iPhone Backup Extractor 4
release notes

Today's release of iPhone Backup Extractor is a huge one. We're thrilled to be launching support for iCloud access. We'd love to read your feedback and hear about how you get on with this. This release will be our last of 4.x, and we'll be moving to version 5 as we build on this technology.

• Feature Integrated, easy to use support for downloading iCloud backups. And you wondered why we made all of those interface changes and introduced tabs in 4.9.52.0? Now you know! 😀
• Improvement We've introduced some internal queuing systems to improve loading of multiple backups in simultaneously.

We're preparing for something really big here at Reincubate HQ, but it's not being released today. Instead, we're shipping a few minor tweaks, and keeping ourselves focused on the Next Big Thing. What'll it be? Watch this space.

• Fix Fixed a regression bug with iCal and vCard encoding. This shouldn't have got through.
• Fix We've tidied up a handful of issues we'd introduced in our interface change, addressing issues with analytics, image analysis, and the feedback system.

We're thrilled to be releasing a major new feature today: the app view. This provides an intuitive way to examine data from any of the apps that have data present in the backup.

• Feature App view has gone live. We've love to read your feedback on it!
• Improvement We're reorganised the main window to use tabs, rather than showing everything in one big information pane.
• Improvement We now include additional metadata in CSV exports of voicemail data.
• Fix We've improved our SMS extraction code, and changed quite a lot behind the scenes.

• Fix This release fixes a crash some users ran into when extracting encrypted data with the Home edition whilst offline. Sorry for any inconvenience.

This is a minor macOS-only update fixing a few issues in our earlier 4.9.27.0 release.

• Improvement Cosmetic improvements to the support, services and upgrade screens.
• Fix The click-to-email support link wasn't working for Mac users. It's fixed now.

Greetings! We've got a lovely new release for you today with a range of changes and improvements.

• Improvement You'll see we've overhauled the services, help, support and about screens. We've also polished the screens which show when a licensing restriction is encountered.
• Improvement We've made a series of tweaks to buttons, text and menus throughout the app. Buttons that are disabled look more obviously disabled.
• Fix Fixed a recently introduced licensing bug where the license isn't always shown. Oh dear!

We're building on the undeletion functionality we shipped in our last release with a number of enhancements.

• Improvement Undeletion is even more effective: better with notes and indication of SMS messages and non-media attachments.
• Feature We've added a mechanism for users to create accounts for sign-in within the app.

The latest version of iPhone Backup Extractor has shipped with improvements, new features and bug fixes. What's new?

Whether you have deleted texts messages you haven't backed up yet, or you want to recover SMS from a backup you previously created? Check out our guide on how to use iPhone Backup Extractor to get your deleted SMS back.

iPhone Backup Extractor now recovers and reassembles fragments of deleted messages and can merge them with existing data from your backup. You can read more about the techniques involved in our deep-dive on the subject.

• Feature Holy cow! Support for recovery of deleted SMS and iMessage.
• Feature Users can now archive, view, access, copy or export all deleted Notes and SMS messages, in gorgeous HTML or CSV reports.
• Feature Beautiful view of SMS attachments together with the SMS in an HTML format.
• Fix Speed improvements for extracting large iTunes backup files.

Today's release includes a change to how we indicate to users that they've run into a licensing limitation.

• Feature We now prompt in a more helpful way when we explain to a user that a different addition is required, and we show what is available more clearly.

• Improvement We've added a new analytics system to better help us understand how users interact with iPhone Backup Extractor, and to help us improve it. We don't collect any sensitive data, or tie it to individual users.
• Fix We've fixed an issue whereby vCards with URL fields were encoded with semicolons (;), rather than colons (:) as they should be. According to RFC, at least. This fixes an issue some users ran into when importing their contacts back to another iPhone or iPad.

• Improvement We've slightly changed how we build and prepare iPhone Backup Extractor for release. This release was generated using the new process, but there are no other changes.

In case you're wondering, yes, iPhone Backup Extractor supports iOS 7.1 beta. That's not new in this release: it has done since the beta first shipped.

• Fix We've made some more improvements on the last release's work to make Plist editing as robust as possible.

• Feature It's now possible to browse for backups in alternate iTunes backup locations. Hurrah!
• Improvement We know don't show woefully incomplete backups in the iPhone backup browser
• Improvement Serial number and IMEI can now be copy-and-pasted out of the app.
• Improvement We use a better image of the iPhone 5S when examining their backups.
• Improvement The iPad Air worked before, but was misidentified. Now we name it correctly.
• Fix Enabled "reset restrictions passcode" whenever possible. (As before we didn't always enable the reset functionality if the recover functionality was available.)
• Fix Resolved a nasty crash affecting some Plists when viewing them.
• Fix We've improved our validation of iCal files, and fixed a timezone issue affecting them.

