pardthemonster

Q: iCloud Restore for iPhone 6s - Missing Messages/Recent Calls Missing

Day one my wife and I got our new iPhone 6s (with iOS 9.0).  We did an iCloud restore from our iPhone 5s with iOS 9.0.1 and it was successful bringing all our data including Messages and Recent Calls.  The phones were then updated to iOS 9.0.1.  Everything was working fine...

 

My phone had an issue which ended up getting me a replacement iPhone 6s (iOS 9.0).  From here I tried restoring from the past iPhone 6s (with iOS 9.0.1) iCloud restore.  Unfortunately, Messages and Recent Calls did not come over from the past iPhone 6s backup and I even tried various of the iPhone 6s time stamped backups.  I also updated the new iPhone 6s to 9.0.2 and still no difference with the restore.  It wasn't until I reverted back to my iPhone 5s backup (iOS 9.0.1) that it would bring the Messages and Recent Calls over.  Note that the inclusion of the Messages and Recent Calls is evident immediately after the initial restart from restore (when the phone starts downloading apps).  This has me worried going forth and here is why!

 

I've done a new backup and a little digging.  I've noticed that both my new backup for the iPhone 6s and wife's are both smaller than our iPhone 5s backup was.  Example for my device backups: iPhone 5s: 18 GB, iPhone 6s: 17.1 GB.  Note that this seems backwards as if there was any difference for whatever reason, I would imagine that it be on the larger resolution device.  Also, this difference in size would seem reasonable for not including Messages (includes messages, videos, audio, etc.) and Recent Calls.  There may even be other data that this did not bring over as I did not see it benefit in losing years of messages for a week of new data, i.e. I did not research the loss to the full extent.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue recently with an iPhone 6s or maybe there is a known issue I just have not stumbled across.

iPhone 6s, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 3, 2015 5:37 AM

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Q: iCloud Restore for iPhone 6s - Missing Messages/Recent Calls Missing

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  • by Patrick Meyers,

    Patrick Meyers Patrick Meyers Nov 25, 2015 7:48 AM in response to pardthemonster
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 7:48 AM in response to pardthemonster

    Same problem as everyone else.

    • Originally upgraded from a 5s to a 6s
    • Noticed terrible battery performance on the 6s (10-20% drain per hour while in standby). I did a bunch of tests, recorded battery usage, tracked apps, and compared everything to another 6s. I couldn't find anything that was causing the issue so I decided to do backup and restore from iCloud in case something was borked in my software.
    • Restore stalled on the white screen with an Apple logo so I did a hard restart
    • Restore completed but messages, health data, shared photo albums, calls, voicemail, etc. were missing
    • Also, Health app wouldn't sync with my Watch and the Watch health app wouldn't activate
    • Also, most apps wouldn't launch or didn't work correctly. I.e., Reeder launched but I couldn't add an account or sync my feeds.

     

    Since the restored phone was basically useless at this point and missing a lot of data, I spent five hours last night erasing everything from it and setting it up as a new phone. Reinstalled all of my apps from the app store, setting up my Apple Pay accounts again, etc. I'm super disappointed that I have to lose all of my messages and health information, but I needed a functioning phone.

  • by latrans,

    latrans latrans Nov 25, 2015 10:26 AM in response to Patrick Meyers
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 10:26 AM in response to Patrick Meyers

    I had the same battery performance problem as Patrick Meyers with my original iPhone 6S that was restored from the 5S iCloud backup. The battery drain was so severe that it would go from 100% to 0% overnight with the screen off. Best guess is that it's a software issue. So it probably didn't matter that the phone was replaced, because restoring from the iCloud backup of the iPhone 6S would have caused data and app corruption either way. Which is a much worse problem than the battery issue.

     

    Patrick: The other option for getting the phone back into a usable state, albeit with some data loss, is a restore from the 5S backup if you still have it. You will lose the data since that 5S backup. Then consider trying a reset of the Settings to see if that addresses the battery drain issue. (Settings > Reset > Reset All Settings) I haven't tried the Reset All Settings approach yet, but it seems like a reasonable thing to try.

