Hi, Along with Jonathan's posts, I found this blog entry very helpful. Not necessarily written for an audience of people who are blind, but helpful none the less. Text is below and the link follows.
"When you plug your iPhone/iTouch/iPad into your computer and run iTunes, there are three forms of communication that you can request happen between your computer and the device: syncing, backing up, and transferring purchases. Syncing Syncing happens much more frequently; when your device is syncing, iTunes is making sure that the data on your computer and your phone are up-to-date with each other. Typically, this involves copying music or apps you have purchased on your computer to your device, making sure your calendars and address books match, and stuff like that. When iTunes syncs your device, it does not make a backup -- this is the surprise that bites most of us later. Backing Up Less frequently, iTunes will make a backup of your device. You can tell this is happening because the iTunes status window (at the top of the iTunes window) will say "Backing up <Name of Your Device". This process actually makes a copy of all of your device's data from all of the apps (including the SMS app, Address Book app, Visual Voicemail if you have it, and all of your other apps). If you ever need to restore your device, the data from this process is what is used, not syncing. You can see when your last backup was by opening iTunes, opening Preferences (iTunes --> Preferences), and clicking on the devices tab. If you're unhappy with how old the backup is, you can force iTunes to make a new backup in the main iTunes window by right-clicking on the device under "Devices" and clicking "Back Up". Thankfully, I have to do this often to test versions of our software, so when I accidentally deleted all of the data from my pregnancy tracker app, I had a recent backup to restore from! Transferring Purchases In the syncing description, I said that syncing copies music and apps that you've purchased on your computer to your device -- note that I didn't say a word about the other direction! If you purchase music and/or apps on your device, occasionally you'll want to make sure these purchases are copied to iTunes on your computer in case something happens to your device. To copy your purchases, right-click on the device under "Devices" in the main iTunes window and click "Transfer Purchases". I just did this myself and had five songs and twelve apps that I needed to copy to iTunes. http://decipher-media.blogspot.com/2011/05/itunes-sync-vs-backup-how-to-ensu re-you.html Neal Ewers Ravenswood Productions <mailto:neal.ew...@ravenswood.org> neal.ew...@ravenswood.org <http://www.ravenswood.org/> http://www.ravenswood.org ---------- Work as if it was your first day. Play as if it were your last game. Forgive as soon as possible. Love without boundaries. Laugh without control. Speak with people as if it may be the last thing you ever say to them. And never stop smiling. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
