iPhone Tips

[Full Explanation] What Does Restore iPhone Mean

by Sophie Green   Updated on 2020-05-27 / Update for  iPhone Tips

What does restore my iPhone mean? Will it delete all my data off the phone?"

Devices like the iPhone have many terms that are used to specify its functionalities. One of these terms is restore and if you are wondering what does restore iPhone mean, this guide is going to give you a full explanation of that. It will tell you what the term means, what it does to your iPhone, and when and how you can use it on your phone.

It is important to learn these terms so you can apply them when required on your device. The following should tell you what does it mean to restore iPhone and answer some of your questions that you may have about it.

Q 1: What Does Restore iPhone Mean in iTunes?

Restoring an iPhone basically means reinstalling the operating system on your phone. As you may already know, your iPhone runs an operating system called iOS. It has been developed by Apple to be used on iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices.

When you restore your iPhone, you reinstall the iOS OS on your device.

We hope it answers your "what does it mean to restore your iPhone" question.

Q 2: Does Restore iPhone Delete Everything?

Restoring an iPhone is a tricky process and you should know everything about it beforehand so you do not have any unexpected situations.

When you restore your iPhone, all the data stored on your phone gets deleted. This includes your photos, apps, videos, contacts, and everything else that is stored on your iPhone's storage. The process cleans up your entire device and gives you a chance to set it up from scratch.

Q 3: How to Restore Your iPhone?

An iPhone can be restored using the iTunes app on your computer. If you are running macOS Catalina or later on your Mac, you can use the Finder app to do the task. It is the same as iTunes.

Keep in mind this will erase all the data on your iPhone.

  • Connect your iPhone to your computer and launch the iTunes or Finder app.
  • Click on your iPhone in the app and select Summary from the left sidebar.
  • Choose the button that says Restore iPhone to begin restoring your device.

    what does restore iphone mean in itunes
  • Choose the button that says Restore iPhone to begin restoring your device.

    what does restore my iphone mean

It will take a while to finish the process. When it is done, your phone will be reset to the factory settings and all data on it will be erased.

Q 4: Is It Possible to Restore iPhone without Data Loss to Fix iPhone Problems?

While restoring your iPhone fixes many issues on it, it makes you lost your data which many users do not like. If you are one of those users, there is actually a third-party software to help you restore your device without data loss.

It is called Tenorshare ReiBoot and it has a feature named Repair Operating System to let you repair the operating system of your iPhone without touching its data. Your files remain intact and your phone gets fixed.

If you want to see how the software actually works to repair an iOS device, the following are the steps demonstrating how to use it on your computer.

  • Install the software on your computer, plug-in your iPhone to your computer and fire-up the software.
  • Select Repair Operating System on the main interface of the software.

    what does restore iphone mean
  • Choose Fix Now on the following screen.

    what does it mean to restore iphone
  • Click on Download and it will begin downloading the firmware for your iPhone.

    what does it mean to restore your iphone
  • When the firmware is downloaded, it will start repairing your device. It will display the following message when your iPhone is repaired.

    what does restore backup mean on iphone

That is all you need to do to repair your device without losing a single file.

Q 5: What's the Difference Between "Reset iPhone" and "Restore iPhone"?

What is "Restore iPhone"? What is "Reset iPhone"? If you are confused with this two terms, both terms have different meanings as follows.

Reset iPhone

Resetting your iPhone is the "lighter" version of formatting your device back to factory settings. A reset can be done directly on the iPhone itself, right in the Settings app, and doesn't need to be connected to iTunes on a Mac or PC to complete.

Restore iPhone

Restoring your iPhone is the "deeper" version of formatting your device back to factory settings. You need either iTunes or Finder to restore your iPhone and it basically means to reinstall the operating system on your device. It wipes off all the data stored on your phone, reinstalls iOS, and resets all the settings to the factory ones. That is your answer to "what restore iPhone means".

Q 6: What's the Difference between "Restore backup" and "Restore iPhone" in iTunes?

You might have noticed that iTunes offers you two options namely Restore Backup and Restore iPhone. Here we explain to you what each of those terms means including what does restore backup mean iPhone.

Restore Backup

Restore Backup restores the contents of an iPhone backup have created with iTunes on your iPhone before. You can use it to load your old data on your device. That is what does restore backup mean on iPhone.

Restore iPhone

Restore iPhone refers to the process of reinstalling the entire operating system on your phone. It erases your entire phone and then clean installs the OS on it. It should answer your "what does restore my iPhone mean" question.

Summary

Our guide above should tell you what does restore iPhone mean in iTunes and how you can actually go about doing it on your computer. These are pretty easy to understand terms and it is good to know them as a proud iPhone owner.If you need to restore iPhone to fix some iOS problems, Tenorshare ReiBoot is highly recommended to you to restore iPhone without data loss.