Q: My son's iPhone 5 had trouble charging its battery using two different power cords. After it wouldn't fully charge several times, he took it to a Verizon Wireless dealer who said the phone was "pretty much gone" because of a flawed connection between the phone and the charger.
As a result, my son lost years of contact information and messages that he thought were backed up by Apple's iCloud online service (the backups weren't made because of the iPhone flaw.)
My son had bought insurance on the phone, but Verizon Wireless said the insurance wasn't applicable to the lost data situation. So what's the point of having insurance? Is there any way to retrieve the iPhone's data so it can be transferred to a new phone?
Catherine Carty, Osceola, Wis.
A: We're all responsible for backing up our own data, because no seller of smartphones or computers insures the information stored on them. Your son's iPhone insurance only entitles him to a replacement phone. You can read about the iPhone insurance plans sold by Verizon Wireless at tinyurl.com/q9sbrwp.
If the old iPhone won't retain any electrical charge, there is no way to access the data on it. But, if it will retain at least a small charge, try connecting it by USB cable to a PC with a current version of iTunes. To back up the iPhone's data, including contacts and text messages, see tinyurl.com/oa6pw6f. Then use iTunes to "restore" the backed-up data to a new iPhone (see tinyurl.com/ldw5zab).
In the future, your son should back up his iPhone to both iCloud and the computer to make sure he doesn't lose any valuable information.
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