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By Chris Meadows

I have a technical problem with my iPod Touch.

I don’t intend to do this often—but given that there are a lot of people who read e-books using iPhone and iPod Touch applications, it occurred to me someone might be able to point me at a useful answer. (Description after the jump so as not to bother those to whom it is irrelevant.)

I recently had to restore my 1st-gen Touch to factory settings because it was no longer syncing properly. (I had previously tried reverting to the last backup, but that did not fix it so this was the last resort.) When this happened, I lost all data on the versions of the apps that synced to my iPod.

However, I believe the information remained intact in the backup directory (which I have since copied to a separate folder just in case). I would like to transfer the backed-up versions of some of these apps back to the current version of my iPod.

The problem is, the free version of the one app I can find that pulls files out of the backup, Reincubate’s “Backup Extractor,” will only extract one file at a time. Not one app—one file. Given that apps are made up of dozens or even hundreds of files, this is simply not a solution—and my finances will not permit me to pay $25 to register it.

So I was hoping someone could tell me either where to find a similar app for free that will restore entire apps with their settings (such as the Checkbook app with my check register in it, or the Distant Shore app that held dozens of anonymous bottle messages whose senders I cannot reach any other way), or tell me how to do it manually by copying app directories from one place to another.

Please leave a comment here, or on the Mahalo Answers link at the beginning of the article.

Thanks!

 
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