Q: iPhone 6 "Restoring from iCloud Backup" forever

I had the same problem, and was able to solve it by doing this:

1. Open Music
2. Tap Songs
3. Scroll and look for songs that show a download in progress
4. When you see one, tap it.  It will change to the cloud download icon for a bit, then that will disappear
5. Go through your entire list of songs and do this.

The first time, nothing changed; I did spa second pass, and saw some I'd either missed, or that had started since the first pass. As soon as I finished my second pass, I was able to start an iCloud backup.

Just a heads up from my end. I had been waiting on this process for three days and I did see some progress but at the rate it was going I knew I was looking at a week or more to complete, all the while I was able to make and receive calls and use email, but still could not use Safari or any web based apps. I admit my old phone was bloated with seldom or never used apps, and I should have cleaned house before my last back up to iCloud, but I was a big kid with a new toy, so.....Here is the heads up: about half of my apps were still "waiting" and when I stopped my restore, every single one of them, one by one, just DISAPPEARED from my iPhone 6 Plus. I do have my old phone in tact, so now I will go back and reload the ones I want to keep and I do have full control of this very expensive piece of hardware, so for that I am thankful. Just know your apps could evaporate as mine did and if you did not have a list.......

That happened to me too. iCloud was never this buggy and I really hope they fix such an important feature before customers like me grow tired and switch to a different brand. I mean the whole point of Apple products is that they "just works". Anyway, I manually tapped on 3 apps at a time (while on Wi-Fi) to download them. I wanted to avoid more than 3 just to not screw the bandwidth up and that worked for me. Some of my documents and Data though did not recover. I guess I can no longer rely on iCloud, so I will revisit iTunes for backups in the meantime.

iCloud works just fine for me.  And it works fine for 99.9+% of the users.

If you're having a problem, it's likely specific to your situation and definitely not a global phenomenon.

Try restoring via a different wi-finetwork.

Sure whatever you say.

Edgarin108 wrote:

 

Sure whatever you say.

Believe whatever you want.  Your refusal to accept reality doesn't alter reality.  If there was such a wide-spread problem with iCloud, then the media would be all over it.  There would be thousands of posts & threads on this forum about it.

I process multiple iCloud restores every week (probably 5 or 6 on average), with no issues.  How many have you done?

Am I pushing a lot of buttons in here? Have you interviewed a reliable sample and try to figure out the actual truth? If not, you really have no nasis to back it up. Just to put it in the broadest terms, there are far more non-iPhone users (aka Android) than Apple. I know, more models, more cheap choices, saving money and all of that, but the results are there and regardless of the reasons, it is what it is.

Let's avoid this type of drama for now. Can you please provide a reliable solution to anyone here so they can recover all of their lost files, progress in apps, etc.? I only provided a partial solution and that is to tap on the apps to make it faster for thone to download. That does not, however, help to recover Documents and Data, which it is the main issue users have. You suggested a faster Wi-Fi, so where do I find something faster than my 50Mbps home network? Will paying my cable provider to get 100Mbps help? How much more will I have to pay to "keep up"?

Edgarin108 wrote:

 

Am I pushing a lot of buttons in here?

Nope, you are just one more anonymous opinion.

For information purposes only, I suggest you also check the photos section. Mine was taking quite a bit as well (over 5 hours and counting), and all Apps appeared as downloaded. However, then I checked the photos section and it turns out all the photos that were in the iCloud backup where also downloading and it took forever for each one. However, once that was done, the message about the phone still being restored disappeared. May not solve or help everyone with the problem, but once I discovered this I thought I should share!

The following things need to download from my understanding:

1) Phone settings

2) Photoss and videos

3) Apps

4) App documents and Data

I think there is a possibility that the issue relates to photos and videos. I think as we are able to buy more space, we will will find ourselves requiring more time to finish. I'm sure though that at some occasions restoration does stop because of an error either on the user or Apple's side. With that being said, there has to be a better way to know the progress of the restoration. Maybe Apple should show a box with every item category that is restoring and its progress. At least that way users know what is restoring or not. And if it is not restoring properly, so they know and they can do something about it.

To everyone with this problem: just wait it out. My iPhone was restoring from backup for about two weeks and I tried everything on this thread except for stopping the backup. Then, finally, one day it stopped on its own. I guess the download speed from iCloud was compromised (perhaps by the amount of people buying new iPhones and restoring from backups). If only there had been a way to see the restore progress, then I could have been able to tell that it was working but just slow. But anyway, just let it run its course if nothing else works.

We can't be waiting for two weeks to see if my files suddenly appeared. It is much easier to just do an iTunes backup. For now everyone should just do an iCloud and iTunes backup. In case iCloud fails, then go for iTunes. Also, before running backups, make sure to transfer photos and videos to your computer and then erase them from your iOS device. Once you do that, run another iCloud backup and then use that backup on your new device.

I do think iCloud is more buggy, but I also think we are transferring photos and videos less often  as we become more dependent on iCloud. The problem with iCloud it does not yet support video photostream and not all photos will be added to photostream. Therefore it is very important for users move their photos and videos to a more stable location that is less likely to be changed on a yearly or bi-yearly basis such as a computer. An alternative solution is to use Backup apps such as Dropbox, Google+ or OneDrive. These apps will automatically backup your photos and videos to a cloud location. This can be done directly from the phone without involving any computer.

I had this problem going from a 4 to a 5S.

I fixed by doing the following:

1. Could not find anything that was still restoring.
2. New phone had yet to do a backup to iCloud
3. Stopped current restore
4. Acknowledged warning
5. Started a new backup.
6. Everything seems right, screen no longer says restoring from backup. 

That puts files at risk to be lost. It is a solution if you don't mind that.

Same problem with new iPhone 6 plus.  After over a week of 'restoring from icloud' message came here for a solution.  Never backed up from iTunes so was looking for another way.  Tried solution suggested in a post here to turn off 'find my phone'.  It worked.   Then turned 'find my phone' back on and everything is fine. No more restore message.