I've got an iPhone 3G. It's updated with the 2nd most recent software version (not the one released a couple days ago, but the one before that). It's been extremely sluggish since I got that update, frequently freezes, and refuses to respond.
So from the advice of others, as well as a tech at an Apple Store, I used iTunes to backup the phone, wiped the phone fresh, and then told iTunes to restore the phone from the backup.
It didn't.
It restored the settings for the basic apps that come with the phone to begin with, remembered my email and photos... and that's it. No apps, no music, and obviously no data from my apps.
So... am I doing something wrong? Or is the backup option just completely useless? I'm leaving on a vacation Sunday morning and don't have time to go into the store before then. I tried calling the store again this evening, and waited an hour on hold before I gave up.