Question:

Douglas Writes: In Mac Geek Gab 351, you mentioned that when an iOS app is deleted from a device, all its accompanying information is deleted as well.  If I have a backup of my iOS device, is the accompanying app info stored in that backup as well?  I lost some user data for a GPS app during a phone upgrade and I’m hoping I can get it back.

Answer:

Yes! That data is stored in your iOS backup, but you’ll need some third-party applications to get it back. 

First, extract the backup data from your backup using the iPhone Backup Extractor (Free; works with all iOS devices).

Use iPhone Backup Extractor to extract the contents from your local iOS backup file.

Next, use an application like Ecamm’s PhoneView ($19.95) to put the data back on your iPhone using the “Copy To iPhone” function. Once complete, you may need to restart the iPhone or at least the app in order to get it to accept your changes. In fact, the safest bet is to quit the app before doing any of this (by double-clicking the home button and then holding the app icon in the resulting tray until you can “x” it out).

PhoneView not only lets you see the contents of your iOS device, but also allows you to restore iOS data from an extracted backup.

This method also works for copying data from one iOS device to another.