I had just bought an iPhone 3G right before the 3GS came out so I am able to upgrade to it for free. When I get it, hopefully this Friday, is there a way I can transfer the Myst game I am playing including the saved state of where I am in the game to my new iPhone. I will have to give back the 3G when I get the 3GS so I'll have to wipe my stuff off on Thursday evening. I'm not real far in the game, but hate to have to start over if there is a way to avoid that.
Thanx...

The state of your Myst game is stored in the backup that iTunes makes when synchonizing, so be sure to make a backup of your old iPhone before you return it. I don't know if it's possible to restore a backup made from an iPhone 3G to an iPhone 3GS, but apparently that was possible between the original iPhone and the 3G, so it might work. If not, it may be possible to manually transplant the individual files from the old backup into a new one, but that's just speculation and it would probably involve some low-level hackery.

It could be done with jailbreaking, but I consider that a bit more than low level hackery.

Anywho, you should be able to "transfer" your files easily by backing up your iPhone before returning it, like that link says. Once you get the new one plug it in. You should be able to restore the new iPhone with your old data.

Apple does want people to buy these new ones, even if they have old ones, so it *should* work. It couldn't hurt to call up a local Apple store, or AT&T, and ask them about it to be sure.

iPhone 3G S... lucky... I'm jealous.

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Cubkyle wrote:

It could be done with jailbreaking, but I consider that a bit more than low level hackery.

You're challenging me, Cubkyle... I've had a closer look at my backups and at this bit of documentation now, and while I don't want to try it right now (I only have one iPhone and it is in daily production use, so I'd rather not risk messing it up), I have the impression that this should also work on a non-jailbroken phone. Why exactly would a jailbreak be required?

Well, with that tool, you can only pull out data, but not put it back in later. Whatever app data you pull out would become useless to you.

The way I was talking about, Jailbreaking, would require jailbreaking the device, and then using SSH to connect to the device to gain access to the file system. You could then back up the app's save data from the installion folder (if it does exist there, I have not tried this myself, so it may be stored elsewhere) to your computer. Once you got a different device, you'd have to install Myst, jailbreak the device again, and then put the save data back where it was.

That way is a lot more work than simply using the backup restore feature of iTunes, and the jailbreak is semi-permanent. (You need to do a restore of the device to undo it.) If you don't need/want a jailbreak the method is undesirable. I say that I don't consider it low level hackery because I think that jailbreaking is fairly large hacking, and then you have to install further software for accessing the filesystem, like the SSH software.

You might be able to use the backup slurper to get the save data out, and then restore it using the jailbreak, but it's not something I've looked into, and it's still overkill next to using the iTunes backup and restore.

Edit: Oh, and I don't believe there's a jailbreak yet for the iPhone 3G S anyway, due to to it's newness.

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This is actually a very simple process covered in the updated Apple support article linked above: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2109

Basically you plug in your 3G iPhone, right click it in the device pane and select Backup. Then you unplug the old phone, plug in the iPhone 3GS. iTunes will ask if you want to restore from a backup, select the backup of your 3G and you're done.

No need to switch SIM cards like you had to to go from the EDGE iPhone to the 3G.

Myst on the 3gs is as good as it ever was on the pc.

Cheers to cyan it scales up smooth as silk on the better hardware.

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Waymet

I wrote:

Why exactly would a jailbreak be required?

Cubkyle wrote:

The way I was talking about, Jailbreaking, would require jailbreaking the device, and then using SSH to connect to the device to gain access to the file system. …

That doesn't answer my question. You're explaining why a jailbreak is sufficient to get modified files onto the iPhone, not why it's necessary. Until I see any evidence to the contrary, I'll stick to my conjecture that it's possible to restore a modified backup using iTunes, no jailbreak required.

(Now, on re-reading your original reply, I notice that you never claimed that a jailbreak would be necessary, so we're kinda talking past each other here. Sorry.)

lol, yeah. I wasn't saying you needed to do it that way. I was just explaining that it was one method it could be done "hacking", since you mentioned it. Albeit a completely round-about and unnecessary method due to how simple it is by using the backup and restore.

I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure you can't modify a backup. Or not do it and have it restore again, at any rate.

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You can't edit the restore (without major knowhow), and you can't do a partial restore, it's a all or nothing when restoring your new iphone/itouch with your old iphone/itouch restore file.

For personal peace of mind make sure you sync your new one so if your really worried you can restore it back again afterward. Bear in mind that it doesn't change the firmware a restore on a iphone/itouch just restores the application software, contacts, menu settings, photos, save games, ect, ect, ect..... It can't break anything neccessary to running the device Apple doesn't give itunes that much power.

Synced/restored my new one day one to my old phone and started playing channelwood right where I had left off.

P.S. Hardest part is deleting all the old crud you would have never moved from your old phone to your new phone.

P.P.S. If you have two Apple devices iphone/itouch and you still use both, remember to rename your new one as the restore renames it with your old ones name.