Today's release of iPhone Backup Extractor 4.8.0.0 is a big one: here's support for recovering lost restrictions PINs. You'll see we've published a detailed guide and video on how to make the most of this feature.

• Feature Recovery of lost Restrictions passcodes. See the Utilities menu.
• Fix Fixed two bugs affecting the Plist viewer. Sorry!

• Fix We've made a minor update to how to use local storage for registration details on macOS.

This release sees us rolling out our new activation systems for Mac users, giving them parity with the earlier 4.0.7.0 release for Windows users.

• Feature You can now activate iPhone Backup Extractor on macOS by logging in to your Reincubate account.
• Feature We've released auto-update functionality for Mac users, and we store registration details in a more sensible place (~/Documents/.reincubate/).
• Fix This build isn't all about Mac users, though: we've fixed a delay when extracting photos or videos. 'Tis faster now!

This release sees us rolling out our new activation systems for Windows users.

• Feature You can now activate iPhone Backup Extractor on Windows by logging in to your Reincubate account.

Today's release has us preparing for the full rollout of our newer registration system -- we're nearly there -- and releasing backup decryption support on macOS. We've had this for a while on Windows, of course. We're also pushing out a few other handy updates.

• Feature Backup decryption is now supported on macOS. Rejoice!
• Improvement We've released an updated activation window for offline activation.
• Fix Solved a number of Sqlite issues that were affecting Mac users, including "unable to open database" and "too many open files".
• Fix We've addressed an issue where the app would crash if you chose File → Exit. We know... 🙄

Mac users may be pleased to read iPhone Backup Extractor is now easier to run and manage than ever. iPhone Backup Extractor's Mac installer is now a .dmg that can be opened with a simple double-click.

To get iPhone Backup Extractor running on your Mac, all you need to do is download the Mac version of iPhone Backup Extractor, double-click on the downloaded .dmg file, and drag iPhone Backup Extractor's icon to your Applications folder. Simples.

• Improvement iPhone Backup Extractor for macOS is now distributed as a DMG.

This release is a relatively small one. We've got some big stuff coming soon, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this.

• Improvement Extraction of duplicate-named contacts is cleaner. No more -1 or -2 at the end of filenames.
• Fix We've restored the Upgrade button that had gone missing.

Today we're making a range of improvements to extraction of data. Thanks for all the feedback you've shared!

• Improvement Extraction of contact details to individual VCard files is performed within a neat vcards folder.
• Improvement Clicking Contacts or Calendar now extracts all in formats.
• Improvement We've made a series of improvements to Plist editing. We now warn users before they edit Plists, we've got support for editing binary Plists with UTF-8 data, and any errors that arise are much clearer.
• Improvement Messaging on differences between free and paid versions is now clearer.
• Improvement When something goes awry with the app, we now don't bamboozle users with the full error message. Instead, we show a summary and put the rest behind a "Details" button.
• Fix We've resolved problems with restrictions passcode recovery, where in some cases we'd look at the wrong file or fail if the right data wasn't found in the backup's manifest.
• Fix We've fixed a crash when entering non-ASCII password characters.
• Fix We've also fixed a crash issue with Windows 1252 encoding that was affecting some Mac users.

A few disassembly tools were causing our app not to start, and we handle those cases better now. We've also improved data extraction in a few ways.

• Improvement We've improved positioning of the Plist editor's buttons, we now show when a Plist has been modified -- with a little * in the title -- and we've made a few other tweaks.
• Improvement Various enhancements to our security system.
• Fix Solved date / time parsing error that was affecting a handful of users.
• Fix Fixed a nasty error preventing extraction of WhatsApp data in some cases.
• Fix Addressed an issue preventing the parental restrictions passcode reset from working in some cases.

This build improves how we show messages and extract data.

• Improvement We show a better message when there's an extraction error, and include a "Don't show this again" checkbox.
• Improvement We've improved the size of message boxes from the app.
• Fix If the folder you're extracting to gets deleted mid-extraction, we handle it better. Phew.

iPhone Backup Extractor 4.5.0.0 has a bunch of reliability enhancements. These are:

• Fix We handle contact extraction when trying to extract contacts with "reserved" names.
• Fix We set the original date and time for extracted files, which is useful for sorting by date in Explorer or Finder
• Fix We've improved the file and folder icons in expert mode, and fixed a bug where it wasn't always selecting a single file properly.
• Fix Individual directories are now created for extracted data, just like we do in BlackBerry Backup Extractor.
• Fix The output folder is only chosen once. After that, the app will use your last choice.
• Fix Message boxes are now always shown on top of the app. Sorry if it was awkward before!