  • by Patrick Meyers,

    Patrick Meyers Patrick Meyers Nov 25, 2015 11:30 AM in response to latrans
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 11:30 AM in response to latrans

    Good suggestion latrans, I wish I had thought to Reset Settings first. I had originally hoped restoring from an iCloud backup would wipe the system and provide me with a clean slate for my restored apps and data and fix any hidden OS/software battery issues. When that crashed I was knee deep in data loss and non-functioning apps so I gave up and started over.

     

    I have seen folks in other threads mention that if you have a 6s backup stored locally in iTunes that you can use one of the iOS/backup extraction programs to delete the plist files from it and then successfully restore to a 6s. Apparently the settings are corrupted somehow in 6s backups and that's causing the restore to hang. I don't have any recent iTunes backups because I've transitioned (foolishly?) to iCloud for backups. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to download an iCloud backup so I could restore it locally but couldn't find anything trustworthy.

     

    After spending so much time setting my phone up again (and since the battery issue appears to be fixed after a fresh install), at this point I've spent so much time trying to get this working I've kinda given up. I would restore the 5s backup but I really don't want to hassle with it if resetting the settings doesn't fix the battery and I have to go through this all again. I'm going to try to extract my messages, voice memos, and other recoverable data from an old backup somehow and just be disappointed in Apple and this whole process.

  • by lmart,

    lmart lmart Nov 25, 2015 1:07 PM in response to Patrick Meyers
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 1:07 PM in response to Patrick Meyers

    Just over one week ago I gave Apple access to my iCloud backup as they suggested we put my account in maintenance mode. The idea was for their engineering team to try to replicate the issue on their end. I've been asking for updates about their progress, but customer support and technical advisors are unable to get any information from the engineering team. They couldn't even tell me if the engineering team had attempted to do anything with my iCloud backup.

     

    Obviously this lack of transparency/communication has got me fed up, so I've rescinded their access to my iCloud backup and made it very clear that if they were to be entrusted with my data, I expected much better communication. If I knew they were at least making use of my backup, I would continue to give them access.

     

    But at this point, after 3 weeks of trying to get answers... any answer, I'm fed up.

     

    The only other option I was given was to try other hardware. Apple support confirmed that I have a Samsung A9 chip and suggested I try a device with a TSMC chip. I won't be able to do this until the New Year. Can anyone else here confirm if they have had this issue occur with a device running on a TSMC chip? It could save me a trip to the Apple store if this is purely a software issue.

     

    My gut tells me Apple is choosing to keep communication to a minimum until they release a fix with 9.2(or some future variant). I feel we (Apple's customers) deserve better than this.

  • by iPadSam,

    iPadSam iPadSam Nov 25, 2015 1:42 PM in response to lmart
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 1:42 PM in response to lmart

    Hmm interesting ... how do you tell if you have the TSMC chip? 

  • by MiniMice,

    MiniMice MiniMice Nov 25, 2015 1:45 PM in response to lmart
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 1:45 PM in response to lmart

    I've tried it with separate devices with separate chips and it still happens on each. It must definitely be a software problem.

  • by lmart,

    lmart lmart Nov 25, 2015 3:13 PM in response to iPadSam
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 3:13 PM in response to iPadSam

    Your advisor should be able to look-up the type of chip on your device.

     

    Thanks MiniMice!

  • by JacksterD,

    JacksterD JacksterD Nov 25, 2015 3:23 PM in response to lmart
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 3:23 PM in response to lmart

    That's interesting that Apple were forthcoming about the manufacturer of your A9 chip - I'd have thought they'd have kept that information to themselves.

     

    The iPhone from which my original 6S backup came from had a TSMC chip. I don't know what chip is in my replacement 6S - but I know this backup doesn't work on either this 6S or on my 4S so I suspect this issue is purely down to the original backup coming from a 6S - TSMC or Samsung chip.

  • by EaglesRulefan1,

    EaglesRulefan1 EaglesRulefan1 Nov 25, 2015 3:33 PM in response to lmart
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 3:33 PM in response to lmart

    I Have the same issue with the TSMC when restoring form a 6s backup. All texts are gone.  When I restored from a 6 backup, no issues.

