Restoring Voicemail More Than About Saving Data For Retired Marine

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Three months after losing his mother, Leon Guthrie misses the sound of her voice.  "She had a real country twang," he remembers.

He saved all her messages on his iPhone, one in particular.  "Last year, August 4, she sung Happy Birthday to me…My mother, she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket," he said, chuckling.  "When it was my birthday this year, I listened to it.  I don't know - probably 5 or 6 times that day."

Thursday, though, when Leon updated his phone to the new iOS 5 operating system, all those recordings disappeared.  "The very first thing I checked were those messages. Poof, just like that they were gone," he said.

He called Apple's technical support only to hear...  "Mr. Guthrie, we're sorry for your loss, but there's nothing we can do," he recalled.

Guthrie contacted CBS11 hoping to warn people not to make the same mistake.

Allen Gwinn, the Senior Director of Technology at SMU's Cox School of Business, said all hope wasn't lost.

"Rule number one… is back up, back up, back up," said Gwinn.

Friday morning, CBS 11 arranged a meeting between the professor and Guthrie.  With some effort, they were able to dig up files that saved to Leon's laptop every time he synced it to his phone.

With the help of sites like supercrazyawesome.com and reincubate.com, eventually Leon heard the voice he'd been longing for.  "Happy Birthday to you," sang his mother's voice. "I'm sorry you couldn't answer the phone, but I guess you couldn't.  Well, anyway, I just love you and have a good day.  Happy Birthday.  Bye."

VIDEO: Allen Gwinn explains how to restore iPhone & iPad data:

A retired Marine dressed in hunting gear, Guthrie wiped away tears, as he listened.  "Dang gone right, I'm gonna tear up, and I dare someone to say something to me about it, too," he laughed.  "I was devastated, and now, I'm ecstatic."

Guthrie has now saved multiple copies of his mother's message, so he can listen to it anytime he needs to.