Sep292012

Can I restore my iPhone 3GS with a backup from my iPhone 4 ?

Vincent asks:

I have two iPhones, both jailbroken. The 3GS with OS 4.3.3 and the iPhone 4 with 5.0.1. I currently have a backup on my computer for the jailbroken iPhone 4 with 5.0.1.

My Question is, can I restore my 3GS using my iPhone 4 backup and so have OS 5.0.1 on my 3GS in lieu of OS 4.3.3?


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8 Answers -

0 votes

Mike DeGeorge

September 30, 2012

Yes you can. I actually restored a backup from a 2nd generation iPod touch onto an iPhone 3GS. So it’s totally doable.

HLJonnalagadda

I did not know that it can be done. Thanks for the info! Will try it out and see if it works.

September 30, 2012
0 votes

Mike DeGeorge

September 30, 2012

Also, the backup is only for settings and app data(and things on your camera roll as well). Not the actual OS. In order to get iOS 5 onto your 3GS, you’ll need to update your 3GS to it. Not restore from the backup. But yes you can use an iPhone 4 backup onto your 3GS. Not sure if it’s OS limited though.

1 votes

Mike

September 30, 2012

Yes, you can restore a backup from your iPhone 4 on the 3GS
No, you won’t get iOS 5 on your phone that way.

Restoring the iOS firmware and restoring the backed up user data are two separate steps. The iOS firmware will always be restored using the device specific firmware file stored on your computer (or downloaded from iTunes servers). The user data will be restored from the backup created via iTunes or iCloud.

0 votes

Phuong Doan

October 1, 2012

yes you can. also you should update your 3gs to IOS 6

0 votes

Ahmed Khalil

October 2, 2012

Yes you can as the IOS version of the 3GS phone is equal or higher than that of 4G i phone

0 votes

April Eum

October 8, 2012

yes you can just simply restore from back up no matter how recent.

0 votes

Katie Conway

October 8, 2012

No, you must have the same iOS on all devices

1 votes

Danny Miller

January 7, 2013

Restore your iPhone 3gs and then restore from a previous backup for your iPhone 4:
To restore information from a backup, use one of the following methods after connecting your iOS device to the computer with which you normally sync:
1. Right-click (or Control-click) the device and choose Restore from Backup
2. If you have a new phone, you can connect to iTunes and it will prompt to restore from your backup
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766