     

    I did not have any battery issues or short battery life. I get excellent battery life in my opinion.

  • by 8jörn,

    8jörn 8jörn Nov 27, 2015 5:21 AM in response to pardthemonster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 27, 2015 5:21 AM in response to pardthemonster

    Same problems here :-/

    The app data and all messages are lost. Some apps crash at start. Health no longer works.

     

    The Apple Support could not help me (ID: 989564860).

     

    There is an article on (german): http://www.heise.de/mac-and-i/meldung/iCloud-Backup-beim-iPhone-6s-Wiederherstel lung-mit-Problemen-2923623.html

  • by Benjamin Chait,

    Benjamin Chait Benjamin Chait Nov 27, 2015 11:18 AM in response to pardthemonster
    Level 2 (273 points)
    Nov 27, 2015 11:18 AM in response to pardthemonster

    Had an iPhone 6s Plus with iOS 9.1 on it, exhibiting odd storage behavior. Confirmed iCloud had completed a recent backup (yesterday, 2:34 pm) and did an erase and restore, for troubleshooting. Happily, this resolved the other bug (wherein the iPhone displayed a different amount of available storage space compared to iTunes) but now we're stuck with missing HealthKit, Messages and other data.

     

    • Attempted restoring from my backup yesterday at 2:30 pm, HealthKit, Messages and other data still missing;
    • Attempted restoring from a backup on (9/23), HealthKit, Messages and other data still missing;
    • Attempted restoring from a backup on (9/20), HealthKit, Messages and other data still missing;
    • Attempted iOS 9.2 public beta 4 and restoring from my backup yesterday at 2:34 pm, HealthKit, Messages and other data still missing;
    • Contacted AppleCare iCloud support, who suggested we remove iOS 9.2 public beta and bring the device back to the "released" OS track;
    • Still troubleshooting with AppleCare, though I'm not clear what steps to resolution exist.

     

    Does anyone have a Radar/Apple bug identifier with which I can file a follow-up with Developer Relations? I'd love to provide Apple's support team with additional logs/details/troubleshooting steps.

  • by Benjamin Chait,

    Benjamin Chait Benjamin Chait Nov 27, 2015 12:11 PM in response to Benjamin Chait
    Level 2 (273 points)
    Nov 27, 2015 12:11 PM in response to Benjamin Chait

    Radar/bug report filed --

     

    iPhone 6s Plus restoring from iCloud backup missing Messages, HealthKit and other data rdar://problem/23678340 http://www.openradar.me/23678340

  • by mcfarm1,

    mcfarm1 mcfarm1 Nov 28, 2015 7:06 AM in response to Benjamin Chait
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 28, 2015 7:06 AM in response to Benjamin Chait

    Is there a fix for this yet???? I've lost all my messages and history also

  • by gr8_av8r,

    gr8_av8r gr8_av8r Nov 28, 2015 6:30 PM in response to pardthemonster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 28, 2015 6:30 PM in response to pardthemonster

    Similar here as well, so thought I would add my "echo" of issue. On fresh install of a backup last night on the 6S, I get a white screen with black Apple logo (I've only seven black page with white Apple logo on successful installs). Install hangs on white screen and have to hard reset the device. Backup install then finishes "fine" with only missing pieces I have of call history and iMessages. IPad is on same cloud account and full iMessage history is on that device.

  • by sambasta12,

    sambasta12 sambasta12 Nov 30, 2015 7:57 AM in response to pardthemonster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2015 7:57 AM in response to pardthemonster

    I had the same problem. Apple 6S Plus with iOS 9.1. Went to the Genius Bar, all three back up failed to load. Had to go to my 6 Plus backup from September. Realized that I still can't generate iCloud backups. Called Apple Tech Support, and they escalated to Support Advisor who said she would escalate to Engineers. This morning they called and had me change my iCloud password to a temporary Support Password so they can go in and take a look at what is going on. I gave her the link to this discuss so that they can find others who are having the same problem in case they need more research material. I'll keep you updated once I hear back from her.

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