How to back up and restore apps on ios development devices?

Question

I have several people with my app on iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads, that helped me with development. However, I just discovered that apps put onto the devices through XCode are not backed up by an iTunes sync, and so are not restored. How can I ensure that apps I put on devices this way get backed up, or restored? Is there a way of getting data files out of the bundle, and putting them back in later, in case they need to restore the app from scratch and then restore the data files?

Thanks for your answers.

Answer 1

Try installing the app onto the device using iTunes instead of Xcode. First drag the app's ipa file and drop it onto iTunes. You should see the app appear in the apps list. Then just sync the device with iTunes. You can install the provisioning profile using iTunes in the same way. This is the way that I've sent beta versions of my apps to testers in other countries. Send them both the ipa file and the provisioning profile. I'd recommend creating a separate ad-hoc provisioning profile with just the devices you need defined instead of using the team provisioning profile.

When emailing a copy of the app, you should compress the ipa file into a zip file first. When the user unzips the file, on a mac they'll get an ipa file. On a pc they'll get a folder of the same name as the ipa file. You can drag the ipa folder onto iTunes in the same way.

It's also a good idea to change the bundle display name to something different when installing apps this way. Otherwise you won't be able to distinguish between the beta version and the same app purchased from the app store.