We've made a few improvements in this release. And hey, we've got a new icon. We hope you like it. iPhone Backup Extractor 4.1.4.0 includes the following changes:

• Improvement The "View Plist" menu item is now "View/Edit Plist", and the dialog's title is updated.
• Improvement Updated icon, fonts and other cosmetic changes.
• Improvement We've updated the overview's extraction links to be a little clearer. They now say "extract" rather than just giving the number of bits of data available.
• Improvement Links in the app only underline when you move the mouse over them.

Today's release includes a roll-up of minor fixes. We hope you enjoy it.

• Fix Where two files share the same name but exist in different domains, we prepend the domain to the filename now. Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard (HomeDomain).plist vs Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard (RootDomain).plist, for example.
• Fix We now correctly handle permissions problems selecting folders for which the user has no permissions.

Today's release of 4.0.11.0 includes a few minor fixes.

• Fix Solved recently-introduced "iPhone Backup Extractor []" bug.
• Fix Improved message test when encountering files that can't be encrypted when modifying a backup.
• Fix Changed interface text on upgrade button.

This release is a big one: we've got new features to convert WhatApp messages, edit Plists and reset lost parental restriction passcodes.

It's now possible to extract your WhatsApp chats and reset restrictions passcode on unencrypted backups from all versions of iOS. If that's not enough you can also edit and save Plist files in your iTunes backup with our built-in .plist editor.

• Feature iPhone Backup Extractor can now extract WhatsApp messages from your iTunes backups. Use the quick links for automatic extraction from the main window, or the "Extract" menu to extract your WhatsApp messages as CSV or PDF.
• Feature Forgotten your parental controls PIN? Reset the restrictions passcode with one click. If you forget your Restrictions PIN and don't know how to get it back, don't despair! iPhone Backup Extractor will detect if the parental controls code is enabled for the backup and give you the option to reset it to 1234.
• Feature Plist editor added. Wahoo!
• Feature Restored support for iOS 2 and iOS 3 backups. We've restored support for iOS 2.0 and iOS 3.0 backups, which means you can access data from your old firmware devices. If you have older backups of your iOS devices, you can now open them and access data with iPhone Backup Extractor once more.
• Improvement iPhone Backup Extractor has also been updated to handle corrupt, encrypted iTunes backups more elegantly for our users. In these instances, iTunes would have only been partially through encrypting the device backup before it was interrupted and reported as being an incomplete backup. Our application will now extract unencrypted data from the backup automatically, and will prompt the user to contact our support for more help. Our support team will be able to diagnose any specific iTunes backup and advise on whether more data can be extracted.

iPhone Backup Extractor 4.0.9 has been released. The new update brings improved support for encrypted backups and enhancements that make working with CSV files easier, after recovering data from iTunes backups.

The latest version of iPhone Backup Extractor includes enhanced support for encrypted backups: now you can use the application to extract all your information, including SMS, contacts, notes, photos, videos, app data and many more! Here are some of the improvements we made. We've tested fully with iTunes 11.0.1 and iOS 6.0.2.

• Improvement Working with CSV files extracted is now easier, and the data recovered this way can be imported into contacts managers such as Gmail or Outlook in just a few easy steps.
• Fix Encrypted iTunes backups opened with the previous version of iPhone Backup Extractor would have no SMS available, due to an Apple update in the backups format. Version 4.0.9 can extract all data found in the backups.

Version 4.0.7 of iPhone Backup Extractor has been released and brings important bug fixes, new device testing and various improvements. This version will help users that have Windows XP or that might not update their OS that often.

This release brings a fix to a problem found on some Windows XP PCs, where users had issues running the app where certain Windows XP updates were not installed. The Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems, by comparison, have updates in question installed by default. We've fully tested this build with Windows 8, the iPad Mini, and iOS 6.0.1.

• Fix Bug fix for Windows XP machines not fully updated
• Fix Resolved Windows XP users receiving messages like ComException, FileNotFound or ManagementException

This is a maintenance release addressing a number of small issues in 4.0.2.

Today's release fixes a few minor issues in our Mac build.

This is a maintenance release addressing a number of small issues.