C.Court

Q: iPhone backup corrupt or not compatible

Just wanted to put this out there for others to see.

 

My 32GB iPhone 5s was completely out of storage space.  I had about 12 gb sitting in "other" folder.  I read that hte only way to clear "other" was to do a complete system restore, then reload the phone using a backup.  I backed up my phone, did a full system restore, went to retrieve the backup and the worst nightmare came true.  I received a message that read "backup corrupt or not compatible with iPhone".   I searched online for solutions in many of these threads and could not find one.  I went into my MobileSync folder on my computer and I could see the backup there,and all the files within it, but it couldn't be loaded onto my phone.  I talked to 3 Apple Agents for over 2 hours in total, including a senior agent, and none of them could get my backup back. It was lost for good. I lost all my application data, my password app and all its passwords, and all my photos.  I did have the option of restoring to a previous backup, but it was a year old, so would be missing many of these things.

 

A continued search online took me to DecipherTools.  They claimed to be able to repair corrupt iPhone back ups.  At first I was nervous. Didn't know if this company was legit or not.  I decided to risk it.  Bought a key code for $30 online, which is good for 2 repairs, and used it on the corrupt file. Within about 2 minutes it repaired my backup. I restored it to my phone and lost nothing!!  It did give me some information about the files that were causing the problem. They were related to Facebook, that's really all I know. And nothing else bad happened to my phone nor my computer. 

 

Anyway, I am sharing this because I couldn't find a solution online and hope that it helps someone else. 

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.4.1

Posted on Aug 14, 2015 6:45 AM

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Q: iPhone backup corrupt or not compatible

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  • by EggWhiteWitch,

    EggWhiteWitch EggWhiteWitch Nov 16, 2015 7:26 AM in response to C.Court
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2015 7:26 AM in response to C.Court

    Thank you C.C!

  • by Jonathan Milenko,

    Jonathan Milenko Jonathan Milenko Dec 3, 2015 6:51 AM in response to C.Court
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 3, 2015 6:51 AM in response to C.Court

    This is a huge problem.  Individual customers, and especially corporate users, depend on reliable backups. 

    In my own case, every backup and restore is subject to performance issues, including complete failures. 

    If I was a corporate buyer, I would never purchase products which are so vulnerable to data loss.

    Apple, is this being fixed ? 

  • by mr.itani,

    mr.itani mr.itani Jan 6, 2016 4:06 AM in response to C.Court
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2016 4:06 AM in response to C.Court

    Thank you a lots for sheering this information its really helped me for restore my back up

  • by Eanna2008,

    Eanna2008 Eanna2008 Jan 11, 2016 4:32 AM in response to C.Court
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 11, 2016 4:32 AM in response to C.Court

    Hi - I just deleted my Facebook app too and the backup ran straight away - thanks for the tip!

  • by Aaron Tan,

    Aaron Tan Aaron Tan Feb 7, 2016 7:27 AM in response to C.Court
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 7, 2016 7:27 AM in response to C.Court

    I had a similar problem with my iPhone 6 (iOS 9.2.1) and iTunes (12.3.2)

     

    I tried deleting the previous back-ups, but the problem kept coming back. It got to a point where i could not even backup even after I had deleted the back-ups via iTunes/Preferences/Devices. I had to go into ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup to figure out which was the backup for my iPhone and delete that particular folder. Even then, the problem came back after I had backed up the phone once.

     

    I came across another thread and it got me thinking that it could be a corrupted app that is causing the problem. I went through all the apps on my phone to try to figure out which was the one i had installed recently that may have caused the problem. And then i found it. It was an app that i had installed outside of the AppStore. I figure since Apple curates the apps stringently, it is unlikely (but not impossible) that they would allow one in that might corrupt the ecosystem. So i deleted the offending app, and tried again, and lo and behold, everything worked as it should be!

  • by jabriya,

    jabriya jabriya Mar 16, 2016 8:51 PM in response to michelfromportsmouth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2016 8:51 PM in response to michelfromportsmouth

    Many Thanks & Regards, saved me lots of time and efforts.

  • by deniserr,

    deniserr deniserr Jun 5, 2016 7:49 PM in response to C.Court
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 5, 2016 7:49 PM in response to C.Court

    Thank you sooooooo much!!!!!!  Worked perfectly.  Worth every penny!

  • by Jonathan Milenko,

    Jonathan Milenko Jonathan Milenko Jun 5, 2016 8:30 PM in response to Jonathan Milenko
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 5, 2016 8:30 PM in response to Jonathan Milenko

    Moved on to new hardware.  Planned on restoring from the best backup I had, but decided it wasn't with the risk.

    Problem has not recurred in over two months. 

    Believe it was a hardware defect all along in my case.

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