With iCloud, Apple has made it easier to back up your devices regularly and seamlessly and I, for one, back up my devices way more frequently because of this. 

While iCloud helps a great deal for most people, it isn't a fool-proof solution and isn't perfect for all situations. Say, for example, you accidentally delete some photos or a message thread and wish you hadn’t or if one day your iOS device won’t boot. How do you get to the data you want and get it back? 

With iSkysoft’s iPhone Data Recovery for Mac (and Windows) you can connect your iOS device to your Mac or PC (whether it boots or not), scan it and see all of the data on the device. This includes data — deleted or not — from Photos, Messages threads, Contacts, Calendar data, call history and voice mail, Notes, Reminders, Voice Memos and more. You can even view and restore WhatsApp conversations and message attachments. 

What’s really great about iSkysoft’s software is that you can selectively restore individual items to your phone instead of completing a full device restore. This will sound absolutely amazing to anyone who has accidentally deleted something and had to go through the process of restoring the whole device to an older backup. Even if that backup is a day old, the process is extremely time consuming and you stand to lose other bits of data that haven't yet been backed up. Instead, with iPhone Data Recovery, you can simply restore the deleted item. 

Using the app is really simple. It features a wizard-like interface that talks you through each step. People are inherently anxious when completing anything like a device restore as no one wants to lose something valuable so this is great to see in an app of this kind.

iSkysoft iPhone Data Recovery does take a little while to scan your device in its entirety. This will, of course, be dependent on how much data there is on your device but took almost 30 minutes on my 64GB iPhone. Not a huge amount of time, but still considerable.

You can also use the app to scan and selectively restore files from iTunes backups. 

For each content type, you can choose to view all data or deleted data only. This saves you having to trawl through all the photos iSkysoft has found, for example, which includes ones that are still on your device, to find the lost ones you want to restore. The interface allows you to preview all of the file types meaning you can easily find the lost data you’re after. 

Once you have decided what data you want to restore, it’s as simple as clicking a button and saving it to your Mac/PC or directly to your iOS device. 

iSkysoft’s iPhone Data Recovery software is available as a free trial on Mac and Windows. With the trial, you can scan your devices and preview data that can be recovered. In order to complete the restoration, you’ll need to purchase a license for the software through the app. It’s great if you want to see if iSkysoft has the solution for your needs before you buy. Licenses start from $99.95 for a single user which might seem a little steep, but if you've lost some precious pictures or videos or other valuable content, it may not be too much to shell out to get that back. You’d also be paying for the convenience of never having to complete a full device restore if you only want to get back a single piece of data. 

The wrap up

The good: Easy to use interface makes finding and recovering iPhone/iPad data easy. The ability to recover data selectively is a real boon. Capable of finding and restoring a number of file types, even on devices that won’t boot.

The bad: Takes a while to scan devices completely. Expensive license cost might put off some users. 

The verdict: iSkysoft’s iPhone Data Recovery software is a convenient way to selectively restore items to your iOS devices. If you’ve accidentally deleted something and wish you hadn’t, or if your device no longer boots, it’s a great way to access and get ahold of the data your after. You can try the app for free by downloading the trial version through iSkysoft’s website. If you like it and want to use it to restore data, you can buy a license through the app or here on iSkysoft’s site.