Board Thread:Troubleshooting/@comment-26729468-20151218045655/@comment-24668482-20151218231153

I'm assuming you just want to restore SN, rather than losing a weeks progress on the SS Christmas update (if you don't mind, on the other hand, then just follow the regular itunes device restore instructions linked above as definitely simpler than this).

Otherwise, you will need to download a back-up editor. I use iBackupBot as it really works well and is simple to use, but it is not a free programme (it won't break the bank, but it is not free). There is, however, a 7-day free trial, so consider it a 'break glass in case of emergency' install. So in normal circumstances just use iTunes to back up device, and only download iBackupBot and start the 7 day free trial when the worst case scenario has happened and you need to recover a game. Which I guess is today, in your case.

(there are probably plenty of free programmes that can do the same thing, but I am not comfortable telling people to download/install/use something that I have not tried myself, so I am going with the thing I can say I have used. I am sure a little time with google would find a good alternative though, any programme that will allow you to look inside an itunes backup file will do. They allow you to acess and copy/paste individual app data files from within the backup, and hence give access to files you may otherwise not have access to)

ibackupbot should work on all versions if iOS, so it is also a good thing to use for normal backup/restore/other game file interactions, if you have updated beyond iOS 8.3 as this update locked out sandbox access to files, which meant people could no longer use the likes of iFunbox and iExplorer for their backup/restore needs. I keep my main devices on iOS 7 and I still use iFunbox, but if I ever do update, then I will probably use iBackupBot for all my game file needs as it does everything iFunbox can do (and actually a lot more, it is a very powerful little programme but we won't be touching any of its advanced features in this instance). In this case though, even if you are on iOS 8.2 or below, you will need to use an iTunes backup editor. The likes of iFunbox/iExplorer are only useful if you have made your backups through them in the first place. This way, we can take advantage of the very different backup system itunes uses retroactively instead.

Anyway, once you have downloaded and installed your free trial. you will need to find your itunes back ups. If you did a standard itunes install (and so it is saving them to its normal default location), ibackupbot will find them all automatically when it loads for the first time. Otherwise it might be a bit more work. You can connect your iPad to the computer either before or after opening the programme, it should recognise it automatically. But make sure you have fully quit the app (double tap home button and swipe upwards on app preview) first since we will be changing its files.

I have installed a fresh version of the programme just for this (I actually use iFunbox as all important devices have iOS 7 so still works, but I do have one iOS 8 device that I will use in this example). I am using windows, but have used it on mac and the two versions look almost identical, and these instructions will work with both.

There are two panels on the left hand side of the screen, the top one 'backups' shows all the backups that have been found in the auto scan when the programme opened (the blue circle arrow above is a refresh button should you need to check again, such as if you had just made a backup...), and beneath this there is a 'devices' panel, which shows what is currently connected to the computer. In this case, iBackupBot found 5 iTunes backups, from 4 different devices on the computer (some very old since I don't really use iTunes), and has one device connected (a iOS 8.4 device just to show that it works on later versions of iOS). The main window shows the main information for the backup currently selected in the 'backup' panel, since I haven't opened a folder in any of the backups yet. (I have removed a lot of identifying information from the picture for obvious reasons.)



Beside each backup in the 'backups' panel, will be the date the backup was made. You will need to find the right date if you find that iBackupBot found a lot of backups.

You want to press the little '+' sign next to the right backup to reveal the backup structure (in the 'backups' panel on top left). Then press the little '+' sign next to 'User App Files' and you will see a folder for every app you have installed on the device. You are looking for seekers notes folder. Press the little '+' sign next to it so show subfolders, then press the '+' next to the 'documents' sub-folder and then the 'mytona' sub-sub folder. You will see a folder called 'social hog 2'. This folder contains all of your game data. You can click on it in the 'backups' panel and the contents will be shown in the main window.



You don't really need to worry about the different files, we are just going to copy the whole folder onto your device. To do this, right click on the 'social hog 2' folder in the 'backups' panel, this will reveal the option 'restore to device'. Press this, and iBackupBot will replace the 'social hog 2' folder that is currently on your device with the 'social hog 2' folder inside that iTunes backup.



That's it, it's as simple as that, you can disconnect the device from computer and open the game.

If you ever need to do this for SS, then the instructions are exactly the same, except you need to go to the SS folder in the back up and the game files are located in a sub-folder called 'social hog' not 'social hog 2'. You can also use a backup made of one device to restore a the social hog/social hog 2 folders on a different device (the app would have to be installed on second device first so there is a folder to replace when you press restore), which is a quick and neat way of transferring game progress from one device to another.