucky that I was on my original phone and never had needed to take it to apple for support.