Back Up Your Recipes

1. iTunes File Sharing Backup. This is the most sure-fire way to make sure your recipes are safe.

First, plug in your iPad and open iTunes. Your iPad will appear under “DEVICES” in the left sidebar. (If you don't see a sidebar go to the top menu bar and select "View" > "Show sidebar".) Select your iPad. Then select Apps from the menu at the top of the screen.

2. Scroll down, and at the bottom of the window, you’ll see the list of apps that support iTunes File Sharing. Select The Recipe Box. 

3. Now in the right pane you should see “The Recipe Box.sqlite” You may also see something that says “The Recipe Box~.sqlite” You can ignore that. It's an old file that gets made when you upgrade to a new version of The Recipe Box. Select the first file, then press Save to... and save “The Recipe Box.sqlite” on your computer. Alternately, you can just drag the file out of the window (on a Mac).

Important: Now you need to put that file somewhere safe. You could put it on iDisk or Dropbox for safekeeping in the cloud. Or burn it to a CD or DVD and mail it to a relative in another state.

4. If you ever need to restore just your recipes, navigate to this window again.  Delete the file that says “The Recipe Box.sqlite.” Then, choose Add... and navigate to the file you saved previously.

5. iTunes Standard Backup. Right-click (or press control-click) on the name of your iPad (iPad in this example). Select Transfer Purchases from the menu. This backs up all applications you have purchased from the App Store onto your computer. If you use iTunes to buy apps, they’re already on your computer.

6. Right-click again, and select Back Up. It’s that easy.

7. This also makes it simple to move your recipes (and everything else) to a new iPad. Once you have the new device plugged in, all you need to do is choose Restore from Backup to have all our recipes on the new machine. Isn’t the future great?

1. Open your Device Settings. Find iCloud (you may be asked for your apple ID) and select Storage & Backup. Then, under Storage, select Manage Storage.

2. Next under Backups you'll see a list of your iCloud-registered devices. Select the name of the device that holds your recipe collection.

2. Under Backup Options, you'll see a list of the apps that have the potential for iCloud backup. You should see the Recipe Box listed, and you can enable backup by moving the slider to the right.

1. Recovering Through iTunes File Sharing

This method works with the backup method from Part I.

First, plug in your iPad and open iTunes. Your iPad will appear under “DEVICES” in the left sidebar. (If you don't see a sidebar go to the top menu bar and select "View" > "Show sidebar".) Select your iPad. Then select Apps from the menu at the top of the screen.

2. Scroll down, and at the bottom of the window, you’ll see the list of apps that support iTunes File Sharing. Select The Recipe Box. 

3. In the right-hand window, delete the file called, “The Recipe Box.sqlite”. Then at the bottom select the Add button to navigate to where you've stored the backup file you made previously (and won't you be glad you did?)

Once you've found that precious file and added it, all you have to do is sync your device and your recipe collection will be restored.

4. Standard iTunes Recovery

With your device plugged in, all you need to do is choose Restore from Backup from the sidebar options and choose a backup version dated from before your recipes were lost. This method will return your device to the state it was in on the date the backup was made.

5. Restoring from iCloud

There's an excellent set of instructions on restoring your device through iCloud on the Apple Support website. We didn't feel like rewriting it.