iPhone 5 Replacement

I finally got my iPhone 5 replaced, because of the dust in the camera. I was lucky to get it replaced when I did, because the service centre was stopping iPhone replacements at the end of this month. My "new" iPhone's screen doesn't have a tint around the border either (wanted to post on this, but didn't), so that's 2 problems fixed.

The refurbished iPhone came with protectors on the front and back. Interestingly, the one on the back seemed to have different sections for the aluminium and ceramic areas. The aluminium section seemed stickier.

But the main reason for this post is, I left some things out during backup, so maybe this will remind someone what to backup. Firstly, iPhone backups are lacking. I'm restoring to the exact same model of device - they even force you to use the same version of iOS - yet you can't do a complete backup? MANY apps do not reappear. I'm wondering if I can get Flappy Bird back again.

Something very strange about backups is: some apps don't appear after the restore, but if you download them again from the App Store, their old data returns. Where is this coming from? Are they pulling it off iCloud? Is restore putting their files in my iPhone without the app? What about apps I don't download again, then? Are their files taking up space? I'd think it was iCloud, but one of the apps was a video player with several GB of files, so it can't possibly be from iCloud.

Anyway, here are some apps of concern:

OSnap! I'm currently using this to take a picture of myself every day (keywords: stop motion time lapse onion skin). Didn't appear with restore. When I redownloaded it from the App Store, my pictures appeared.

Linkus Photo Manager Pro Didn't appear with restore, but this was probably my fault as I disabled backups.

VM Player Appeared with restore

AcePlayer Didn't appear with restore, but when I redownloaded it, my files reappeared. Where did they come from?

Tap Forms Didn't appear. Data reappeared when redownloaded.

MiniKeePass Didn't appear. Data Reappeared when redownloaded. I'm quite fortunate that the data reappeared, because I forgot to back this up and a lot of passwords are only stored here.

Google Authenticator Ok this app has no actual data, but I think the recommended method is to disable 2FA before you send in/erase your old phone. Re Google: I used to use Exchange to sync Google email and contacts. After changing my password, I spent a while trying to get this to work again, messing with the actual password and generated app-specific passwords, but it didn't work. It turns out, new Exchange connections no longer work, but setting up a Google connection (an account in your iPhone to sync with Google) now supports Contacts.