How to use your Recovered Data
How To Use Backup on PC - Using iTunes
How To Use Backup on Mac - Using Finder
Using 3rd Party Software to Restore Data to New iPhone
(Necessary when iTunes and Finder don't work)
What you receive
When you get your package back, you will receive either (1) or (2) storage devices. On these drives you will find your raw, parsed out user data as well as a full iPhone (iTunes) backup that can be used to restore all your data to a new phone. A word document showing where to place the iTunes backup is also included. On this page you will see how your parsed out data is presented to you as well as where to place your iTunes backup to be able to restore data to a new phone. If you are using a PC, you can view the picture guide. If you are using a mac, there is a video at the bottom of the page showing where to place your backup folder. Also included is a 3rd party software tool that can be used if other methods fail.
Your data folder
Your parsed out data (aka user data, raw data, etc) will be in one of the included folders. In most cases, this folder will be called "ultdata". It may have a different name if a different parsing program was used, just open it to see. After opening, there will be another folder with your iPhones name, followed by another folder with the date of the recovery. Just click through all these folders.
Your data
Once you have clicked through the folders, this is what your data will look like. Commonly included are: App Audios, App Documents, App Photos, App Videos, Calender, Contacts, Message Attachements, Messages, Note Attachments, Notes, Photo Videos (videos), Photos, Photos Dated (this folder is for redundancy with another program to make sure nothing is missing), Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Voice Memos, Voicemail, WhatsApp Attachments, and WhatsApp Messages.
The data you receive may be slightly different. It is important that you specify what you are looking for when submitting the intake form. Often, there are several forms of the same data in case some formats are not compatible with your computer.
In particular, you may find .mov files or .heic files cannot be loaded on a PC. In this case, you will either have to view them on a Mac or download a file converter.
Your iTunes backup
The other folder included on the drive will be your iTunes Backup. This folder can be identified by its long stream of gibberish letters and numbers. Your backup name may look slightly different, but it is always a long stream of letters or numbers. This is the folder you will have to drag and drop into the appropriate location within your own computer files. Once you put this folder into the right place, you will be able to use the backup to restore a new iPhone with all your data through iTunes (not iCloud, but iTunes on your computer).
If you do not yet have iTunes downloaded on your computer, you will want to download it now.
Where to place your iTunes Backup
Now that you know what your iTunes backup folder looks like, you will have to drag and drop that folder into the following location on your PC:
\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
The easiest way to get to this on PC is to click on your search bar and type in "%appdata%". Click on that folder. A new window will pop up that shows you are now in the "AppData > Roaming" folder. Next, click on the "Apple Computer" folder. Next click on the "MobileSync" folder. Finally, click on the "Backup" folder. Once this folder is open, drag and drop the iTunes backup into it.
If you do not see the Backup folder once clicking on the MobileSync folder, it is because that folder has never been created because an iTunes backup has never been performed on your computer yet. The easiest way to make sure this folder is set up correctly is to plug any other different iPhone into the computer and start taking a backup of it. You do not need to wait for the entire backup to complete, you just need to start the process. Once that process has been started, it will create the Backup folder. Now when you go back to check, the Backup folder will be there and you can drop your iTunes backup into it.
Restore your data
Once your iTunes backup is in the "Backup" folder on your PC, you will now be able to restore your data to a new iPhone. This will bring over nearly everything from your old phone to your new one, and make it close to an exact copy of the old one. The only thing it will not bring over will be Apps. For those, you will have to redownload them from the App Store.
Open iTunes and plug your new iPhone into your PC. Once iTunes detects your iPhone, you will see an icon appear. You can see this circled in the picture. Click on this icon.
Finish up
After clicking on the icon, you will find yourself on this page. You will want to click on the "Restore Backup" button. This will pop up another window that says "Restore From Backup". You will click on the "iPhone Name" drop down menu and select the backup that you just inserted.
If you have multiple backups here, you can identify the correct one by examing the "Last Backed Up" date. This date will be the date that the backup was taken by me, so it will be a few days back by the time you receive it.
This is the final step and now you will just wait for the restore to complete. Depending on the size of the backup, this can take several hours.
