Admit it: it's hard to manage, let alone back up and recover, all the data stored across your iOS devices.

Your iPhone and iPad can hold a lot of your data, from photos to apps to messages. So, if you've ever updated your iOS device and then abruptly experienced a full-blown system crash, the you've also faced the daunting task of having to recover your data. That's why you should always back up your data before updating your device, even if it's to iOS 11, which recently started rolling out to iOS devices.

Thankfully, Dr Fone Toolkit's full iOS suite can do all the heavy-lifting for you, ensuring that not only is your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch good to go for iOS 11, but that, for whatever reason, like if you've forgotten your passcode or caught a virus or damaged your iOS device or had your iOS device stolen, you can still recover your data either from the device itself or from iTunes and iCloud backups.

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What is Dr Fone Toolkit?

Dr Fone Toolkit is an app you can download to a Windows or Mac machine. It is described as an iPhone and iPad data recovery software, though you can use it to manage iOS data as well, whether that be backing up data, erasing data, or a full system recovery.

What can Dr Fone Toolkit do?

You can use ToolKit to backup and recover lost data on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, including contacts, messages, call history, notes, photos, videos, calendar information, reminders, messenger chats, voice memos, voice mails, Safari bookmarks, apps' photos, apps' videos, and apps' documents, as well as WhatsApp messages, Line messages, Viber messages, and Kik messages.

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How does Dr Fone Toolkit work?

What you need

First, make sure you have a compatible iOS device and Mac or Windows PC to run the Toolkit software.

  • iPhone: iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone SE, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 4 (must be running iOS 11, iOS 10, or iOS 9 and former).
    iPad:
    All models of iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPad (must be running iOS 11, iOS 10, or iOS 9 and former).
  • iPod Touch: iPod Touch 5, iPod Touch 4 (must be running iOS 11, iOS 10, or iOS 9 and former).
  • Mac: A Mac running Mac OS X 10.11(El Captain), 10.10(Yosemite), 10.9(Mavericks), 10.8, 10.7, or 10.6 with at least 1GHz CPU, 256MB of RAM, and 200MB of free hard disk space.
  • Windows PC: A PC running Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP with at least 1GHz CPU, 256MB of RAM, and 200MB of free hard disk space.

Download the app

Second, go to the Dr Fone Toolkit site to download the Toolkit app to your Mac or Windows PC.

Getting started

Third, once you've downloaded the app, determine which features you need to use to get the job done. Maybe you just want to back it up, or maybe you've lost data after a factory restore or iOS update, or maybe your device is not responding or unable to sync backups, or maybe you've just forgotten your passcode. Luckily, Toolkit is useful in many of these scenarios and so much more.

Toolkit offers several backup and data recovery features. In fact, it has three specific recovery methods: Scan iPhone lets you can scan your entire iPhone and selectively recover data from it, while Extract iTunes second lets you preview and selectively recover data from iTunes backup files, and Download iCloud lets you download and selectively extract data from your iCloud backup files.

Start backing up or recovering data

Finally, you're ready to start backing up or recovering your data. Plug your iOS device into your computer with a USB-to-lightning cable and open ToolKit. Next, choose a data management option listed on the main screen (we've detailed each one, below) and then follow the on-screen prompts. If you need a detailed guide on how to use any of these options, see Dr Fone's help guides here.

  • Data recovery: Recover deleted contacts, text messages, photos, notes, etc, from iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, iTunes, and iCloud backup files
  • System recovery: Fix iOS devices stuck at Apple logo or recovery mode loop; getting black screen, white screen, or others.
  • Data backup and restore: Selectively back up your data to computer, including contacts, messages, photos, notes, WhatsApp, and more.
  • WhatsApp Transfer, backup, and restore: Transfer WhatsApp chat messages and history to from iOS to iOS, iOS to Android, and also backup and restore on your iPhone.
  • Full data eraser: Permanently erase all personal information from the device to make your device like brand new.
  • Private data eraser: Permanently and selectively erase private data on your iPhone, including deleted ones, to protect your personal information.
  • Line backup and restore: Backup and restore Line chat history and attachments on your iPhone.
  • Viber backup and restore: Backup and restore Viber chat history and attachments on your iPhone.
  • Kick backup and restore: Backup and restore Kick chat history and attachments on your iPhone.

Is Dr Fone Toolkit free?

Toolkit will let you check and preview any deleted data for free, download and view iCloud backup content for free, read your iTunes backup files for free, preview and print your data with one click, recover up to 18 files types, and selectively recover what you want. However, to access the app's entire iOS suite or feature-set, you will need to buy the lifetime license.

  • Dr fone Toolkit (Mac) iOS suite - Lifetime license: $159.95
  • Dr fone Toolkit (Windows) iOS suite - Lifetime license: $139.95